The price of attending a wedding!

Poppy9

notanewuser wrote: »

I thought the problem was the roads late at night??

Are you more likely to break down at night? (In nearly 20 years of driving I've only ever broken down once, in the morning, when my clutch went on the M4!)

I don't want to drive around mountain roads late at night. I don't like driving at the best of time as I find it boring but something I have to do as public transport is limited where I live. My OH who in a previous life was a boy scout, insists on taking emergency kit with us on trips, especially in bad weather. It's a running joke in our house about what he insists on taking!

74jax

Poppy9 wrote: »

10 minutes from home would be a £10 taxi ride - I could get lift there but wouldn't ask someone to come out at 1am for me!

!

So it isn't the remoteness that's the issue? Sorry I thought that was why you didn't want to drive.

In instances like this, yep I'd ask a friend . I live about 30 mins from friends I could ask but we do that from time to time, we also take each other to the airport but we do it as we know they would help us out too .

Are you saying if a friend had to pay200 for a room and offered you say 70 to pick them up at 1am you would say no, even though you might want their help in the future? As long as you don't do it every month I bet you'd be surprised how accommodating friend are.

Poppy9

74jax wrote: »

So it isn't the remoteness that's the issue? Sorry I thought that was why you didn't want to drive.

In instances like this, yep I'd ask a friend . I live about 30 mins from friends I could ask but we do that from time to time, we also take each other to the airport but we do it as we know they would help us out too .

Are you saying if a friend had to pay200 for a room and offered you say 70 to pick them up at 1am you would say no, even though you might want their help in the future? As long as you don't do it every month I bet you'd be surprised how accommodating friend are.

I wouldn't ask family or friends to do a 2-3 hour round trip for a night out or airport. Mainly because we are not the sort of people who would dream of taking money off one another for a favour and I think it's a big favour to ask for not a very good reason. If it was for a medical appointment etc. then that would be different.

I have offered to do an airport run for family to pick up nieces or nephews returning home and we do lifts to train stations etc. I've also given and had lifts to parties that are more local but as I say what is potentially a long round trip I wouldn't dream of asking. Even if my DD was home I wouldn't ask her to drive out to pick us up.

Also none of the wedding party (there are 25 of us) are not staying over night so no potential to share lifts.

Spendless

Even though I live in a different part of the UK to Poppy, the earlier time weddings and guests disappearing to come back later for an evening do, is one I'm familiar with. As kids it would frequently be back to the brides parents house for a couple of hours before getting changed. As a teenager I recall having to go shopping for 2 different outfits (day and evening) for a relatives wedding.

My sister who married in 1997 followed doing this by getting married at mid-day, leaving a gap in the afternoon where the reception had finished but it was too early to start the evening event. As bridesmaid, I wasn't getting changed, so myself and the rest of the bridal party spend the later part of the afternoon at the pub/restaurant where both day and evening dos were held. It was always something I disliked, and if I'd not married abroad, I'd have married later in the day to eliminate the gap in the middle

Only once have I been to a wedding where transport from church to reception was provided and that was a few years ago at my husband's boss' wedding and that was because there was limited parking around the church and cost wasn't an issue to them.

What does make attending weddings more expensive is the more extravagant hen/stag parties. What was once a few drinks and maybe something to eat and people could either go for drink or meal or both depending on choice and finances has turned into going on a holiday first.

tatabubbly

Planning on getting a coach to collect people after the chapel in front of the local pub (people usually go for a tipple in Ireland after the mass!) and then another coach to take people back there then. That way the majority of people will have transport home as they all live close or they can stay in the hotel.. But its not a pre requisite. We are super lucky our hotel doesn't require you to buy any rooms as long as you are paying for the meals!