Guest gets bill after not showing up to wedding (MN)

KARE ^ | Sept. 30, 2015 | Jay Olstad

[bgill]

It was a couple weeks ago, Jessica Baker was getting ready to go to a wedding with her husband when she got a call from her mom. "She called at the last minute and had something come up and said I can't make it," said Baker. Her mom was supposed to watch their kids. And since the invitation said no children, that meant no wedding. But then this week, she received a bill for the dinner they were supposed to have enjoyed. The total came to $75.90.

[SgtHooper]

Uff dah!

[jocon307]

Congrats on your long marriage! That was (I think) and IBM “Selectric” typewriter, I think they probably called it that because you could switch out those ball things and get a different typeface.

They were great until they got old, then they had this annoying habit of jumping across the desk as you typed!

Hey, I’m old enough that when I started out bookkeeping we still used adding machines!

[editor-surveyor]

.
I hope they’re glad that they didn’t attend.

Scratch one bitter couple from your imaginary friends list.

[VTenigma]

My wife and I got married in a beautiful setting at our town hall, wife and her sisters made the food, my best friend from HS ran the grill, wife made her own dress, 250 people partied into the night with a great live band. I think we spent $1200.00 total and everyone had a great time. 34 years together, 25 years married 2 incredible kids. Big expensive weddings don’t make great marriages.

[roamer_1]

My husband and I got married at our farm under a dogwood tree in bloom. I found a female minister in the yellow pages who agreed to officiate and she brought her husband and brother to witness and our basset hounds were the only attendees. I bought my linen dress at a department store and got 2 dozen ivory roses from the grocery store and tied them with 3 yards of ivory silk ribbon. Total cost was $200.

Well, that's awful thrifty, even for country folk... But I have been to many a wedding down on the river, on somebody's back forty... Swimming, hay rides and mud racing, kegs of beer and a good country band. Everyone in jeans and summer dresses... watermelon, plenty of eats, and a pig in the ground... Ain't no better.

[Doomonyou]

The bill definitely appears at first blush to be in bad taste, but I think the bride/groom knew full well they’d never get paid, and were trying to make a point. This couple RSVP’d to go to the reception, and the bride/groom were left with a $70 no-show bill from the restaurant/caterer. No one is reimbursing them.

Tacky as hell and a good way to lose some friends. So if they died in a car crash on the way to the wedding are the kids supposed to pay? stuff happens. Normal people would expect some no shows. The freaking universe does not revolve around "look at me on my day" brides.

[EDINVA]

We could argue this till kingdom come, but I don’t think either side lost much in terms of ‘friends.’ Both have shown poor form.

The guests weren’t killed on their way to the wedding; had they been, it’s unlikely a bill to ‘send a message’ would have been sent. They simply didn’t plan well enough and when their inadequate plan failed, they compounded the failure by not informing the hosts. Tacky all the way around.

Yeah, stuff happens, but there’s still a basic etiquette that should be followed. We can’t on the one hand talk about the decline of civility and manners, and on the other give kudos to and make excuses for folks who are rude enough to fail to inform their host that they won’t be able to make the occasion that they had to know was costing the hosts.

By the way, did you know that in Japan, guests pay to attend weddings? Something to the tune of hundreds of dollars.