Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To feel conned by this hen do

75 replies

Binkybix · 11/05/2014 00:54

I've just been to a hen do.

The first part was at hen's house. A bunting making workshop. This would be almost bottom of the list in terms of activities I'd want to do,but I appreciate that everyone's different. We were asked in advance to pay £15 for the workshop. It turns out that it was run by the hen's friend and that the bunting is for the wedding. I made one triangle.

AIBU to think the price was taking the piss?

OP posts:
puntasticusername · 11/05/2014 02:09

YABU...

...not to have taken a hip flask of something to sustain you through such horrors Grin

I agree, it was pretty UR!

AgentZigzag · 11/05/2014 02:19

DH found a hip flask, new and in its box, in our under the sink cupboard today Confused

Neither of us know where the fuck it's from.

He's planning on going to the races just so he can use it Grin

Atbeckandcall · 11/05/2014 02:25

I'd have been seething.

I wouldn't say anything and tell the bride/bridesmaids (whoever organised such a pile of wank) that I had a wonderful time. Then bitch about to everyone else.

Groovee · 11/05/2014 02:34

When my friend got married, we had a favour making party. But we didn't get charged for it!

I enjoyed it but had she asked for £15 for it, I'd have told her where to go.

ZenGardener · 11/05/2014 02:38

I assume the 15 pounds was to cover the cost of fabric.

I must be a boring old fart because I think it sounds quite nice. Even though I agree bunting is a bit over these days.

NatashaBee · 11/05/2014 02:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BaconSarniePlease · 11/05/2014 02:48

Sorry OP, your post made me laugh out loud. £15 for the privilege of making bunting for the wedding. And you only made one triangle. I swear, tears are streaming down my face {big grin}

backstabtastic · 11/05/2014 02:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SavoyCabbage · 11/05/2014 02:54

But £15 for fabric to make bunting that is for a wedding. That's like everybody chipping in for building the wedding car. Bring your own flower on the day and shove it in the bouquet.

Did you not take a picture of your triangle?

Get one next week at the embroider a napkin party .

squoosh · 11/05/2014 02:58

You should be ashamed of yourself OP, only producing one triangle throughout the whole hen party. Some friend you are.

To make amends you should crochet her some doilies and antimacassars, so she'll have some ready to go for the marital home.

AgentZigzag · 11/05/2014 03:03

Any idea of the time/place for the napkin party Savoy?

BerniesBurneze · 11/05/2014 06:00

£15 when it is a bride's friend doing it is just incredible - let alone that you paid to partake in a surprise sweatshop! Shock

KoalaDownUnder · 11/05/2014 07:15

Ooh, poor you. That sounds boring as batshit.

I'm in Australia too. I refuse to go to kitchen teas that involve Tupperware. Or baby showers (of any type, as they are un-Australian ;)).

Load of commercialised imported American shite. My mum said that back in her day, a kitchen tea meant 'bring a small item for the kitchen' (eg wooden spoon, whisk, tea towel). Not 'outfit my kitchen with outrageously overpriced plastic storage that you can't afford yourself'.

Buddy80 · 11/05/2014 07:17

WOW, that is cheeky. I do agree with some of the posters that the bride-to-be probably got conned into going along with it too.

However, be thankful it was only 15-quid you wasted rather than £100's but even still.

You could look on the bright side that for some sewing and £15 you have a story to tell in the future Grin

Greyhound · 11/05/2014 08:17

V cheeky indeed. I hate bunting.

goldopals · 11/05/2014 08:43

In my circle of family/friends kitchen teas are a tamer version of a hen night which is usually designed to include older relatives who would not go to the hens night

Rivercam · 11/05/2014 08:48

I actually thought that the bunting making was a novel idea, and actually quite nice as the hen would have a souvenir from the hen party for the wedding. However, to charge £15!was a bit out of order.

Also think the hen got 'persuaded' by the bunting person.

wowfudge · 11/05/2014 08:49

I really have heard it all now Biscuit.

Did the friend running the workshop (really, I mean really - a sodding workshop) charge instead stumping up for a friend? Who on earth thought that was a good idea? I can only imagine the bride has fallen for all the rubbish people push as a must have for weddings.

Had one of my friends suggested that I'm afraid I'd have laughed and taken the micky. I wouldn't have gone.

MaryWestmacott · 11/05/2014 08:50

See, I have no problem with getting everyone together to help make decorations, but a) you pay for your own materials and b) you tell people this is what you are doing. The bride might be normally lovely, but she's obviously had a bridezilla moment, she will have been consulted on the idea and said yes. Normal people would think this was very cheeky.

TippiShagpile · 11/05/2014 08:50

Make sure you tell the bride that her wedding present is that one bit of bunting

limitedperiodonly · 11/05/2014 08:53

Could have been worse. She could have done a creative writing session with the winning poem making it into the invitations.

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 11/05/2014 08:54

Last making hen do I attended was knicker making, cost about £15, professionally run, got to keep what we made and also made a garter for the bride.
On a different hen do making session run by a friend of the bride we made corsages, which we kept. Paid a few quid each (maybe up to £5) to cover materials and room hire.

I think the £15 charge to do someone else's chores is really off. I would have been happy to do it for free and to provide food/drinks. Might the bride's friend have had to hire sewing machines or something? Still not right for you to have paid for them.

CitronVert · 11/05/2014 08:55

Am imagining a Victorian workhouse sweatshop scenario with all hens sitting at long trestle tables hunched over their triangles while CBM stalks up and down behind them with a riding crop which she brings down sharpish on any malingerers.

SanityClause · 11/05/2014 08:59

I think the "friend" charging was a bit off. £15 will pay for a lot of material, so I suspect she was making a profit. And that's a bit off, for a friend's wedding. Fair enough to charge for materials, but not for her to teach people how to do it.

However, £15 for an afternoon's activity for a hen do isn't all that much, in the scheme of things, even though it isn't what you would have chosen to do with your £15.

But you did something the hen wanted to do before her wedding, with the hen, so, in that respect, I wouldn't begrudge the £15.

I hope you enjoyed whatever came next a bit more.

Pobblewhohasnotoes · 11/05/2014 08:59

That's shit! For £15 you can buy bunting.