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AIBU?

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Original poster

eek I caused a 150 corkage fee last night wwyd

362 replies

alittlethyme · 18/01/2015 10:16

Was at a wedding last night. Each of the tables we're named after a spirit and they had a bottle of whatever on the table. I was a bit tipsy and didn't know many people, so cracked open some whisky without noticing that it had a label on the other side saying drinking this would be a 150 fee. I only had a few mm and screwed the lid back on tightly after I realise d the fee.

One aibu to think 150 a bottle is a stupid amount?

Two should I go back to the hotel today sober to try and get a reduction in the fee as was barely touched?

Three should I pay whatever the charge is?

OP posts:
BoomBoomsCousin · 19/01/2015 08:14

Phaedra the OP said she was the only one who opened a bottle and that she had to take it to the hotel staff when they collected up the others because they appeared to be avoiding collecting it.

Lweji it would have to be a fairly large tag to be hidden from only one of six people at a table, which would have made it all the more obvious when picked up to open.

Ohmygrood · 19/01/2015 08:29

As the hotel probably paid no more than a tenner for the bottle, they may even just stick it behind the bar and not charge anything.

Lweji · 19/01/2015 08:38

All bottles have labels at the back, so unless it was partially visible it wouldn't have drawn attention.
Anyone could have missed it from the front, like the op was. And that was the risk the b&g took. I would agree with you if the label was all around the bottle.
People were at a party relaxing, not examining bottles of booze on the table. The onus was on the organisers.

NorbertDentressangle · 19/01/2015 09:06

What's the betting that the vodka and gin tables opened the bottles, downed a few and then topped them up with water when they saw the label.

BoomBoomsCousin · 19/01/2015 10:03

So was it a label so like all other bottle labels that anyone would miss it, but still everyone in the room managed to avoid making the op's mistake? Or was it so bold that everyone else in the room noticed it except the OP who happened to have been unfortunately positioned so that it was invisible to her? (For what it's worth I did not get the impression from the OP's use of "tag" later, and from the fact they weren't the hotel's bottles, that it was a stuck on label like a regular bottle label).

I agree the organisers also bear some responsibility. That doesn't mean the OP is blameless. It doesn't have to all on one person.

PurpleCrazyHorse · 19/01/2015 10:33

Our friends had penny sweets as their wedding table decorations, we ate them and the sugar high kept me going all afternoon! Wondering now if we should have just looked at them or indeed left money in the bowl Grin

Lweji · 19/01/2015 10:41

We don't know what the labels are. All we know is that they were at the back of the bottles, where they wouldn't have attracted attention, or seen by

But: at least half the people were in a position to see it, I'm sure, AND the rest probably just didn't feel like a strong drink before the meal, unlike the OP, OR were told before they opened the bottle, unlike the OP. The odds were low that anyone would have opened the bottle without noticing it, but not so low that it was caused by the OP drinking.

I really fail to see how any could be her fault.
As the vast majority of people on this thread, except you Boom, who really seem keen on blaming the OP and her drinking before the meal.

BoomBoomsCousin · 19/01/2015 13:47

I do think drinking neat whisky on an empty stomach, when already tipsy, near the beginning of a celebration is heading towards the slightly less responsible side of drinking. But it's not some kind of sin or anything. I'm more saying she did it, It was a mistake, but it's still a mistake she made; tipsy, sober or roaring drunk she bears some responsibility for it.

YonicScrewdriver · 19/01/2015 13:50

Whisky is frequently drunk without mixers - gin and vodka probably less so. Therefore the whisky table was probably more at risk of this than others.

Lweji · 19/01/2015 13:54

It wasn't her mistake as such, because she didn't and couldn't easily see the label.
She obviously drank the whisky after pouring it, so drinking the whisky didn't impact on the event itself.

It was their mistake (or not...) to put a label that wasn't visible from all sides.

OwlinaTree · 19/01/2015 14:00

Pml @ mad dog 20/20 table!!!Grin

MrsHathaway · 19/01/2015 14:00

I was once at a ball where there were some spectacular table centres. Ours was less spectacular but contained half a dozen fresh pears.

We got very drunk and danced a lot - Marines band, brilliant.

Then at about 11pm there was an announcement that if anyone wanted to take their table centre home it would be fifty quid. Some of them were worth easily that much, with several calla lily stems and roses and and and ... but by now ours was some squashed oasis, a handful of greenery, and six pear stalks.

Um, we laughed lots and didn't pay.
We were the youngest and poorest table by a margin, and I suspect we had been seated and decorated accordingly.

limitedperiodonly · 19/01/2015 14:02

Perhaps the label said: 'Drink Me' like in Alice In Wonderland.

Sorry OP. I still don't think you were in the wrong.

winewolfhowls · 19/01/2015 14:09

Boom, i aim to get completely wankered at a wedding. So ner.

Op its not your fault

limitedperiodonly · 19/01/2015 14:11

Then at about 11pm there was an announcement that if anyone wanted to take their table centre home it would be fifty quid

What? It's completely normal for people to take centrepieces at the end for nothing.

I love the idea that your table left some stalks Grin

notonyourninny · 19/01/2015 14:14

Nope don't pay, how stupid.

SauvignonBlanche · 19/01/2015 14:17

Then at about 11pm there was an announcement that if anyone wanted to take their table centre home it would be fifty quid

No! What were they going to do with them otherwise? Hmm

Lweji · 19/01/2015 14:30

Sell them for 50 quid on eBay.

WeAreEternal · 19/01/2015 14:53

I attended a wedding a few years ago where the centerpieces where large oversized glass wine buckets with artificial (plastic) ice cubes and a big magnum of very expensive champagne, there were lights inside the bucket and flowers around the bottom, it was very pretty.

There was a tiny little note on the back of the table number (that was part of the centerpiece) that said the V. expensive champagne was not to be opened or consumed, it was for decoration only and that if it was touched the guest would be charged the full price of the bottle.

The waiting staff then brought out much cheaper champagne in covered bottles.

The whole point of it was that it looked as if they were giving the guests the V. expensive champagne, the whole wedding had a similar theme.

Members of the brides family spent most of the reception buzzing around making sure nobody touched the champagne or any of the other things that were 'just for decoration'.
It didn't work though 5 of the 8 bottles were opened and drank and it made for a very amusing few months after while the B&G and her family tried to find out who opened and drank them so that they could send them a bill.

ExitPursuedByABear · 19/01/2015 14:55
Shock
kaykayred · 19/01/2015 15:36

I think it's incredibly rude and harsh for people to be saying "Oh how CRASS and TACKY".

I mean, logistically it's a bloody shit idea because OBVIOUSLY someone is going to open them!

But to call it "low class" is outright snobby and vulgar in and of itself. Or is it only "tacky" because it wasn't a bottle of Oban? Hmm

One person's "classy" is another person's "pretentious". One person's "artistic" is another person's "shambles". One person's "traditional" is another's "boring as hell".

Presumably the OP is friends with these people and was looking for advice about the corkage charge - not sneering diatribes about how "vulagr" their friends are.

OP - I would confess to the hotel, ask them to verify that the bottle is still completely full, and offer to pay the cost of the drink that the lost from the bar (maybe 6 quid) and the corkage charge for wine (maybe £20). You could also offer to write them a GLOWING review on how FABULOUS they are as a wedding venue.

limitedperiodonly · 19/01/2015 15:43

I went to a wedding where the groom was a real wheeler-dealer and had done loads of contra-deals with suppliers for the wedding and returned the favour through his own business which is photography.

Food, drink, flowers, clothes, cars, the reception venue, security - it got quite lairy there on a Saturday night - the band, the honeymoon - he even sweet-talked the vicar into throwing in the choir for nothing in return for free publicity photos for a glossy booklet on the very beautiful old church Grin.

We all knew what he'd done but nobody cared because it was such a brilliant day and done with no meanness. He is charming. It was like: 'This is our wedding. Enjoy yourselves.'

It predictably ended in carnage involving the beautiful ice sculpture/vodka luge (both on one of his special deals) but nothing horrible. Just silly, good-natured drunkenness.

limitedperiodonly · 19/01/2015 15:52

kaykayred I agree. It was so far south of classy for the groom's mother to nestle her cleavage at the foot of the vodka luge and tell DH to 'hit me'.

He did, with Absolut, but declined her invitation to lick it off. She got someone else, younger than her son, to do that Shock.

Absolutely disgraceful behaviour. But I wouldn't have missed it for the world Grin

Ev1lEdna · 19/01/2015 15:56

They had a bottle of Grouse on the table as decoration?

Why? Confused

Lweji · 19/01/2015 16:17

Grouse are nice.

Not sure about the whiskey. I don't like whiskey, so I'd be a model guest at that wedding.

eek I caused a 150 corkage fee last night wwyd