Going to a really, really expensive hotel for a wedding. AIBU to want to go back to my student days ??

[YouJustWouldntLetItLieWouldYa]

DP says I am.......I'm saying we can't bloody afford it, never mind £7 or so for a drink each on top.

AIBU in wanting to pull my old student trick of gift wrapping boxes of wine (( to sneak then in innocently ))then having my own wine on tap for the night ?? That way we'd only have to buy one drink.

Honestly, if it wasn't for the fact it's a close family member I'd be pulling a sickie. At least this way we can affordably drown our sorrows at all the money on travel and a hotel we've had to spend 😑😑😑

Totally take a hip flask!

Wedding receptions can be very long

they might be long, but between the drinks offered at the beginning of the reception, the wine and champagne during the meal, the drinks offered after the diner, and the drinks during the night I fail to see how you have time to get thirsty until you are planning to get ridiculously drunk.

I have (often) been unable to drive at a wedding, but I guess I've never looked like that:
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4080750/Pictures-make-weep-today-s-young-women-SARAH-VINE-British-society-grip-binge-drinking-culture.html

If you often go to events where the booze is expensive, you might want to invest in one of these...

www.warehouseofweird.co.uk/gadgets/handbag-flask/amp/

I have never been to a wedding where all drink wasn't free. I know that is odd but true. My family and friends tend to have smaller (70) and everything very free flowing.

Most hotels just have a corkage fee. Even in 5 star is it rarely more than £20 and often £5-10 or some nothing at all.. Just take your own, get them to chill it and serve it. Call and ask them.

I do this all the time as few hotels stock my favourite wine.

Soup, yes I have noticed the DM trawl MN for lazy journalism fillers but I'd hardly say this thread is 'out there' enough to make the side bar for shame or whatever it is. Thousands of people post on here daily, we shouldn't stop going about or business because of some shite rag.

In answer to everyones questions, no, I have no intention of getting slaughtered but I would like a drink, being skint as hell does not make me chavvy, common or a piss head. It makes me skint.

This wedding has wiped out my tiny savings and sent me into my overdraft !! We have to leave at 9am to catch our taxi and catch our train as the tickets are precooked so certainly won't be lolling around in bed with a hangover and pile of bacon butties from room service (( not that I could afford it, where the hell do these places conjure up their prices ?? Toss them up in the air and go with the first one that lands ??!

I always take drink in my bag. Usually one of the big Capri sun packs with a screw top. Then buy pints of lemonade. Maybe I'm a chav, or skint, or both. Me and most other folk there usually. No problem with that if you can't beat em join em!

The overall profit margins of luxury hotels are actually lower than the budget chains - just because they charge more for the wine doesn't mean the hotel is pocketing the difference - it pays for the luxury surroundings, high quality service etc that the bride and groom have decided they want for their wedding.
If you can't afford to go; don't!

Nobody is going to leave a wedding to go to the local pub where drinks are reasonably priced, are they?

They did from ours, including me.

Do it! I have done similar at many, many conferences held in fancy hotels over the years. Attendance paid for by work, drinks at the evening dinners are absolutely extortionate (as in £50 for a bottle of wine), and at the time I was at the lower end of the salary scale and would never have chosen to attend such a venue if I had a choice. Big drinking culture in the evenings. So my colleagues and I would pop across to Tesco for wine (£6 a bottle!), leave it in the rooms and pop upstairs to top up the glasses. Actually was quicker than queuing at the bar, and plenty of people wandering round the corridors with full glasses so we didn't look out of place. Take empty bottles home in suitcase, job done.

I took an ecopack of rum to my friends evening reception (foil pack with screw-top lid). It was £12 for a 125ml flute of prosecco...... think it was about £5 a small glass of coke too. VERY expensive place. I nursed that flute for a good hour.

Expecting your guests to subsidise your 'dream' wedding (shudder) and stay at an expensive hotel when they can't afford it, is incredibly vulgar.

Seems perfectly fair to me. I have no problem with paying normal bar prices, but being ripped off gets my goat. Also means you can drink a better quality of booze. I never use hotel minibars for example, always bring my own if I want a drink (including mineral water). Just turf their stuff out of the fridge into the wardrobe and replace with mine.

If I do occasionally travel for work to somewhere which has decent prices I do drink theirs and always leave a comment on Tripadvisor praising them.

Nobody is going to leave a wedding to go to the local pub where drinks are reasonably priced, are they?

They did from ours, including me.

Why on earth didn't you have your reception in the pub then if your venue was too expensive for you?

If you cannot afford to attend a wedding, then maybe just don't go? I am speechless that you expect not to have ANY drink in that wedding, and you have to bring your own.

I am unashamed to be working class, but so grateful this level of chav attitude is alien to us.

being skint as hell does not make me chavvy, common or a piss head. It makes me skint.

A couple, when choosing a wedding venue, should consider the financial circumstances of their guests.

my wedding is just going to be in a cheap, converted barn, because at least my guests will enjoy free booze all day and night long

TypicallyEnglishMustard

Clearly a boring wedding if the only way to cope is to swill. Or people who can't have fun unless pissed.

Lesson is not to pick super pricey venues unless all guests have loads of money.

If you cannot afford to attend a wedding, then maybe just don't go? I am speechless that you expect not to have ANY drink in that wedding, and you have to bring your own.

Why? Weddings can be very expensive to attend when you take into account outfits, presents, childcare for DC's etc. I don't see it as 'chavvy' for someone to take their own drink if they are hard up but dearly want to see loved ones get married.

bikerunski, I'm genuinely interested as to why you chose your venue and then left. Didn't you know the prices in advance?

I actually meant guests. It would be really rude to shoot off to the pub because the bar prices at the wedding venue are over inflated. Hotels know this and capitalise on having a captive audience.

We had our reception in our garden and got sale or return drinks with free glass hire. The downside to lots of free booze was one chap having a wee in the front garden (classy geezer) and two of our friends getting together, with disastrous results.

If you cannot afford to attend a wedding, then maybe just don't go? I am speechless that you expect not to have ANY drink in that wedding, and you have to bring your own.

Actually I'd say if you can't afford to pay for your guests' drinks for the night, and they are obliged stay at an expensive hotel, regardless of their financial circumstances, then you can't afford to host a wedding at that venue.

Maybe the bride and groom have selected their expensive venue in order to screen out the guests they feel obligated to invite but who they don't really want there?

Passive aggressive, but probably effective.

For so many of the weddings I attend a hip flask is obligatory- in the sporran of course!

I completely agree that it's very rude not to offer drinks (and food) to your guests, and nearly all weddings I have been to had an open bar. They also had civilised guests, having a good time without being an embarrassment.

I am not sure about being obliged to stay at an expensive hotel. Guests are free to rent a car/ book a taxi and go somewhere else. In Europe at least, where can you find a venue hours away from any hotel or BandB?

Wine bag in a handbag. God that's grim.

I used to work in a restaurant that was made up of several smaller rooms

A group of middle aged ladies came in, kitted out in pearls and fur for dinner. They ordered one bottle of house wine between 8 of them and then nothing more for the rest of the evening, yet their glasses remained full. The management challenged them about it but they declined it, just got more giggly, more snidey, clearly laughing at all the staff as though they had got one over on us.

When they left, we found several empty wine bottles under their table and they had tipped a small amount from their original bill, despite being there for hours and consuming much more. The whole experience was very unpleasant. Drunk people doing sneaky things are rarely discreet and always seem to have an air of arrogance that they've got one over on the place they're at.

You know what you're signing up for when you go to a wedding or restaurant, if you can't afford the drinks then just drink soft drinks. And if going to any event is making you so entirely skint for the rest of the month and putting you in the overdraft I'd question if it's even worth going.

i have done similar at many, many conferences held in fancy hotels over the years. Attendance paid for by work, drinks at the evening dinners are absolutely extortionate (as in £50 for a bottle of wine), and at the time I was at the lower end of the salary scale

If you were there for work why didn't you expense your drinks bill? I would be horrified to hear that anyone from my team did this!

Wine bag in a handbag. God that's grim

That's genius.