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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Hen party but no wedding invitation?

27 replies

Octopup · 12/05/2022 22:00

This happened a few years ago but interested to know what you think.

Girl I met in uni was getting married. We weren’t very close, but got on well, were part of the same friendship group and shared a house in 3rd year. I was invited to her hen-do, all very lovely.

I and another friend left the hen party a few hours early (not very early, we just missed lunch on the final day) and as we left she said to me and my friend “I left your wedding invitations at the hotel, I’ll post them on to you”. All smiles and we thanked her and left.

Fast forward three months, her wedding is in a week’s time and I look for the invitation to check the details and realise that I never received one. Checked with my other friend - she had received hers (she was a closer friend to the bride and had seen her in person several times since the hen do).

So I was then in a dilemma. My thinking went something like:

  • She invited me to her hen party, and to her wedding verbally, so maybe she just forgot that she never sent me the invite. It might look to her as though I had snubbed her, not bothered to rspv? There was a possibility she might have ordered food for me, expecting me to be there as she hadn’t heard otherwise?
  • But then - you’d think that she would have followed up with me, if she really wanted or expected me there wouldn’t you?
  • Maybe she just didn’t want to invite me. But if that’s the case I was the only friend in the group without an invitation - and I was invited to the Hen, so she clearly liked me enough at that point? There was no falling out at the hen or anything. All very mysterious.
I couldn’t figure it out, and I didn’t want to run the risk of offending her by potentially seeming to ignore her, so in the end I got a mutual friend to ask her whether or not I was invited (cringe). Cue text message (friendly enough) from her inviting me to the evening party.

On the evening itself, when I showed up, she said a brief hello, then completely ignored me. Fair enough, she had more important people and plans on her mind. I gave her a card with a small gift of money.

But I have never seen or heard from her since. Not a snifter.

For a long time I felt pretty embarrassed because in hindsight she clearly had not intended to invite me, and probably was quite annoyed that I invited myself.

But more recently I’ve been thinking - surely I wasn’t that unreasonable? She invited me to her hen and told me she had an invite for me…what’s a girl to do?!

Curious to know how others interpret the situation and whether you think I was unreasonable?

OP posts:
loves2plan · 12/05/2022 22:02

YANBU, I don't understand why she would invite you to the hen do but not the wedding

Itloggedmeoutagain · 12/05/2022 22:11

Why are you still bothered by this?

Octopup · 12/05/2022 22:15

Itloggedmeoutagain · 12/05/2022 22:11

Why are you still bothered by this?

I’m not any more. I was a bit at the time because I felt confused and embarrassed. Now time has passed I’m looking back and wondering “I wonder what happened there?” 🤷‍♀️

OP posts:
burnoutbabe · 12/05/2022 22:21

Maybe she thought she'd posted them, then invited someone else wgwg you didn't rsvp then realised later she'd actually missed you /lost in post. But no space do evening invite.

Bit odd and I'd be in a dilemma too -do I ask or do I assume id lost in post they'd have chased? But then maybe they think me very rude for no rsvp!

Would do my head in trying to work out what to do!

TolkiensFallow · 12/05/2022 22:23

you were perfectly reasonable

coodawoodashooda · 12/05/2022 22:25

She was happy for you to bump up her numbers by inviting you on the hen do. You didn't make the cut for the wedding and you then realised you weren't as high up the friendship pecking order as you thought you were. I also think she pretended you were invited when she talked to your friend who was actually invited because she doesn't and didn't at all care about you. Sorry.

bluejelly · 12/05/2022 22:28

I had this once. Good enough for the hen party but not the wedding. Totally baffling and I decided to stop making an effort with her. V odd.

Arenanewbie · 12/05/2022 22:28

I wonder did she pay for the hen do?

Neverreturntoathread · 12/05/2022 22:33

Sounds to me that once she’d had a think about it, she was livid you left her hen early / some other perceived insult 🤷‍♀️

move on

Arenanewbie · 12/05/2022 22:46

By the way you were reasonable when asked and did it really politely.

Octopup · 12/05/2022 23:20

Arenanewbie · 12/05/2022 22:28

I wonder did she pay for the hen do?

No, we all paid for ourselves.

OP posts:
Octopup · 12/05/2022 23:21

Thanks for posting, looks like most agree I was not unreasonable, which is nice to know!

OP posts:
Arenanewbie · 13/05/2022 00:19

As you were paying for yourself she didn’t mind to have you at her hen do as a part of the group but she didn’t want you at the wedding.
She wasn’t really nice about it actually. She could keep her mouth shut when you were leaving the hen do but she wanted to look good and later she gave you evening invite but didn’t bother to talk to you. We’ve been at the wedding recently, both bride and groom went 3 times around all guests introducing them to each other, talking and checking that everything’s fine (about 100 guests).
If she didn’t like you enough she should own it up. I’m sure you would survive without coming to her wedding. And of course she was annoyed because she wanted to look nice and polite, she didn’t want anyone to know that she excluded you only.

candlemaker22 · 13/05/2022 00:34

I've been to a few hen dos where I was told in advance I'm not invited to the wedding/evening only. Completely get that because some were overseas and weddings can be expensive.

But what your "friend" did was horrible.

I hope this post is just because it popped into your head rather than something you keep wondering over. Tbh if that was me I wouldn't have even bothered going to the evening or if I did just taken a card

Princessoftheuniverse · 13/05/2022 00:39

She’s the one who ought to be embarrassed. If she didn’t intend inviting you she shouldn’t have said she was. I can understand why you felt uncomfortable and didn’t know what to do.

AndSoFinally · 13/05/2022 09:54

People here always say it's rude to invite someone to the hen but not to the wedding, but surely that happens fairly often?!

I've been to at least 2 hen dos where I had only an evening invite and one where I wasn't invited at all. Admittedly these were work colleagues and not close friends, but I can't say I was offended. A hen do is just a night out where everyone pays for themselves and there's no restrictions on numbers. Surely it's just more the merrier!

AbleCable · 13/05/2022 10:11

I don't see how you would be expected to assume that you were not invited when she told you herself that you were?! Surely the most likely thing is that your invitation was either mislaid or went astray something between the hen and the wedding.
Perhaps she assumed you weren't coming to the wedding as you hadn't RSVP'd - and was miffed that you were asking about it after she'd confirmed the numbers for the hotel. Although most people would follow up with the non-responders verbally, maybe she didn't - maybe it was made clear in the invite (that you didn't get!).
Being invited to the hen is not so relevant - some people only have wedding guests at the hen, other people don't. But the fact that she told you in person that you would be invited, makes it perfectly reasonable to follow up to the whereabouts of the invite. Although maybe you should have followed it up a bit sooner the week before the wedding - you must have known you didn't confirm you'd be going? But then, she could also have followed up the lack of reply, so I think that's about 50-50 unreasonableness on both sides.

HappilyHadesBound · 13/05/2022 17:58

She told you that you were invited! It's therefore totally reasonable to follow that up xxx

Slightly different one, I wasn't invited to one of my best friend's hen do's. I suspect this was because the MoH doesn't like me- which I think is largely because I got so close friends with the bride, I think she thought it threatened their friendship but it doesn't.

MoH often holds large social gatherings that everyone else in the group is invited to and I'm not, but to do it to our mutual friends hen do is just nasty.

I never said anything to the bride, and to this day I daren't ask about it so don't know if she knows I wasn't invited or if she thinks I refused.

Blondeshavemorefun · 13/05/2022 18:03

IMO hen dos are fir good close friends

so if you are invited to he. Do I would def expect an invite to the wedding

gettingolderandgrumpy · 13/05/2022 18:32

Hen party’s are for close family & friends imo . It’s weird to invite someone you’d consider a friend to hen party but you wouldn’t invite to wedding unless it was a really small wedding but then you’d probably not bother with a big hen party . Saying that I’ve been to a work hen party from a girl I really didn’t know , didn’t get a wedding invite and didn’t expect to either . Plus a mutual friend invite to hen but I couldn’t make it nor did get invited to wedding either but neither of those people are my friends just people that I know . Maybe some people like to add to numbers at hens because they don’t have as many female friends and they want it to look like they have lots . Bit odd imo just invite friends to hen and wedding isn’t that the point to enjoy with people you know and enjoy not some random person you work with or know from your spin class .

gettingolderandgrumpy · 13/05/2022 18:38

I also too wasn’t invite to a wedding it was like you op someone rang and said is gettingolderandgrumpy not got her invite but I got a very apologetic email saying oh we must have had your old address .( excuse we hadn’t moved in years ) anyway they invited us probably because it was embarrassing to say no not invited but they were very nice but we know we weren’t originally invited.

midsomermurderess · 13/05/2022 18:49

Are people just making up threads now, for traffic? Also all these zombie threads resurfacing. It's odd. People bite though, people always bite here.

AbleCable · 13/05/2022 19:00

A thread started yesterday is not a zombie thread 🙄

Crimeismymiddlename · 13/05/2022 19:09

I have been invited to hens and not the wedding and I have been fine about it, mainly work friends though. Oddly a few years ago a pal from school who I had not seen or really communicated with for about ten years invited me to her hen weekend with a weeks notice, I was busy and also did not want to and she got very annoyed that I was prioritising my actual friends. This did offend me as it turned out I was on the third tier invite list and obviously she was desperate to fill places.

Itloggedmeoutagain · 15/05/2022 22:38

I got married abroad so there were loads at my hen do who were not at my wedding. No one was offended

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