Wedding in US - no kids

[emsiewill]

Hi. Not really looking for advice here, was prompted by a similar thread to share my incredulation (is that a word) at the situation we are in.

Friend of dh (in fact he introduced us) is getting married in San Francisco on 18 Feb. We received email invite on 20 Dec, and after discussing it, we decided to throw caution to the winds (ie max out the cc) and go. We let them know that we would be coming, and as a sort of 'we'd better just check', we also emailed to check that the dds (aged 9 and 6.5) were invited, and were told 'no, the venue is too small, but we wil try and find some childcare / creche for you'.

A couple of weeks later, they send us details of a babysitting agency that specialises in hotel childcare for people from out of town. It's going to cost us $130 (at least)!!!! I don't have issues with using the agency - it all seems above board, they have been very helpful and have good reviews from parents that have used them.

I don't need to go into the 'do they not realise that children are actually able to behave, why wouldn't you want kids at a family occasion etc' arguments, because they have all been heard before, as well as the 'we're flying 1000's of miles and they can't even find space for 2 children' argument. I just wanted to share this situation for your amusement / disbelief.

To be honest, the wedding is only an excuse for us to go to the US anyway - 5 days in San Francisco, and then we're flying to Orlando for 10 days, so we're going to have a fab time.

But some people!

You think they'd have mentioned it before you checked.

I ma normally all for people having the right to not ahve children at their own wedding, but thsi really si extreme, I mean you are going across the atlantic for them at great cost!

I am going to Australia for my Brother's wedding and would by F*ing livid if he then told me DS could not come.

Hmm its a funny one, because if they are getting married abroad at v short notice - and inviting people by email - you'd reckon its only a small affair, and so on one hand you can understand his comment about the size of the venue ( might only be a dozen people there), and on the other he must know if he's inviting you that you'll need to bring the kids - not like they are new on the scene is it? I'd put that down to just being a bit dense, not mean.

Have a wicked time by the way

It's not a tiny venue - 50 people they said, and we know of at least 2 people who are unable to go (it being so far away and all), so to my thinking there is space.

But there you go - people are strange.

We also had a dilemma over the stag night, which is on the Thursday before; we arrive that day at lunchtime. I wasn't keen for dh to go (never been to US before, no idea what to expect, stuck in strange hotel with 2 tired and excited kids, him hungover for our first sight seeing day), but in the end we compromised that he would go for the meal, and not carry on after.

Well, for me this one really does take the biscuit

They expect you to pay out all that money, travel all that way, then pay out yet more money - and lots of it - for the privelege of having complete strangers look after your children in a strange country???

Unbelievable, absolutely unbelievable