A wedding guest was left thinking he’d been scammed after the bride and groom requested £2,000 from him, just to attend the big day.
Jack, 36, had been invited to his long-time friend Jeff’s wedding who was marrying his fiance Sophie, and he was thrilled because his girlfriend had been invited as a plus one.
He RSVP’d to the wedding, then a few months later he received an email.
It stated: ‘Thank you for RSVPing to our wedding, and thank you for helping us have the wedding of our dreams.’
At the bottom of the email was a link that said ‘click here for payment’ and Jack, assuming it was a link to the honeymoon fund didn’t click initially.
A few days later curiosity got the better of him and he followed the link which took him to a payment page requesting just shy of £2,000 to attend the wedding.
Thinking it was a scam, Jack called the venue to let them know but it responded: ‘Sophie and Jeff thank you for you contribution to enable them to have their dream wedding.’
He’d only been informed of this mandatory charge after he said he’d be attending. On the subreddit EntitledPeople, it says Jack was astounded by this but because he’s got a good friendship with Jeff, he emptied his savings to attend.
Attending a wedding in the UK sets guests back £629.10 on average, but this can soar to £966.72 in certain locations, so to charge £2,000 to simply go to the wedding seems steep.
In fact, with the average monthly earnings in the UK being £2,334, attending a wedding could cost over a quarter of a guest’s monthly income, according to Coach Hire Comparison.
As he was being charged so much, Jack assumed he’d be able to rinse the free food and booze that would be available at the wedding.
On the day of the wedding though, Jack received a nasty shock – drinks were not included. In fact, he and his partner spent £30 on drinks throughout the night and when Jack went to pay his bar tab, he discovered an additional charge of £200.
The venue explained the bride and groom had requested each guest be charged an additional £200 so they could tip the hotel.
Jack obviously had no money left after paying nearly £2,000 to attend, so he negotiated a lower amount.
The post claims that after the wedding Jack checked the cost of the venue and calculated that the cost had been spread amongst the guests, rather than the bride and groom paying for it.
Basically, the newlyweds used their guests to get a free wedding, with the post branding them ‘entitled’.
People were in uproar in the comments branding the couple ‘skeevy’ and ’embarrassing’.
One wrote: ‘Uh…Yeah, no. Once I saw the payment screen, I would have called and cancelled my RSVP. I don’t care who the bride and groom are to me. You want a specific type of wedding, pay for it yourself. What they did was down right tacky.’
‘I would never, ever empty my savings for a scam couple like that. Damn,’ wrote another.
One shared: ‘Personally, even though I had rsvp’d yeah, once I saw the cost I would have then declined. Its disgusting and wrong on so many levels to ask the bar to add £200 on everyone’s bill, again I wouldn’t have paid it as they couldn’t enforce it.’
The newlyweds were even crowned entitled ‘bridezilla and groomzilla’, while others encouraged Jack to get in touch with them and ask for a refund.
What do you think? Would you ever pay an attendance fee for a wedding? Let us know in the comments below.
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