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As a 26-year-old, I’m not quite at the age where I’m being forced to block off multiple weekends throughout the summer and fall for weddings. I know deep down that the invitations are coming for me just as they do for most everyone with friends who aren’t complete degenerates, but I also know that the price of attending all of these weddings and bachelor parties – the flights, hotels, etcetera and so on – is merely par for the course. It’s natural to assume that when you get invited to a wedding or a bachelor/bachelorette extravaganza, you’re going to spend some money.
I’ve seen a handful of close friends get married in the past couple of years, but nothing like what Georgina Childs, a 30 year old woman in England, has experienced. Gun to my head, I think between the ages of 28 and 32 are when people really start to see space on the front of their refrigerator diminish due to save the date magnets. Here’s what happened according to Business Insider:
She [Georgina] gave up her home after spending £9,250 ($12,885) on attending 14 weddings and 14 hen (bachelorette) parties over four years.
Childs says she resorted to credit cards to foot the bill for accommodation and transportation costs, and that she spent £1,500 on outfits and over £4,000 on hotels over the years.
Now I’m far from an expert on budgeting, and maybe with this question I’m about to ask I’m just admitting how naive I am when it comes to attending weddings/bachelor parties – but thirteen grand over the course of four years for a combined 28 events (14 weddings AND 14 bachelorette parties) doesn’t sound like that much money, does it?
14 weddings in four years is child’s play compared to horror stories I’ve heard from older friends of mine. If you nixed even half of the bachelorette parties and got it down to seven, I think you’d still be able to pay the rent and prevent yourself from having to move back in with mom and dad, no?
I have never had the pleasure of experiencing a bachelor party because none of my male friends are engaged yet, but I can’t imagine going anywhere for one and not spending at the very least a thousand bucks between airfare, hotels, food, drinks, and performance enhancers.
I don’t know much about England, but I’ve got to imagine a bachelorette party there is pretty similar to a bachelorette party here in the states. How is anyone getting invited to 14 bachelorette parties? No one has 14 close friends – not you, not me, not Drake, and certainly not Georgina.
Childs says she now dreads the arrival of a wedding invitation. While it’s exciting and “an honor” to be invited to a ceremony or a hen do, she said, she finds it difficult to turn one down for fear of coming across as rude.
And the popularity of destination weddings and weekday ceremonies, which are often cheaper for the couple, makes the occasions more expensive, especially if an elaborate stag or hen do, like a weekend in Ibiza or Las Vegas, is part of the package.
“Some people say I should start turning down invites of once-removed-type friends, but it’s not that easy to turn down a wedding invite,” she said. “It’s seen as a bit of a social faux pas.”
I mean if you’re having to give up your apartment because you can’t stop going on trips with the gals and seeing fringe friends tie the knot maybe just take a step back and re-examine some things.
I don’t want to come across as crass, but maybe Georgina should think about finding a new line of work? Thirteen grand over four years is not that much money, and if she really did have to move back in with her parents and isn’t making this up to go viral on the internet then stop fucking going to the weddings. I don’t care how much of a social faux pas it is across the pond to deny a wedding invitation – just don’t go.
You want some dimestore psychoanalysis? I think Georgina Childs has been getting taken advantage of by her “friends” since she got to college. Georgina “The Pushover” Childs is what they used to call her. She’d loan you money for alcohol when you couldn’t afford to buy it yourself your senior year at school.
“Sure, I can write your essay for you, Suzy! Due in six hours? I’ve got a date with Kyle from Sigma Chi but I can cancel and get this done STAT!”
Georgina is the girl who can’t say no to anyone when it’s a favor, and it all just carried over to the wedding invitation phase of her life. Bills, any semblance of a normal social life- she threw it all away to be sat at one of back tables with the weird cousins and widows.
Millennials are supposed to be all about themselves- never looking out for anyone but numero uno. Georgina needs to start embracing that mentality and focus on making her rent every month. Moving back in with your parents so you can continue to go to weddings and bachelorette parties just doesn’t seem like a fair trade.
You know the term “Always a bridesmaid but never a bride”? Well Georgina’s picture is next to that phrase in the cliche dictionary, and if the world doesn’t have a cliche dictionary they really need to make one. .
[via Business Insider]
Image via Unsplash
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jduda@grandex.co
She’s like Girl but doesn’t have WASPy parents and a cuck fiance’ to pick up the tab.
You are a national treasure. I love you.
Awww! Thank you! 🙂
excellent use of ‘cuck’, dave
A little over 3 grand a year doesn’t seem that bad at all. What kind of employment does this woman have? Needs further investigation.
I was thinking the same thing. I figured it was in like 1 year or something.
This is why my (unintentional) life plan of having no friends is way more affordable
Right, dude! I was even thinking about taking so much DMT that I literally separate myself from my physical self because at the end of the day, these bodies we have are such an overhead expense and I’m tired of paying carry-on fees for my carcass everywhere I go. It’s 2018, we need to get rid of this physical reality/hardware bullshit because we literally have the internet lol
Hen parties. Yeah, I’ll be using that from now on.
The male equivalent in countries under her majesty’s watch is “Stag”, usually combined with “do” which is a noun replacement for party.
In a sentence: “Hey James, will I see you at Tom’s stag do next month?”
“Hen” is usually a “night” – e.g. “OMG Kate, I got SOOO written off at Mary’s hens night last weekend.”
I realise now that this is really not that interesting.
Bloody wankers…
Wanker is, without doubt, a top 3 all-time insult.
Cunt is far more popular in Australia/New Zealand (where I reside), and is more often used with an endearing adjective making it a compliment you share with good friends. Every american I have met has had a hard time understanding this but it’s just how it works down here.
Top 3 insults for me has gotta be wanker, muppet and cunt (for people you really dont like) in no real order.
“ah, you’re a sick cunt” aussy kid on my college swim team. Always fun to get drunk and yell cunt.
What are the other two then?
As I recall, “cunt” is thrown around pretty widely across the pond.
Clearly she wasn’t budgeting her partying every other weekend to offset those trips.
Question: Is it possible to have a single night steakhouse and poker bachelor party any more? Or would all your friends call you a brokeboi if you don’t go in for the destination weekend trip?
Your bachelor party, your requests. I don’t think anyone will object to having to foot a smaller bill for you.
lived in the UK for awhile, some of these trips abroad are actually hella affordable. like you can go to Amsterdam for 4 nights, transportation and hotel being maaaaybe $250, plus they get a decent amount of vacation days so it PTO
She needs to learn how to say no and to budget properly
Honestly not surprised you don’t have 14 friends
who has 14+ friends after college??
I regularly keep in touch with a few hs friends, roughly 25 college friends, and a couple folks from varying jobs since then. Did you fake your own death after graduation or something?
There’s a difference between friends and acquaintances
I mean congrats to you. I’m just an unlikeable loser I guess.
Did you graduate within the last year? Trust me, this number will decrease each year until you hit the sweet spot of 3-5 friends.
Nope, but thanks for reminding me how long it’s been since college. Even moved abroad for a bit after graduation. A lot of my friends from school all moved to the same city, I just joined them when I got back. There’s about 25 of us that regularly hang out, more than acquaintances. I refuse to believe I’m the weird one for having friends
I mean that’s like what, $500 roughly per event? On its own it’s not that bad (although way more than I’d be willing to shell out) but so easily we tend to forget that money adds up over time.
Roughly 4 weddings a year. At $460 and change per wedding, according to the numbers Duda posted, that was definitely doable. At that rate, you’d only need to work full time at $11.50 an hour for a month to cover all of that. Girl sounds like she’s has more of a spending issue than a “faux-pax’ or earnings issue.
Yeah, but figuring in monthly expenses like rent/gas/insurance/utilities/groceries/etc and if we assume she was carrying each wedding balance (~$460) on her credit card with probably the national average of ~15% interest, she’s getting hit with nearly $70 in interest charges on a monthly basis – extrapolating that out its reasonably safe to conclude that ol’ girl dug herself quite the hole of credit card debt. Wonder how many likes her Instagram posts got though… /s
Lol* because you know damn well she was doing fringe friend destination weddings for the gram.
Oh absolutely. The calculation above was just strictly for the weddings and nothing else. Responsible adults would have to factor all the extra expenses in. Also interest would be $5.75 using your figures. The interest is an APR so it doesn’t quite translate directly like that. I think. I only took 2 finance classes as an undergrad. If someone else can verify, please enlighten me. @financehoe
This knowledge makes me marginally less afraid of credit card interest charges which cannot be a good thing…also good thing that I don’t work in finance
16 weddings as a groomsman,
20 bachelor parties,
Over a 5 year stretch.
I laugh when I hear bachelor parties were one night in the local bar…born too late for those I guess.
I’m similar- 9 times bridesmaid (2 of which were MOH so I spent more) and I’ve gone to 30 weddings in 4 years. I only went on three bachelorettes that had flights but the other 15+ were 3-4 day trips to other cities. Absolutely have to budget a grand to spend each time.