Bride and groom bill no-show wedding guests $80 for dinner

http://m.nydailynews.com/news/national/bride-groom-bill-no-show-wedding-guests-80-dinner-article-1.2380660/

NINA GOLGOWSKI
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

First their presence was requested, then an $80 bill payment.

A Minnesota woman is speaking out after her no show at a recent wedding led to the bride and groom sending her a bill.

Jessica Baker of Golden Valley said she was absolutely floored when a few weeks after missing a relative's wedding a bill arrived in her mailbox for $75.90.

"This cost reflects the amount paid by the bride and groom for meals that were RSVP'd for, reimbursement and explanation for no show, card, call or text would be appreciated," it read.

"You've got to be kidding me," Baker recalled her reaction in an interview with KARE11 News.

Baker said she fully intended to attend the wedding but her mother, who was serving as her babysitter during the event, cancelled at the last minute.

Because the wedding invitation specifically stated children could not attend, Baker said they had no other choice but to star home.

CBS MINNESOTA
Jessica Baker received a bill for the dinner they were supposed to have enjoyed. "You've got to be kidding me," she said with a smile. "It listed, we would have had two herb crusted walleye and there was also a service and tax charge." The total came to $75.90.
Though Baker said she has no plans on paying the bill — which she said she's since thrown away — she wonders what her correct response should have been.

What's not clear in her interview is if she attempted to notify the bride and groom about her last-minute cancellation, implied in the letter attached to the bill.

That's something one wedding expert, Sarah Baumann Rogers, who serves as editor for Minnesota Bride magazine, advised guests to do as soon as possible.

As for the hosts, Rogers told KARE11: "Under no circumstances should you choose to follow up after the fact...kind of questioning why they couldn't attend or much less sending a bill.

Oh geez.. first I assumed this was greed. But on social media, I read the bride, wrote a letter to HER relative, so they not sent a bill, and asked why they didn't come ... but also wrote describing in great detail the dinner they missed.
And saying, " You missed ... blah blah blah ".

What the h@ll is all that !?
A juvenile attempt at revenge? Does she really think they were home crying that they missed it all.? ... Well, the bride can dream can't she ?

And since she is a bride.. why isn't she focused on her new life ? Why is she intentionally starting out, with family drama?

Hummm... maybe pics of the food & a video of the band they missed will arrive next

Dated a woman years ago who worked for a banquet hall that catered and hosted a lot of wedding receptions. Many couples have a strict budget and a lot of them bank on getting generous 'donations' to help cover the costs.

In many cases the receptions were less than 100 people, and so the happy couple might have been looking at $10-20,000. Dresses, limos, DJ's, photographers, open bars, flowers, etc etc etc add up in short order.

IF your budget is so tight that $80 can 'break' your wedding, then MAYBE you should have planned a slightly larger contingency fund. IF your guest RSVP'd, AND didn't show up, AND didn't notify you, then maybe someone that was that tightly budgeted could rightfully complain. Especially if everyone knows you are putting your last couple nickels together to do this.

I'll bet however there was someone more than happy to eat the leftover meal, so I doubt it went to waste. That close to the actual serving time, the hall is not about to offer you a discount for missing guests as they have already paid for the food to be cooked.

As an etiquette issue, I can see both sides IF there was no cancellation notice. A note that basically says "Sorry to see you missed the event. I don't recall seeing a cancellation from you, and hope all is well. Since we incurred a cost in planning for you, someone else got the benefit of your food and drink. I'm sure they enjoyed it." You know, slightly passive/aggressive like most bridezillas tend to be. LOL

The functional idiocy of it,is that the cost to the people who paid for the event would not have changed one cent, had they been told that the person couldn't make it after all.

Frankly, it sounds more like a scam than anything else. I have seen enough horrendously self-centered behavior from all sorts of people over my life, that I'm in no way surprised that someone would do this, but I have also seen enough scams, that I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that someone got a hold of the list of invited guests, and used it to try to "bill them."

Around here, it is unfortunately entirely legal for service companies to send OFFERS for service, disguised to look exactly like a bill. This victimizes older people and immigrants and others who simply don't know to look for scams.