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People who don’t turn up to weddings should be made to pay

‘It’s a shame because you’re inviting people you really want there and frustrating because you think “I could’ve filled that.”

People who don’t turn up to weddings should be made to pay

You’ve spent years saving, months planning and hours organising this day. You’ve done meticulous table plans for the hundredth time and you’ve got the vegetarian to meat dish ratio spot on.

Then a guest, or three, don’t show up. What do you do? Sending them a bill seems like the fashionable thing to do. And rightly so, we think.

Last month, Jessica Baker, from Minnesota, received a bill for $75 (£48.99) asking her to cover the cost of her and her husband’s meals.

She had originally RSVP’d yes for her friend’s big day when her mother said she could no longer babysit her children, who were not allowed at the ceremony or reception.

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Jessica was furious and said she would not pay the bill. But weddings are becoming more grandiose, with brides and grooms splashing out thousands of pounds to make their day perfect.

Surely they deserve an element of courtesy with a phone call or message to keep the couple in the know?

It is no surprise that couples are sending wedding no-shows bills detailing costs incurred for the dinner they would have had.

That’s a lot of money wasted that could have gone to guests who would’ve appreciated that open bar…

Annie Brooks, from Leicester, got married in July and had two no-shows. One with a valid reason and one without.

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She agreed: ‘It’s a shame because you’re inviting people you really want there and frustrating because you think “I could’ve filled that.”

‘But it also depends on the type of wedding. Ours was very budget driven, but I think a lot of people put a lot on themselves to make the day perfect and pay vast amounts of money. So they would obviously be quite disappointed if they had invested so much money in it.’

Young professionals Nikesh Patel and Hema Shah are due to get married in August 2016 and have already been planning it for well over a year now.

They said not turning up to a wedding is ‘out of order’ but that they wouldn’t invoice guests purely due to the ’embarrassment’ of asking.

Pranav Bhanot and Shefali Davda recently got engaged and are getting married next summer.

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Pranav said the exclusivity of their guest list allows for the risk of no-shows: ‘If a wedding guest is special enough to be invited to the wedding then I believe they are special enough to risk the out of pocket expense in the event of them not showing up to a wedding.’

Rob Daugh, who got married in July 2011, said: ‘I’d never thought about the idea of invoicing people it’s too business-y – but I was so furious about people not showing up at my wedding that I basically cut them off for good.

‘Come to think of it, it might have been more civilised just to send an invoice for the time and expense they’d cost me.’

Would you have the guts to charge a no-show?

Source: Metro.co.uk

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