When procrastination pays off......

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

This fall, we were supposed to go to a wedding on Turks and Caicos.  I've wanted to go there, but with the location of the wedding, it was going to cost us well over $8000 for the resort (we were planning on taking a week vacation out of it) and the flights.

So I made the deposit for the resort, but flying there from the west coast only gave us a bunch of crappy flights - we were not going to be able to get away with anything but a red eye and the idea of spending the first day at a resort that costs $1000/day as walking zombies didn't have a lot of appeal.  So I contacted the travel organizer and asked her if there was any way we could fly across the US to a jump off place, find a hotel near the airport and then catch the flight to Turks the next morning.  She emailed me a couple itineraries like this, which was what I wanted.  Then I had a house full of guests and wasn't able to get back to her, so that was going to be on the list of this week's chores, to get our flights booked.

Yesterday, I get an email from the groom that the wedding's off.  As it is more than 60 days before the wedding, we should get our resort deposit back in full.  I'm sad to see the wedding canceled, but in reality it was not the best time for me as I'd have to take a week off from class.  And I am REALLY glad that I dragged my feet on booking our flights as that is the most difficult cost to recover from. 

The mother of the groom is my best college friend, and they were offering to reimburse all unrecoverable travel costs.  She was really relieved this morning to hear that we had none.

[NancysSummerSip]

Ouch on the wedding couple, for whatever money they spent so far and cannot get back. Destination weddings are expensive enough.

Good for you, though. And classy of the parties involved to reimburse folks.

[Mardi Gras Audrey]

[Opti]

Yep, destination weddings bound to have problems with cold feet, etc.

Glad everything worked out for you.

[Opti]

[HoneyBBQ]

OMG. My mind baffles at the idea of people going to that expensive of a place for a wedding. And then calling it OFF!! OMG. OMG.

[midjd]

Sad about the cancellation, but hopefully it was the best decision for the parties involved. Glad it worked out for you, too.

I recently had a situation where a case that I was really dragging my feet on (I hated it) ended up settling. So if I had actually done any trial prep like my boss had been pestering me to do, it would have been for nothing. Win-win!

[hurley1980]

Glad you got all your money back!  This is why I say no to destination weddings. Especially since they are always DH's friends, and if you read the bridezilla thread....most of the fiancees are crazy and the likelihood the wedding goes through is about 50/50.

Did they say why it was off?  Did she find out he was whoring himself out to pay for the wedding costs? 

I'm just nosy and bored today, so don't feel you have to respond.

[shanendoah]

Yay for having no non-recoverable costs!
Good on the groom for making sure to notify people before that 60 day window.
And really good on the groom's family for offering to cover lost costs to their guests.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Aug 18, 2014 15:17:59 GMT -5 HoneyBBQ said:

OMG. My mind baffles at the idea of people going to that expensive of a place for a wedding. And then calling it OFF!! OMG. OMG.

I kind of understand why they did it.  Their family was going to have to invite the entire freaking town if the wedding was at home.  The bride did not want to be put on display, and she didn't want a show like this.  This was an effort to extremely cull the guest list down to those, mostly family members, and a few very close friends.  Since over half the cost was the resort, had we only decided to go for the wedding, we could have cut the costs by half or more.  But it's a LONG way to fly from Seattle for 3 days. 

Glad you got all your money back! This is why I say no to destination weddings. Especially since they are always DH's friends, and if you read the bridezilla thread....most of the fiancees are crazy and the likelihood the wedding goes through is about 50/50.

When I spoke to my friend this morning, it seems that the bride was verging on bridezilla.  A couple weeks, I got an invite to the shower.  With the guests that I had in town, I put it aside and just looked at it again this weekend.  Whoops!  RSVP on 8/15.  As it turned out, bride wanted the shower on the lake and her MOH's family had a house on the lake (as does my friends).  Well, something happened and the MOH is no more, family was disinvited and my friend became the default location for the shower.  She still doesn't know the whole story.

She did say that the bride paid THOUSANDS of $$ for just her engagement photos.  

Did they say why it was off? Did she find out he was whoring himself out to pay for the wedding costs?

No need for anyone to go whoring. 

[Bonny]

What is MOH?

[justme]

Maid of Honor

[TheOtherMe]

I will never consider attending a destination wedding because of the cost.  My nephew wanted to get married in Costa Rica.  All of his side of the family told him to take lots of pictures.  Her parents were coming from Europe so it didn't matter to them if it was here or Costa Rica.  
They had a beautiful wedding here, with their loved ones and friends--one of the biggest days of my nephew's life and my now deceased mom was in attendance.  He says now for that reason alone, he is glad they changed their minds.

[Deleted]

I would love to go to a destination wedding if it was a destination that I wanted to travel to anyway.

OP - why don't you still go to Turks and Caicos and just go to a less expensive resort? 

[alabamagal]

I can't imagine spending $8k to attend a wedding.  Understand that some of the cost was extra for additional days, but WOW!

I don't like destination weddings that require long travel or lots of money.  I did my cousins destination wedding in the N. Ga. mountains.  Brides family was mostly in Atlanta (1 hour drive), my cousins family in FL (8-12 hour drive) and I was lucky for only 4 hour drive.  It was at a great lodge and we rented a 10 bedroom cottage for our group, ~$100 per night.  Wedding was walking distance, it was awesome.

[Deleted]

Aug 19, 2014 9:49:37 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

I can't imagine spending $8k to attend a wedding.  Understand that some of the cost was extra for additional days, but WOW!

I don't like destination weddings that require long travel or lots of money.  I did my cousins destination wedding in the N. Ga. mountains.  Brides family was mostly in Atlanta (1 hour drive), my cousins family in FL (8-12 hour drive) and I was lucky for only 4 hour drive.  It was at a great lodge and we rented a 10 bedroom cottage for our group, ~$100 per night.  Wedding was walking distance, it was awesome.

but she wasn't spending $8k to attend a wedding.  she was spending $8k for 2 people to have a week long vacation at a resort and just happened to be attending a wedding at the same time.

[Sam_2.0]

Aug 18, 2014 17:04:30 GMT -5 midjd said:

I recently had a situation where a case that I was really dragging my feet on (I hated it) ended up settling. So if I had actually done any trial prep like my boss had been pestering me to do, it would have been for nothing. Win-win!

You mean you aren't supposed to do this all the time? I routinely let things sit on my desk for a day or so, especially if the deadline is a ways out. Most of the time the situation resolves itself without me needing to get involved and it makes my job so much easier.

[Sam_2.0]

Mich - sorry the wedding got cancelled. Maybe you all can still take a nice vacation to a destination of your own choosing?

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Aug 19, 2014 9:49:37 GMT -5 alabamagal said:

I can't imagine spending $8k to attend a wedding.  Understand that some of the cost was extra for additional days, but WOW!

I don't like destination weddings that require long travel or lots of money.  I did my cousins destination wedding in the N. Ga. mountains.  Brides family was mostly in Atlanta (1 hour drive), my cousins family in FL (8-12 hour drive) and I was lucky for only 4 hour drive.  It was at a great lodge and we rented a 10 bedroom cottage for our group, ~$100 per night.  Wedding was walking distance, it was awesome.

Had the wedding been in their home town, we would have had to drop almost half of that for a long weekend.  Between flights, car rentals, hotels, restaurants and gift, it still would have been a 'destination' wedding for us. This way, we would have gotten our beach vacation for a little more than we dropped in Mexico for the vacation alone.

Only difference, it would have been in NY in Nov. rather than Turks.  Personally, I'd rather be in Turks in Nov.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

Aug 18, 2014 21:45:55 GMT -5 @singlemominmd said:

I would love to go to a destination wedding if it was a destination that I wanted to travel to anyway.

OP - why don't you still go to Turks and Caicos and just go to a less expensive resort? 

We are still going to go somewhere, just not sure where or when.  When we bought season tickets to various events, we took the wedding date into consideration.  I need to pull out the calendar to plan a time where it does not conflict with other events.  I was going to have to miss a weeks worth of classes to attend the wedding, I'd prefer not to do that for a vacation.

It may be Turks, but there are other places that I would be perfectly happy going too.  For about the same cost/time of flights, I'm looking at Fiji too.