My wine and whine

Roy and I went to a wedding reception last night. There's an interesting tradition in England. There are two parts to the wedding festivities...a day invite and an evening invite. The day invite is for people to come to the dinner onward and the evening invite is for the second tier - people are invited for the dancing and drinks portion. Now, I find it tough. It's basically telling someone that you aren't QUITE good enough friends to come to the whole shindig, but good enough to come to the dance.

Now, one would think, that if you have invited someone to this portion of the evening, that you'd include the drinks - cause you've already told the people that they aren't quite good enough for dinner. But in many cases, including last night, it was a cash bar - so really, people are potentially travelling to go to a disco and pay hotel prices for drinks.

Nothing against the couple who invited us, but I personally think it's rude to expect people you've invited to a party to pay for drinks. Cash bars are WRONG. Especially if you are asked to travel to get to the wedding. This couple did provide Pimms & Lemonade for free...but it's something you can only have a few of cause it's so sweet. And personally, I like my wine...and to whine about this option. If you cannot afford to pay for the entire evening (or at least until a certain hour, like 11pm), then you ought to do something else - don't invite as many people...have it in a different venue...don't buy certain items. As a guest to a party, I should be treated to nice things, not have to pay for them.

So Roy and I decided to think of this as a night out of town. We happened to meet up with friends there, got to dance and stayed at a lovely hotel, the Falaise House. We stayed in their smallest room, which ended up being lovely! And the breakfast, which was included, was very yummy. The hosts were a wonderful and caring couple. It's a place I would suggest.