One of my oldest buddies is getting married this summer. Instead of a bachelor party, his brother decided to throw a bachelor weekend 5 hours away in the Finger Lakes. Eight people are invited including the guy getting married. The groom's brother arranged everything, and none of us were consulted about any of the plans. He just sent out an email last night with the three day itinerary. The way it's looking, he wants $300 from everyone for the house he rented. He booked a farm tour, a winery tour, and a brewery/beer garden tour which we will all have to pay him for as well. Then there's the booze that need to be bought, food for the weekend, strip club, and anything else we end up doing. I'm figuring the weekend will end up costing $450 a person minimum. I'm anticipating to spend closer to $600 because we have to pay for all the groom's stuff all weekend on top of it.
3 of the 7 people invited are pretty much broke. They are nearing 30 and still live at home taking home less than $300 a week after taxes. 1 of them (a groomsman) is backing out, and the other 2 couldn't get Friday off from work, so they're only coming up for Saturday night. Now we're running into some trouble, and truth be told, I'm kind of pissed about it. The guy who is no longer coming will not be paying for any of the stuff reserved for him, and the 2 guys coming up for one night are already talking about how they don't think it's fair for them to have to pay for two nights in the house or the activities they'll be missing on Friday night and Saturday morning.
I guess I'm irritated because this weekend is now probably going to end up costing me and one of the other guys going (one of my best friends) closer to a grand each. Because of our jobs, we tend to bail out the group whenever something like this happens. Had the groom's brother reached out to any of us prior to planning the weekend, all of this would have been made clear. But now everything is reserved or already paid for, and there is nowhere near enough money heading north to pay for it all. And to top it off, the groom is having 3 people in his wedding party either not showing at all, or only partially participating because his brother priced them out of the weekend.