Bridesmaid in charge of bachelorette is now skipping bachelorette altogether
We're getting married in October. We're a queer couple and both me and my fiance are women and we're having a joint bachelorette. Since **last October**, I've assigned one of my bridesmaids, F, as the person in charge of the bachelorette. My fiance has assigned one of their friends, L, to work with F on the bachelorette that will include planning the event, decor, and transportation. They are also in charge of finding an airbnb (some people are out of town) and managing the schedule. This bachelorette is going to take place in NYC three days before our wedding in another city. My fiancé has booked tickets for the entire wedding group to fly to the other city the day after the bachelorette so we can all travel as a group.
It's now 2 months out from our wedding and other than booking an Airbnb for the event, we've not heard anything from either F or L so we put them in a group chat and asked for an update on their current planning. We've previously set a budget of $3k and we'd like to know whether the budget is enough and whether people are having trouble. F said that she's been looking but a lot of things she thought was cool was not open on a Wednesday. Her and L hasn't had a chance to correspond so nothing is planned. That made my fiancé nervous since it's just 2 months out and we're doing this in NYC. My fiancé is worried that places will get booked fast. My fiancé and I decided that since it seems like our friends are too overwhelmed to plan things, we'll just plan a rough itinerary which involves a strip dance lesson, dinner, then going out to the clubs.
We communicated in the group chat that this is the plan and we'd need their assistance in hammering in the details (like booking transport, setting up decor, making rsvp). F then reveals that even though she lives 2 hours away from NYC, she's not going to stay at the Airbnb they've booked and also she's booked a different flight than the flight we got for our wedding party and will be arriving a day later than all of us. We were surprised to find out that she booked herself a different flight and asked why she did that. She said that after I initially told her that I was having trouble filling the group to satisfy a group rate, she booked a ticket that night because tickets were getting expensive. I apologized for not updating her and I did drop the ball on that but I also was not expecting her to book a different ticket that day without asking me first. I expressed that I would like for her to cancel her ticket and fly with us. My fiancé "strongly suggested" that F stay at the Airbnb because if we're planning on going clubbing we're planning to be out late and living 2 hrs away and not staying at the bnb was not ideal. F then said that it "feels very manipulating and controlling" that my fiancé "strongly suggest" she stay at the bnb and that there's no way she's going out till 4am so she should just exit the wedding party completely. The insult really offended my fiancé and I told F that she should not have said that. F apologized for using the words manipulative and controlling but now the damage is done and my fiancé says it's forgiven but not forgotten. I told F that she should calm down and think on things for a couple of days before making any nuclear decisions such as exiting the wedding party.
Now two days later I circled back to ask what F decided about her involvement to the wedding and she told me that she'll be there to support me during the wedding but will not attend the bachelorette stating that "we need some time to repair and wouldn't want it to be uncomfortable". The bachelorette is 3 days before the wedding so I'm confused what repair could happen in that time. If no repair happens by the bachelorette, no repair would happen by our wedding.
Here are some questions for reddit:
- I know I can't force people to join bachelorettes and people have the right to not come (because schedule, financial, etc) even though we specifically asked LAST YEAR for people to consider their ability for these things before accepting the role of a bridesmaid. Am I right in feeling a type of way that F is not coming to a bachelorette that she was suppose to plan?
- Should I remove F from the wedding party completely because I don't see how if "repair" doesn't happen by the bachelorette, that it'd be repaired before the wedding 3 days later.
Edit: It seems like many people are confused about a few things.
- We're not asking people to spend $3k per person. We (the people getting married) are paying for the entire party. We set a budget of $3k and hoped that'd be enough for a a party.
- "Assigned" is probably the wrong word. I "asked" F if she could take this on over a year ago and she said she would. I've also stated plenty of times over the last year that if she's overwhelmed, if this is too much, please let me know and I'll adjust accordingly.
- It seems like many of you are upset that having decor, rsvp dinner, arranging transport (which is a day of party bus from point A to point B) is too much for a bridesmaid. Then what is under the scope of a bridesmaid in terms of the bachelor party? Are you all saying that me and my fiancé should be planning both wedding and bachelorette? We've expressed to our wedding party over a year ago what we expected in terms of time and financial cost and for each person to please consider the ask before they commit. If they can't commit their time/have financial troubles, then be honest they don't have capacity to be in a wedding party and it won't affect our friendship whatsoever.
- We've also not told anyone that they must stay out till a set time. F saying she's not staying out till 4am was a thing she presumed based on what time the club closes, not a thing we've asked.
- to the people who are upset about our destination bachelorette in an expensive city. We know. We live in NYC. It's not destination. We're paying for the entire thing. No wedding party is putting money into this. We're flying the next day to another city for the actual wedding specifically bcoz NYC is very expensive. We've arranged for the group flight and discounted rate.
- the reason the bachelorette is 3 days ahead of the wedding is because we have friends flying in internationally for this. This way they only had to take one trip.