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  • Friends generous offer to make invites not so generour

  • Posted by Princess Noopy

My friend suggested she made my wedding invitations to help me save some money. I was planning on buying them from Tesco’s for about £35 so said I would love her to make them to save me even more money. I bought all the materials, and she made 50 invites. She then rang me and said she had loads of cards and things left over, and did I want thank you cards. I said yes. I asked her loads of times to give me an idea of the cost, but she kept shrugging the question off. She then announced she was going to Australia for two years and I realised she might have lots of planning to do for that trip, so suggested, if she did not have time to make them, I could find the invitations somewhere else, however she would not hear of it. Once she had made all the cards, she said she could make £2.80 each at a craft fare, but as I am a friend, she will charge me £150 for the lot. I was shocked, as I had bought all the materials and felt like I was buying my own products back. She was, at that point, short of money so I believe she though she could make money off me. I could not say anything at the time as this conversation took place on New Years Eve, and it was inappropriate. The next thing I knew, she was heading to Australia earlier than planned, and the opportunity to discuss payment again did not come up. We had planned that I pay her in about July 2008, and so I acted like a coward and thought I could ignore the issue until about then, however she then asked for the money early. I could not afford it, and explained this to her, so she arranged to borrow the money off her mum – clearly if I had known she was doing this I would have stopped her, but the plan was made without my involvement. This happened in January, and last week she contacted me asking for the money. I then informed her that I felt £150 was too high for 100 cards. She is now very angry told me that it took her nearly a week to make all the cards, and that £150 is not too much to ask for a weeks work. The cards were not even finished; they were blank inside so I had to write in them all. I have spent time helping her in the past, am I wrong to think it is unfair to charge your friends for your time? I am very hurt, as I do not think she remembers she was doing me a favour. Am I wrong? What should I do? I do not want to lose a friendship, but I do not know whether this is the sort of person, I want to remain friends with. Help!

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Friends generous offer to make invites not so generour

Wow, I can't believe your so called friend has acted in this way. I'm assuming that you have the money already earmarked for something else? You need to remind her that you originally bought all of the materials and so £150 is too much to pay for 100 invites, especially when you were going to pay £35. You could buy them made up and inserts from certain companies for £150 anyway. Friendships are important and its not nice to think that friends take advantage, but it does sounds as though your friend is doing this. I would never dream of charging my friends for something like this, and luckily I have friends who are very creative and are helping me with dressmaking, invites, jewelrey, etc. and they don't expect a penny, in fact we have had some great girly nights in while we have been doing this. As other posts have said, if she does not at least try to see this from your point of view then is she a true friend? I wish you luck with this as it is a tricky situation. If you do remain friends then please remember this for any future offers she may make!

[Modified by: lnzk9 on May 25, 2008 10:31 PM]

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[Modified by: lnzk9 on May 25, 2008 10:32 PM]

Posted by lnzk9
May 25, 2008 10:30 PM
Friends generous offer to make invites not so generour

Eek, tricky situation to be in! Definitely tell her what you thought would happen at the outset and try and let her know how hurt it's made you. To be perfectly honest if she doesn't understand and at least try to see it from your point of view she's not really a proper friend and you'd be better off without her. You don't offer help to someone and then throw it back at them with a price tag attached... not fair at all.
Hope it all goes ok! x

Posted by m121
May 07, 2008 11:23 PM
Friends generous offer to make invites not so generour

Your not being unfair, I would be devastated if one of my friends did that to me. I think you need to talk her through your feelings, starting right at the beginning. Just tell her straight, she will probably calm down quicker that way.

If she is your true friend, she will understand and you wont lose her (it might be a bit of a sore subject for a while but it should be ok in the end)

Good luck, hope it all works out & congratulations :-)

Posted by Emski-ham
April 30, 2008 07:59 PM
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