The title of this post may be a bit cheesy, but it’s true: travel rewards and weddings go together like peanut butter and jelly.
If only I had known this the past few years when my wife and I attended as many as 9 weddings in any given Summer.
A few weekends ago my wife and I were at a wedding and one thing we were discussing with the other guests at our table was what wedding was your favorite and what wedding was your least favorite.
I won’t get into too many details about it, but I immediately thought of a particular wedding as my least favorite. This wedding was three hours north of where we lived. My wife went up earlier than me because she was the personal attendant, so I drove up the day of. We went back and forth about whether to drive home that night or to stay at the hotel. We ended up choosing to drive back, which meant we got home at about 4 in the morning .
While there were definitely (many) other things that made this wedding the worst one I’ve attended – including a girl hitting on my wife (I wish I was joking) – it wouldn’t have been quite as bad if I had a hotel room to retreat to early on in the evening.
If I had travel rewards like I do now it would have been a no-brainer to book the room. It would have made everything easier. But the thing is, I didn’t have travel rewards so I was faced with whether to spend close to $200 for a room at this resort or to drive in the wee hours of the morning.
Since my wife and I both signed up for the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard and subsequently received the 40,000 mile bonus (which equates to $400) to spend on ANY travel-related expense, we happily booked hotels for out-of-town weddings without thinking twice about it.
Even better is if you are splitting a room with another couple. We are doing this for an out-of-town wedding this month and it will mean not only do I get to use my card to comp the two night hotel stay, I will actually get cash from the other couple for their portion of the costs. Not a bad deal if you ask me!
Looking back I’m surprised at the sheer number of out-of-town weddings I’ve attended. I’ve gone to:
- Maui, Hawaii
- Some rural part of Iowa
- Brainerd, Minnesota
- Madison, Wisconsin
Renting hotel rooms and, in some cases, booking flights, can get expensive. It all adds up and I really wish I had known about travel rewards years ago so I could have gotten parts of these trips paid for.
If you want to make traveling for weddings, holidays, or any other event easier on your wallet, consider signing up for the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard. The annual fee is waived for the first year and you only need to charge $3,000 within the first 90 days to get the 40,000 mile – or $400 – bonus. Remember, this can be spent on any travel-related expense such as hotels, flights, etc.
Remember, if you get a significant other to enroll it means you have $800 to spend on travel. That’s a significant number!
Have you had to deal with out-of-town weddings that take a bite out of your wallet? Have you ever missed a wedding because you couldn’t afford – or justify – the travel expense?
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I once was invited toa wedding in South Korea. Didn’t make that one as I was still in college and there was just no affording that trip. They did stream their wedding live over the internet so that was pretty fun getting to watch from home.
Great job using credit card rewards for wedding travel. That’s one way to make it affordable! =)
We had to deal with stuff like this quite a bit when we were first married. Thankfully most weddings our local for us now. Nice work on using your rewards.
I wish I had gotten into travel rewards earlier! Most weddings are local for us but we did attend one in Indiana…it probably wouldn’t have been worth it to go if I had to pay for me and my wife, but with the rewards, we got free tickets. Flew in Saturday for the wedding and flew back home Sunday night…I guess we could have stayed longer but it was hard for my wife to take time off from work.
We’ve never had an out-of-town wedding. I guess we’ve been lucky in that area! :)
I had a wedding in the caribbean two years ago that cost us a pretty penny and ended up being the worst wedding I’ve been to. The funny thing is I always wanted to attend a destination wedding but after that experience I changed my mind. Not only was it costly but the couple chose to do the wedding during hurricane season and we were struck with a tropical storm the weekend of the wedding. As you can imagine, torrential rains and floods every where is not my idea of a good time.
Oh my goodness, we’ve been to (and been in) SO many weddings over the last few years. I think we’re just at that age when everyone is getting married. I do love weddings and I’m happy to celebrate with our friends, but it really does eat into the travel budget. You’re wise to use rewards!
Yeah that can be quite a painful decision to make if you are on a tight budget! There’s not doubt about it, having that travel rewards option makes life a lot easier!
I did my share of weddings back in the day, and it would have really been nice to have somewhere to stay. I remember sleeping on a few couches for the really far away ones, and I remember taking an 8 hour drive up and back within 24 hours!
I’ll be honest, I’m not a fan of weddings, at all. They require so much money, even if you’re just a guest! We have one coming up this fall and it’s a few hours away, so we’ll probably end up staying over. Luckily my husband works for a hotel, so we can probably get a good discount through that somewhere nearby.
Holly at ClubThrifty Definitely! It really makes it easier to commit to out-of-town weddings, and avoid driving in the middle of the night.
FrugalRules Yeah I’ve had a lot of out-of-town weddings the past few years. It’s slowed down a bit recently but it’s always nice to have the rewards to use when they do come up.
Andrew LivingRichCheaply Once you start getting rewards sometimes the most difficult thing is finding time to use them. That’s great you were able to use your rewards for the Indiana wedding!
SenseofCents Wow that’s crazy Michelle! I guess it’s not that crazy actually….it really just depends on how many friends have moved away or marry someone from out of town.
Practical Cents Yikes. I bet they choose hurricane season because it was cheaper. I think destination weddings can be fun, but only if you expect a lot of people to say no. It’s hard to ask people to pay so much just to attend your wedding.
Mrs. Frugalwoods We’ve had a ton of weddings the past few years and continue to have a decent number every Summer and Fall. I imagine it will eventually slow down, but there’s still a lot of single friends out there who haven’t gotten hitched yet.
Beachbudget It really does make the decision a LOT easier and the trip a lot more affordable. If you have a hotel room for two nights comped by your rewards it really helps the bottom line!
Eyesonthedollar For an upcoming wedding I know a lot of people are staying at a friend of the bride’s house. It’s going to literally be 20 people in a room sleeping on the floor. I’ll pass on that – free hotel sounds a lot more desirable!
I guess I am at that weird stage where I don’t have many weddings to attend. Most of my friends are married and our kids are too young to get married. :) But I do remember those days when it seemed like we were getting tons of wedding invitations and it does get expensive very quickly. I can definitely see how travel rewards can ease that financial burden.
TheWriteBudget Nice, I hope you do get a discount! Yeah weddings can be really expensive. I don’t mind them, though, and really enjoy them if they are close friends of mine.
ShannonRyan I suppose wedding invites come in waves. Some Summers we have 8-10 weddings which is a bit intense. I prefer having only one per month, which has been the pattern this year.
This is true! I’m at the point where weddings will probably start trickling in. I booked a flight for a wedding on my rewards card last month, and paid for my mom’s as well, and she gave me the money for it. Win win. This wasn’t the case years ago. Both my cousins got married several hours away, and we had to stay overnight. The hotel stay wasn’t cheap, and as a bridesmaid for one, I had to stay 2 nights! I’m entirely grateful family helped out, as I was still a broke college student who couldn’t really afford it. It is a tough choice – I’ve decided I’ll probably only travel for family and close friends.
JourneytoSaving Yeah I really enjoy having the travel rewards because it makes me enjoy the hotel even more. It cost me “nothing” and it’s honestly nice to get away every once in a while.