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Noone thinks being invited to the evening reception is second best. It's accepted that there's a limit to how many can attend the main event. It's not about important the reality of the relationship.
I've only once been invited to the evening party. I travelled an hour an half to a crap wedding where I hardly knew anyone and a paying bar. He only invited me out of obligation and I only went because I felt I ought to too.
I hate weddings... long hours of standing around waiting for pictures to be taken, the meals are always the same (bar my best mates wedding which had steak cooked to perfection... they are divorced now) I much prefer the evening reception, no small talk with relatives of the bride and groom that you barely know
These days I would treat it as a compliment. People accept my crazy fun loving drinking self where there is a chance for revelling and craziness in the evening but they don't want to see me at the bar drinking all day. Especially if Aunty Pat has to be served regularly just to keep her standing up.
The way you interpret the wedding thing isn't accurate, invitations are not based on how much you are liked or how important you are there is no A or B list. My take is that being a guest can cost a fortune - new outftit, travel, accommodation, time off work, gifts, hen/stag party etc.. (4 weddings over over summer can result in no summer holiday). Being invited to the evening part is seen as a kind gesture by the couple getting married to be part of their celebation without having to fork out lots of dosh (on both sides). You make it sound as if couples are being cheap by not spalshing out for everyone. The evening bit is for extended family, work colleagues, old school friends and people you don't see often. It is also the time for everyone to let their hair down (and the punch ups, family feuds and a quickie with a best man/bridesmaid to start). There is a bit of a running joke on wedding reception DJ's (see Peter Kay monologue on weddings). This it all a totally accepted custom in the UK which everyone understands and no one has any problem with.
This description is dead on...unless you know you've done something to merit a snub - you actually see it as being at gge best bit of the night...plus, British party hard at weddings, and you often get food kate in evening.
I have a huge problem with it. Weddings are not supposed to last 10-12 hours until everyone is tired and fed up. There should be one ceremony and one reception and people should be invited to both. Having 2 receptions is a stupid idea which has only developed in the last 20-30 years and I can assure you that lots of people feel miffed if only invited to the evening. The trouble is that weddings have become too elaborate and expensive so the bridal couple cannot afford to host all their friends and family for a whole day of merrymaking.
The wedding evening 'do' is a party for the couple to celebrate with friends. Older family members may not be up to dancing into the night and most likely would have had enough after the reception anyway. The time gap between the ceremony/reception and the evening do allows the couple to 'get changed and take a shower'. (You know what I mean.)
Best wedding I ever went to we were among a large group of friends who were invited to the ceremony and the evening reception, but the meal was family only. During the photographs after the ceremony the bridesmaids came round with a pub crawl list to take us from there to the evening reception via a restaurant, and being members of CAMRA and therefore well known in most of the pubs on the list, they'd arranged a discount for us too. We had a great time!
I agree totally about the wedding invite. We chose a decent hotel venue (and as I was putting up a fair sum and didn't want to bankrupt the in--laws so we chose a Sunday for the venue and saving money which raised at least one comment from an elderly aunt about who gets married on a Sunday?) But I was surprised and frustrated when the inevitable not enough invites for our family and friends problem arose. My wife's friend had a young child but my wife preferred her other elder friend and daughter who she felt closer too. So the younger more attractive friend with child was offered the evening invite, along with our mutual ghost hunting friends who would have been brilliant in the day but having only seen them dressed in black casual wear and rock t shirts probably weren't over fussed they had to come out only once dusk came. As the wedding drew near, the elder friend and daughter decided they didn't want to come out all day to a wedding and cancelled. To be honest, I would have put them as evening guests in the first place. Another couple cancelled due to other committments and so I suggested that we look for other guests and my wife had to grovel and text her friend for an upgrade to the whole day and bring her young son who was welcome with all the other children. She also spent all the time at the meal flirting with a work colleague of mine so personally, I was happy that everyone was happy. I can talk about it now without fear of offending anyone because we are now separated after 10 years of marriage but I can honestly say we did have a great day.
On the subject of weddings, evening reception invites are not just about saving money for the hosts. Not everyone is necessarily able to or feels comfortable going to the whole event. There may be logistical problems such as work or kids.
I think one factor behind the gap year being more of a thing in the UK, is the intensity involved in obtaining the A-Level grades required to get into university plus the GCSEs before that. This means that people like the idea of a break before starting their degrees.
I think that getting into university in the US is pretty intense too. I think that the gap year is more cultural, going back to the idea that travel broadens the mind and perhaps even the idea of the "grand tour". It also used to be quite common to do university after the two year national service.
the depth of knowledge covered in A-levels is equivalent to US undergrad college degrees, e.g. premed in US is the same bredth, depth and content that a 16-17 year old covers in UK A level biology, chemistry, maths, psychology A levels. Then after Alevels and after pre-med both groups go into university to study medicine.
In Scotland, in the eighties, we had to buy our own pens, pencils and in secondary school we used our own folders and A4 paper. We certainly got jotters provided by the school at primary and for some secondary subjects. If the jotters were supplied by the school you covered them with old posters or wallpaper, to protect them. Same with the textbooks which the school supplied. We had to buy school uniform as well. The only thing that was prescribed was the uniform - there was a specific tie and blazer, and rules about the colour of skirts/trousers/tights/socks and their length. Girls were not allowed to wear trousers except in very bad weather, and had to wear skirts on or below the knee! Our school wasn't really strict though, they had a few varieties in blazer as the ones from cheaper shops were made of different material, and they only insisted on the wearing of a tie or blazer, not both. They would, however, send girls home to change for not following the skirt rule....
Reference Gap years. There used to be exams for Oxford and Cambridge taken in the term after the A levels (third year sixth form) this meant that from New Year to the start of the university team in September October was free for travelling or working. These exams no longer exist but the gap year persists.
The tiered wedding system also comes from the fact many venues (such as 800-year-old churches), simply cannot hold that many people. In America, it's the person with the legal certification who can marry you; in the UK (England at least being the only country I can speak for,) it's the venue that holds the licence to hold the ceremony. If we switched to an American system, and were able to get married just anywhere, I feel that the tiered system won't be *as* common.
Renting your home used to be much more common for working-class folk. My father was one of six siblings, and the only one who ever owned his home. During the Thatcher era it became Tory party dogma to encourage home ownership, and the vast local authority housing stock was sold off to sitting tenants at giveaway prices, which is one reason there is now a desperate shortage of affordable rented property. High inflation meant that mortgages rapidly dwindled as a percentage of household expenditure, and houses could be sold for many times their cost, so ownership was seen as a hedge against inflation. Obviously it isn't, as if you sell, you need to buy something else at an inflated price!
then you have a flat or house which you can't afford to repair as well. There really needs to be more social housing, selling council housing was a disaster. When I was in my twenties there was hardly any private rentals in my area, except student housing (and students didn't want working room-mates as it messed with their council tax exemption) and social housing was near to impossible to get. I bought a flat really cheaply but in the end I couldn't afford updates and repairs. Home ownership worked when there were jobs for life, but that was a short period of time.
I've never owned my own home. I've lived-in in jobs in privately owned properties, but have always lived in rented houses and flats, other than that. (Social housing who have rented properties to me were local councils,or, as now, a housing association which employed some of its tenants, and had purchased vast swathes of ex-council social housing properties (whole estates, mixed housing of flats, Prefabs, houses etc).
My great-grandmother, who was of Welsh origin, told me that girls used to have trusseau teas, where female relatives and friends would bring homemade bedding, curtains, knitwear, napiery, and haberdashery items to build the betrothed girl's trusseau. My two oldest kids, who attended school in DC for the six yrs I worked in the US, were bemused by the use of pencils in class, as opposed to fountain pens or ballpoint pens, and with the use of multi-choice tests rather than essays or narrative questions. They were grades 7-12 and 5-10 back then.
As weddings are actually public events anyone can just pop into a church wedding if they are just passing by. Invitations to the wedding breakfast (I.e. the meal immediately following the ceremony) is usually for close friends and family. The evening reception is usually for more people and would have a larger invitation list to include work colleagues and acquaintances.
Weddings are expensive so to keep costs down, especially at the reception, is to keep number down to family and very close friends with the evening party being all your friends. The evening party also allows the bride & groom (or bride & bride or groom & groom) to change out of their wedding clothes into something more comfortable. When I was at school, we had to provide our own pens, pencils, ruler, rubber, but writing paper was provided by the school
You're right that weddings here have frequently been all day celebrations. So, traditionally you would have the ceremony around lunchtime followed by a meal (wedding breakfast). Usually this is a smaller gathering that you would invite close family and very close friends to this, so around 50 people maybe. Then in the evening, it's the party style reception where other friends and work colleagues etc. are invited. There's usually a buffet and a DJ or sometimes a band. No one is offended (in fact sometimes relieved) to be invited to the party only. Until recent years, wedding ceremonies had to take place before 6pm, but now they can be at any time of day, so very late afternoon or early evening weddings with just 1 reception and guest list are becoming more popular 🙂
Growing up in the UK, being a kid, and getting excited to go and buy certain school supplies. My mum and dad had limited money, but I still had to buy swim kits, ink pens, notebooks, and a school bag, etc. at Woolworths, back in the day.
From the UK perspective, you need to distinguish between hunting (dressed in red coats on horseback chasing foxes with hounds) from shooting (shooting game birds, dressed in Barbour jackets). Both are upper-middle-class and upper-class sports. And of course, there's also deer stalking in the Scottish Highlands.
Hunting foxes with hounds has also been illegal for over a decade. Not that the toffs pay much attention to that though, as they chase a poor fox across the countryside to watch it get ripped apart by hounds. :(
You are quite correct in pointing out the different interpretation of hunting in the US and UK. Although (fox) hunting is traditionally associated with the upper class, it also attracted a large number of farming types - often farm workers - either as followers or on horseback as hunt staff. Similarly, although grouse shooting and deer hunting are pursuits of the very wealthy, rough shooting across farmland is very popular with country people from all backgrounds. (I neither hunt nor shoot but have lived amongst these communities.)
@@StockportJambo Where I am its a seanted bag with a sent the hunting dogs are attracted too and trained to 'hunt". The bag is then dragged around a chosen route either the day before or a few days before if you have experianced hounds (it lets the hunt avoid those fields farmers who don't give permission for the hunt to cross their land). The route is miles long with loop backs and false 'dead ends' to make it interesting and so that the hunt lasts a full day. Only the Huntmaster knows the route the bag was dragged, thats so the dogs are still truly leading the way by their nose, and so the riders still feel the excitment of riding into the unknown. No animals are harmed and no guns or knives are needed.
@@phoebus007 Yeah, I agree, I think there are different perceptions of fox hunting/grouse shooting/deer stalking from 'getting a rabbit for the pot.' I wonder if maybe the second has become less popular as gun laws tightened up? wee humourous digression, my Granddad was the head groom on an estate. He hated when the local hunt took place, not because foxes got killed but as he would always find that some of his brushes and tack got stolen🤣
Your comments on hunting were made without considering the history and geography of the two countries. America has much more public access lands and species of wild animals which only a few generations ago were hunted for regular food sources where as in the UK you need to go back three or four centuries to find regular hunting for food. Even that long ago the vast majority of land was owned and managed by what is called the Landed Gentry. The hunting that survives In the UK is based on pest eradication (fox hunting) which was made into a sport for rural communities, or artificial rearing of partridges, grouse, deer etc to be shot for sport on the private estates. There are no large wild animals which could be hunted in the UK.
In the UK I think you are normally expected to supply your own pens, pencils, rulers and calculators, but normally things like exercise books are supplied. Gap years are a privilege of the upper middle class. If your poor you just have to slum it and move straight from school to uni.
The way British weddings go largely depends on whether the couple being married attends church regularly (and to some extent on the size of that church). If the couple is part of a church, the wedding ceremony will likely be the largest part of the day (unless the church building is very small), with an open invitation to everyone in the church to attend, and with anyone invited to the reception or evening do also being invited to the ceremony, and potentially some people being explicitly invited to the ceremony but not anything else (if this is the case, there may be some refreshments or a buffet provided at the church for everyone before people head off to the reception, often held elsewhere). So the size of the gathering through the day goes, large, small, medium. In this case, guests specifically invited and travelling a long way may get priority to be invited to the whole day. Most weddings I've been to have followed this pattern, and a few times when I've been in the group that is at the ceremony and evening do, a number of us have gone to a pub in between to get a bite to eat and relax and chat. However, if the wedding isn't in a church (or potentially if the wedding is in a small chapel), the wedding ceremony will likely be in a smaller room that the reception and evening do, so the size of the gathering will go small, medium, large. Only been to a few of these though.
What I have noticed - as someone who has many American friends - is that charity card are rare, I have only had a charity Christmas card from one person in the US, and it was always for UNISEF. Cards I get from the UK are almost all charity cards and I always send them, from charities I support.
Technically and legally a wedding itself is a public event, so just turn up..... pissed and gate crash the reception lol. It’s also more like, you only really invite close family, relatives and close close friends to the main event then you invite all your friends to the evening
As a Brit, I've heard of bridal showers, probably from US TV, but I just assumed they were another name for hen nights/bacholerette parties, or maybe a specific form of them (eg an afternoon in the house rather than an evening on a bar). It's definitely news to me that American brides can have both!
@@bowlingbill9633 correct weddings are a load of utter shite, most of the people there you don't like or know ,better going to the Boozer with your mates
We do have back to school week. Schools would provide everything in primary school (at least my school did), but in secondary school we do had tty buy our own pens, pencils, glue scissors, etc. And the schools provided the books and art supplies
You express my thoughts regarding school supplies shopping exactly! Although the school supply Superbowl is a perfect fit! I love it! I personally always was one of few students with a small personalized mini stapler. Always.
We had 90 in the day and with the evening guests it was 150. The venue simply wasn't big enough for thar many people to eat. Plus it would have been double the cost. Going to the evening doo means that you can dress more casual too rather than formal wedding attire.
You do have school supplies you might need to get in uk but it’s usually not as much & usually it’s more in secondary school than primary school. For instance I got a new back & pencil case every year +in secondary school (years 7 to 11) we had to bring out own pencils, pens, colouring pencils, erasers, glue sticks, paper clips (if we used them), tipex/white out, ruler, sharpener. Then if for out gcse we had say chosen ART we had to puppy our own art book, pens, oil pastils, chalk pastils, and a few other art supplies. But yes things like the work books, binders, PVA glue, pain was always supplied by the school.
Our main "school supply" ritual was before starting a new school, the ritual of buying your first School Uniform... (as we all wear them in the UK). I still remember the day I bought mine, my parents took me to the approved supplier, said the name of the school and almost with miliary precision each item was placed on the sales desk and placed in a badged "kit bag"...
Many people get married at Registry Offices which have strictly limited numbers. I have 6 brothers and sisters all.of whom were married, my wife is an only child. I had my mother, father and his wife, my wife had her mother and her aunt, and her two closest cousins. The limit at our actual wedding was 20, which was in the morning. We were stuffed with immediate family members only. Many of my wife's more distant cousins were miffed and refused to come to the evening because they couldn't come to the ceremony. Dozens of my cousins came to the evening, none to the ceremony. There were 250 to 300 at the evening reception, which went on until two in the morning. People loved our 'Black' wedding cake, Chocolate and Cointreau. And the wedding was spoken about for years. Oh and it was cheap, relatively. In the UK the ceremony is the boring bit. Everyone wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible so the fun can begin.
I would say most people in the UK would think renting is throwing money away. If you are not going to move regularly (the cost of moving/duties is very expensive) then it is very likely your house value will increase but your mortgage payments are locked in, unlike rents which will increase. So not only will you house be worth much more than you paid for it over time, you have security of knowing your monthly payments won't be put up. Of course house prices can go down but it is rare and long term you will probably still make a profit. There is limited housing stock and therefore always a demand for certain kinds of houses. Of course you do have the expense of maintaining your home if you own it.
In secondary school we had to bring our own supplies, except for paper/books. That was provided. But pens, scientific calculators etc - all had to be provided by you
@@dianeferguson3555 Yeah, there'd be the odd child that would forget to bring a pen or whatever and you'd just borrow one from the teachers whose lessons you were in. But you were encouraged to have your own, and I know some teachers in my school would dish out demerits if you didn't bring equipment more than once in a week.
@@glastonbury4304 The annoying thing about the geometry sets is they'd include items you were never taught to use. Like this triangles. I get what they're for, but they weren't half a waste of money.
Most British don't see it as A or B team , when it comes too weddings. It tends to be we don't want to exclude anyone, so we invite those closest to us for the wedding, and those who weren't but are still close are invited to the reception after.
I was invited to the evening wedding reception by a friend... I went to school with him from reception to secondary, and we were in most classes together. After school, we didn't keep in contact with him. Any how, I see him about 10 years after we had finished school. He kept saying that we were "Vic Rejects" (we both went to a private school for a couple of years, but we were moved to a public school as we were not smart enough). He kept saying how good it was to see me again, blah, blah. He invited me to his stag party and wedding, and kept saying how happy he was to see me, etc. How happy he would be if I came to his wedding, etc. I was like sure, ok, no problem I will go. What he didn't tell me was that I was invited to the post reception party. I showed up early and saw everyone seated in the marquee eating - I couldn't find my place. Then, I saw his dad and he was like oh you shouldn't be here at this time, you should be later. I was like, oh, ok. So... What should I do? He just found me a chair and space at a table - they were pretty much on the last food courses at this point. I was so confused that day. I thought that I was going to the ceremony, or at least the dinner. He never said to me that it was just the post reception party. I had no problem not being invited to the wedding or the dinner, I was just surprised, as he was making it out that I would be going to his wedding.
If you have one I'm your city check out Smiggle it has some of the coolest school supplies. Also the second half of the wedding I find is more for the friends you want to party with, where as the first half is calmer with speeches and conversation.
It’s not the A team and B team, it’s all about size of venue limits (remember everything smaller in the UK) and cost of the wedding as it is usually wedding and meal (this is where the venue and cost limitations are mostly, but it could also be the venue where the wedding is as it is more than likely not in a church these days and small places are cosier). Then in the evening is the party where there are less likely to be size limitations as it is usually held in a different location or bigger outdoor space possibly
You are weirdly ranking something that doesn't get ranked ie. weddings. In all honesty people don't want to go to the ceremony - it's long, boring with uncomfortable seats. We just want to get to the party and start drinking
One thing I'd like to know more about is how local government works - probably because I work in local government in the UK! Is there an equilivent in the US? Who empties the bins and decides who can build houses where, and inspects restaurants to make sure they're safe, etc etc etc?
Every wedding bar 1 I have been to the wedding & reception. The one wedding I didn’t get invited to the wedding I was a plus one for my boyfriend & only the family had been invited to the wedding & all the friends+ their partners, kids etc were only invited to the reception. Gap yearsi are usually more common after a year or two in university than when they leave school because most people that leave school early then go on to college as you have to be in education till age 18. Iv heard uk bridge so-called their hen do a bridal shower. Not every brit wants alcohol, raunchy behaviour etc as their before wedding party. When I get married I just want to take my mum & a few best friends to a spa & have afternoon tea for my before wedding party. The reason hunting un uk is seen as more so for the upper class is because originally land belong to the upper class & then people that owned the land owned the animals that lived on the land. So hunting became a rich mans sport because they owned the animals to hunt. Still it’s more wealthy people that own land to hunt on.
UK parent here. School uniforms here isn't a shopping experience - there are a few nominated suppliers in your area, and you have to order them before a deadline to have them ready to pick up before the following school year starts. That said, thanks to schools having their budgets slashed by up to 40% by the Tories, you're expected to pay for books & even pens and paper... so it is a thing more and more that there is 'back to school' shopping like you get in the US.
I think that's pretty much only the case in England (not sure about Wales). I'm in Scotland and state schools have no restrictions on where uniforms can be bought from, so it's generally supermarket shirts and trousers/skirts and the school tie at high school, and a branded polo shirt for primary, usually worth plenty of second hand ones for sale via the Parent Council (our equivalent of the Board of Governors).
@@vikkispence Maybe so... I'm Scottish, but lived the last 20 years in England, so all my school experience as a parent has been down here. It's unimpressive.
Nobody fights to get on the A list at weddings, we’re more likely relieved. Also if the wedding is at a church anyone can come and see it, it’s a public building. So you can and I have, go to the ceremony and then go to the evening do.
My daughter got married a couple of weeks ago. Because of Covid restrictions it was just the two immediate families (13 in total) and it worked really well. My daughter said she would not have wanted the post-May 17th rule of 30 because that would have meant choosing between friends and wider family.
Does anyone remember the wedding hoy oot. This was a common tradition in the North of England when I was a kid. ( Sadly gone now) There would be a crowd of kids waiting for the bride to emerge from her home, When the wedding entourage were all safely seated in the cars the chant would begin. Hoy oot, hoy oot , and it would go on until the bridal party responded. The windows would be rolled down and the kids would jostle for position. ( Sharp elbows and strength were needed here) then it would happen, showers of silver coins and pennies specially saved for the occasion would be thrown to the crowd. A half crown, a two bob bit, or a shilling would be like winning the lottery, it would be a right scrum with many a scraped knee. Your pennies and sixpences would then be spent in the sweet shop. It would all happen again when they came out of the church. back in the cars to go to their reception. There was usually a bigger crowd, and the chanting hoy oot would start again. Happy happy days.
I think yr being a bit unfair about this wedding thing. Though it depends just how much money the brides father can spend..(so it might be a class thing too). But surely you invite all the old people, the maiden aunts and second cousins and such who claim family privleges and who will sit down and listen to speaches. Then in the evening you invite every last mate you can think of, the old people go home and you have a riot.
As well as bridal showers not being a thing in the UK, baby showers are also not common. Friends and family tend to visit bringing gifts individually, not in a formal gathering like in the US.
I'm not sure I've ever been invited to just the evening reception without also being invited to the wedding. I could see that happening if the wedding venue is very small, maybe a registry office. Generally though invites are either for the full day, or the ceremony plus evening reception. Church weddings particularly are often also open to people who don't receive invites at all - members of the church who just decide to turn up, or casual friends who find out about the wedding via Facebook. They just go to the service, maybe hang around for drinks in the church afterwards or watch the photos being taken, then leave.
I got married in a registry office and people just turned up. We had lunch with immediate family afterwards and then hired a venue for a party in the evening where all friends and family were invited.
There’s a terminological difference, reflecting social attitudes. Traditionally, in England and Scotland, ‘hunting’ was done on horseback (hence some horses are known as ‘hunters’), and not usually in pursuit of food animals. By contrast, the pursuit of potential food (deer, grouse, etc.) is known as ‘shooting’. Those lower down the social scale were more likely to engage in rabbiting (the quarry) or ferreting (one means of catching the prey), and this often amounted legally to poaching. (Hunting animals with hounds and horses is now illegal, and has been replaced by drag hunting, where the dogs pursue a non-living scented trail.)
"Hunting animals with hounds and horses is now illegal, and has been replaced by drag hunting, where the dogs pursue a non-living scented trail." You mean pretend to follow a scented trail then accidentally kill a fox or a cat.
School supplies: In secondary school (middle and high school) this is indeed a thing in the UK. Seen as a chore and stores like WH Smith’s have complete packs with everything you need, so it’s a very quick trip to the store to fulfil the need. We just don’t get excited about it.
I can remember as a schoolgirl in the 70s and 80s doing exactly what you are talking about as my local comprehensive school only supplied the exercise books and text books, whatever else was required we bought ourselves such as pens, pencils colouring pens and all kinds of stationary things, I loved shopping for them in the big stores and choosing what I liked. In the UK hunting was banned at the end of the 20th century so it is illegal to go fox hunting in the UK at all.
School supplies vary, if you are in a state school then I think most stuff is supplied but in a private school (called public school in England no idea why) you have to buy loads of stuf including books.
In the uk you do gcse at 16 a level at 18 university at 21 - 22, finishing at 24 (some degrees take longer, architecture is 7 years). In the USA you graduate at 18 then you do college unfocused for 2 years then 2 years done so 22.
Hunting is for the most part illegal in the UK. School shopping - try going into clarks shoe shop in August. Weddings in the UK are very difficult to generalise on. Take a look at Hindu Weddings and you'll find something very different.
Just my opinion, but I think the reason for sending a card is it is a more personal and thought out effort to wish someone a happy birthday or anniversary, etc. I absolutely love your videos and hearing your thoughts and experiences in England. :-)
When I was a child in England (decades ago!), sending greeting cards for Christmas and birthdays was pretty much universal, but commercial cards for other occasions were considered to be a sign of creeping Americanisation!
You don't invite people to the wedding ceremony, that has to be a public event to be a valid marriage, in order to allow for objections, anybody can go.
Quite bizarre reaction to being invited to the evening do, but not the wedding and wedding breakfast. Its no slight, close family and close friends to the main event all other buddies to the evening celebrations. Weddings are expensive, its that simple, this is way we do it.. 10 years still got lot of stuff get use to and fully alcamatise..
Our church held 60, our reception held 150. So close family ie my sisters and partners and children added up to 40 our besties were cut to 10 every one else, my cousins who I love and friends who we love were invited to the evening. I had to cut the list as I could have had 250 all day if we had the room.
There are different types of Hunts. It is normally Middle and Upper Class peeps that take part and they are organised by either the farmer that owns the land or the gamekeeper that runs the estate. Hunting is rarely done individually and it is more of a social activity in the UK.
That's interesting, I didn't know that! In England, I'm pretty sure most three-year degrees are automatically honours degrees, and the only way to get an ordinary degree is if you fail to get a merit by a small margin. Then you get a sort of pity degree, but they take the honours away from you.
@@monkeymox2544 - I think if you get less than a 3rd you get an unranked ordinary degree. It was explained to me one at university, but it seemed pretty implausible that anyone could do that badly.
I agree with many of the comments below about weddings, the evening do has nothing to do with how important you are. Homeownership I'm not woth you either. I have always chosen to rent since I was 16 and at 40 I have no desire to buy a house even now. I like moving to different areas of my city every few years or so, it means I can always move to a place I can walk to work. I haven't sent a single card for about 25 years
Taking a gap year in the UK is seen as a bit 'snowflakey' - it's not looked on favourably and it's not that common. The usual reason is that you've failed your A-levels or have been rejected by your first choice of uni and are going to have to go to a 6th cramming college and take them again.
This "evening reception" is a relatively new thing here in the UK and it really winds me up. *Traditionally*, a UK wedding would be held in the afternoon, about 2pm and the reception followed straight after. Everyone invited to the wedding would also be invited to the reception. It would normally be speeches and a sit down meal, then it would be finished by about 5pm. More recently, weddings have become more elaborate and typically stretch into the evening to allow for dancing, so to save money, some couples choose to only invite close family/friends to the sit-down meal and less-close friends to the evening party. Personally, I don't like this and wouldn't do this because it makes the evening guests feel inferior and it splits people's day up too much (what are the "second-class" guests meant to do in between the ceremony and the evening party when the "chosen" guests are having their sit-down meal??). Sometimes, they don't even provide food for the evening party which I think is really out of order.
People don't necessarily get invited to a wedding as a b team. Most of the people invited to the whole wedding are close relations who know each other, a lot of people invited to the evening reception are friends of the couple and may not know the families very well but being young would prefer the evening reception more.
Yes you're correct about a gap year being a 'thing' in Australia and New Zealand. It's considered an essential part of growing up to take the chance to see a bit of the world before getting serious about a career and putting down roots. When I was a teenager in the 1970s, the usual thing was to go to the UK for a working holiday for a year or two. In fact there are still visa categories specially for that purpose. Nowadays it's still a common practice but the UK is a less common destination. These days depending on your heritage, you might go elsewhere in Europe or the USA, but usually intend to return home in a year or so to get serious about 'settling down'.
Actually come yr 7 here we do have to supply the schools pend n pencils etc.. yes i suppose if you loose things or your final pen ran out of ink school would lend you till end of lessons but generally its down to us parents to supply.. saying that back in my day we had a school shop to get things throughout the day.. also teachers would use this too
I’ll just focus on an aspect of one of the things you talked about - card sending. Not as a greetings card, but as a thank you card. I’ve no idea what the practice is in the US, but here in the UK as a child I was brought up to send not a card but a letter to people (family relatives and friends) who sent me Christmas or birthday cards/gifts.. These were checked by my parents, usually my mother, to see they were acceptable, with good spelling etc and were not simply rote, but that I had put some real thought into making it personal and sincere. Now as an adult I and a small group of adult friends and relatives will send each other thank you notelets (a combination of a greeting card with a design on the front, but nothing inside so one can write a brief thank you message), for example if you have been invited to lunch or dinner, or a cocktail party, or included in a theatre outing or some other social event - not all of those who participate in such events will send a thank you or acknowledgment notelet but there will usually be a small sub-group who do so and a larger group who don’t and it’s nothing to do with how close your friendship is with particular people, rather it’s to do with upbringing and manners, you do it or you don’t, no one ever says anything about a note having been sent, or not sent, but it is noticed - it’s not entirely about ‘class’, but probably does have something to do with it, it’s quite subtle. Some people might instead now send a text message or even an email (I do this sometimes) but for a certain group of people only a written notelet will do and I appreciate it when I receive such notelets too.
People you really like invited to the reception it can get expensive though including family you dont even like. Family that you dont always get along with invited to the wedding ceremony. After reception invites i havent seen that before but would mean you can have friends there you cant afford to cater for dont take it personally they would most likely want you there all through but cant.
Weddings have got way out of hand here. I was married in Church, it was a family occasion. the reception was in a marquee in my parent's garden. We couldn't wait to get away. Our honeymoon was alternating camping with hotels. In Scotland depending on whether it was raining or not. Despite the fact we got divorced 25 years later, it was the happiest. most carefree time.
The main reason that people in the UK buy rather than rent is that the cost of renting is so high. Also when I was younger it was very common for people to attend a wedding ceremony when they were not an invited guest as weddings are open to the public. You just sat at the back behind the actual guests.
Hunting is more a pursuit of the wealthy in the UK. Because traditionally it was only the wealthy who could do so. In the UK, owning large amounts of countryside land has always commanded a high price. Also, because the UK has a massively smaller amount of wildlife compared to America. Where, how and what you can hunt, has always been strongly regulated. So traditionally only the wealthy were allowed to and able to afford the permits and enough recreational land to hunt on. In the vast landmass of America, there's never been such limitations.
I know two people who own rifles and go hunting but mainly for rabbits and sometimes deer. They are allowed to hunt on some farmers land to kill off the rabbits and scare away the deer. I know they keep the rabbits. Not sure about the deer carcass when the are asked to kill one. The price of houses and the desire to buy houses is not so much to do with the size of the island. Other countries in Europe do not have such a strong desire to buy. In the 1980s the government sold a large portion of the council house (social housing) so the supply of rented accommodation reduced. People who would have rented a council house now compete with people who would have rented privately (because they were only living there short term etc) driving up rents. The legal rights of renters were reduced and many can be asked to leave for no reason after six months, this was often caused by letting agents as a new tenant means new fees. There have been some improvements in the last few years but you are far more secure buying.
Deer are culled annually to control numbers as can cause environmental damage as they are in Scotland with the increase in the Red Deer population in parts of the Highlands. The carcases go into local butchers and meat processors and onto our plates as Venison.
We have actually dropped from having one of the highest owner occupier rates in Europe to one of the lowest. In many countries the rental market is regulated and not expensive. Renting from retirement to death would be impossible for most Brits. By allowing buy to let to grow we have forced into future generations the cost of housing benefit for all those retirees who couldn't get on the housing ladder but are too rich for council housing.
Hunting with horses and hounds is illegal. If you are using a weapon of any type you have to have a license and it has to be kept very securely under lock and key.
Speaking of interesting little differences between the two countries: as a Brit with an American fiance, one major difference I have noticed is in the kitchen! More specifically, microwaves. In the UK, we usually have a freestanding microwave on the countertop, occasionally we'll have a built in microwave in a floor-to-ceiling cupboard. Whereas in the US, I've noticed microwaves being installed over the stovetop being super common!
“Home ownership” is exactly that! You OWN that home and once (if you can and do, that is….) paid off the mortgage to the bank or building society, that house is now permanently yours and your asset and as it belongs to you, what you do with that home (subject to Inheritance Tax/Capital Gains Tax rules etc) is entirely up to you, Most parents, if the mortgage has been completed, leave the home and title deeds to their dependents etc for them to live in or sell on. It helps to give those, a help in owning THEIR own home. You can’t do this if you rent or live in council owned properties, hence home ownership’s popularity
There are two sorts of 'hunting' there is the people with the guns/horses/dogs who get dressed up and shoot things like phesants, etc. ... and then there is the people who go along with the party who drive the game for the rich people - or who hunt as part of their job to maintain deer populations etc. the former are generally called: 'you there' and the latter are groundskeepers or park rangers; depending if the land is owned by a lord or the state.
You have a strange preoccupation with status regarding weddings in the UK. The 2 events have different functions here: The wedding itself is about witnessing the ceremony, often in a small registry office or if a church chances are that no-one present is part of the congregation ( many couples struggle to find a church that will let them use it) it is usually for immediate family and life-long friends. The reception is a celebration, a party and as such is more about everyone who knows the couple, most people find it painful deciding who to invite even if money is no object. My wedding? in a registry office with our two closest friends (4 people altogether) We told our parents the night before. Our reception, 4 months later in a barn in the countryside, everyone invited except immediate family (200ish people).
When you say couples struggle to find a church who will marry them are you thinking of same sex couples? I have never heard of a church turning down a heterosexual couple.
@@jenniedarling3710 If you're not a regular church-goer, then the vicar or priest may turn down your request to get married in that church as you're not part of the congregation. If they do agree, then they will ask you to attend regularly before the wedding takes place.
I'm coming in very late but never mind .The hunting thing is so different here because it almost all happens on private land and it's generally expected that you will pay a fee to the landowner to shoot their game birds .In the past you were more likely to be invited to a weekend of shooting as a friend or acquaintance of the landowner ,so the chances were that you belonged to the same class .To host such a weekend you would need a large house on a country estate which included woods or morland or wetland on which game birds could be raised .You would be expected to provide accomodation for guests and feed them ,as well as being able to employ beaters to scare up the birds.This however is known as a shooting weekend not hunting .Deer hunting is known as stalking and that's even more exclusive .Finally ,there used to be fox hunting ,not so exclusive but still expensive because it's done on horseback with a pack of hounds in attendance .There are local day shoots in some areas which are cheaper and of course farmers etc can shoot on their own land if they wish .The only cheap method is poaching ,which is essentially trespassing and shooting someone's game without permission .Wendy Langcake .
With hunting you have to remember most of the land in the UK is owned by the Royal Estates and the gentry and has been since fedual times. I'm not quite sure how the Enclosure Act worked accept to say I believe this further reduced the land the "common people could hunt on.
Really enjoyed that. The cards thing winds me up. If you are going to see the person or can otherwise pass on your best wishes, what is the point? I didn't realise about the home ownership thing. In Britain it didn't used to be like that, but politics eh? Keep the good stuff coming! You consistently produce interesting stuff.
On the topic of the home owners thing, while home ownership is more common in the UK because of the fact that changing job location would just mean a different commute, it isn't true that everyone here prioritises owning their own home. Especially in todays economy. If you look outside London, especially more North there are a lot of people within the lower classes (myself included) who will stay renting throughout their life, mostly within the social housing/Council House sector which is a completely different topic within itself. Also with the hunting, I think that difference is mostly due to the difference of gun laws between the 2 countries. The only way you can own a gun for personal use in the UK is with a hunting licence and for that you have to be of a sound mind and it costs a lot of money and time. Only the rich and upper class can afford that. In America, guns are more readily available so its not really an achievement to be able to own a gun, so more people will use them to hunt meaning its not a rare thing and therefore not important enough to be an upper class trait.
I think the housing thing really depends on the person. A lot of people I know around my age (late 20s early 30s) have basically given up on the idea of ever owning a house in the area we live in (south west England)
As a British person, I am baffled by cards. I see the point of sending a card to someone you are not going to see, but I really don't understand why we physically hand over a card to the recipient, face to face, or why I have to give my wife a card on the actual day for birthday, anniversary, valentine etc but for Christmas I have to hand it to her several weeks in advance so that she can enjoy it, because of I hand it to her actually on Christmas Day she will throw it back at me and not speak to me for a while because I obviously don't care. 🤔 mystery.
We had to get school supplies for secondary, but it was never fun, because it meant going back to school, and the end of the holidays. I always thought gap years were an American thing, I don't know anyone who had them in the UK.
About statistics on home ownership. In the UK in 2018, 63% of homes in England were owner occupied, 20% privately rented and 17% social renting (the British equivalent of what I guess would be a housing project in the States - although I understand that US housing projects are much worse). Although, twenty years ago the rate of owner occupiers was higher at 68% - it's fallen over time as house prices have risen a lot faster than wages so fewer people can afford to buy. In the USA, according to the US census bureau, in 2018 the rate of owner occupiers was 64.2% and back in 2000 it was 67.1% so has also fallen over that time. So there is actually no real difference between the two countries in overall figures. Also when it comes to ethnicity, white Americans and Whit Brits are both much more likely to be home owners than black Americans or black Brits.
Actually owner occupier rates were well over 70% at their peak. The reason it has fallen so much is because of the introduction of the buy-to-let mortgage in the late 1990s.
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Noone thinks being invited to the evening reception is second best. It's accepted that there's a limit to how many can attend the main event. It's not about important the reality of the relationship.
I've only once been invited to the evening party. I travelled an hour an half to a crap wedding where I hardly knew anyone and a paying bar. He only invited me out of obligation and I only went because I felt I ought to too.
I agree. Some venues have size limits too.
I hate weddings... long hours of standing around waiting for pictures to be taken, the meals are always the same (bar my best mates wedding which had steak cooked to perfection... they are divorced now)
I much prefer the evening reception, no small talk with relatives of the bride and groom that you barely know
These days I would treat it as a compliment. People accept my crazy fun loving drinking self where there is a chance for revelling and craziness in the evening but they don't want to see me at the bar drinking all day. Especially if Aunty Pat has to be served regularly just to keep her standing up.
It can be because you're not viewed as important
The way you interpret the wedding thing isn't accurate, invitations are not based on how much you are liked or how important you are there is no A or B list. My take is that being a guest can cost a fortune - new outftit, travel, accommodation, time off work, gifts, hen/stag party etc.. (4 weddings over over summer can result in no summer holiday). Being invited to the evening part is seen as a kind gesture by the couple getting married to be part of their celebation without having to fork out lots of dosh (on both sides). You make it sound as if couples are being cheap by not spalshing out for everyone. The evening bit is for extended family, work colleagues, old school friends and people you don't see often. It is also the time for everyone to let their hair down (and the punch ups, family feuds and a quickie with a best man/bridesmaid to start). There is a bit of a running joke on wedding reception DJ's (see Peter Kay monologue on weddings). This it all a totally accepted custom in the UK which everyone understands and no one has any problem with.
This description is dead on...unless you know you've done something to merit a snub - you actually see it as being at gge best bit of the night...plus, British party hard at weddings, and you often get food kate in evening.
I have a huge problem with it. Weddings are not supposed to last 10-12 hours until everyone is tired and fed up. There should be one ceremony and one reception and people should be invited to both. Having 2 receptions is a stupid idea which has only developed in the last 20-30 years and I can assure you that lots of people feel miffed if only invited to the evening. The trouble is that weddings have become too elaborate and expensive so the bridal couple cannot afford to host all their friends and family for a whole day of merrymaking.
The wedding evening 'do' is a party for the couple to celebrate with friends. Older family members may not be up to dancing into the night and most likely would have had enough after the reception anyway. The time gap between the ceremony/reception and the evening do allows the couple to 'get changed and take a shower'. (You know what I mean.)
Not up this end as soon as the "I do" bit is over it's a scrap for the bar and buffet
@@JD-eo7dr facts haha, straight from the registry to the cricket club/working men’s club/conservative or labour club
Best wedding I ever went to we were among a large group of friends who were invited to the ceremony and the evening reception, but the meal was family only. During the photographs after the ceremony the bridesmaids came round with a pub crawl list to take us from there to the evening reception via a restaurant, and being members of CAMRA and therefore well known in most of the pubs on the list, they'd arranged a discount for us too. We had a great time!
I agree totally about the wedding invite. We chose a decent hotel venue (and as I was putting up a fair sum and didn't want to bankrupt the in--laws so we chose a Sunday for the venue and saving money which raised at least one comment from an elderly aunt about who gets married on a Sunday?) But I was surprised and frustrated when the inevitable not enough invites for our family and friends problem arose. My wife's friend had a young child but my wife preferred her other elder friend and daughter who she felt closer too. So the younger more attractive friend with child was offered the evening invite, along with our mutual ghost hunting friends who would have been brilliant in the day but having only seen them dressed in black casual wear and rock t shirts probably weren't over fussed they had to come out only once dusk came. As the wedding drew near, the elder friend and daughter decided they didn't want to come out all day to a wedding and cancelled. To be honest, I would have put them as evening guests in the first place. Another couple cancelled due to other committments and so I suggested that we look for other guests and my wife had to grovel and text her friend for an upgrade to the whole day and bring her young son who was welcome with all the other children. She also spent all the time at the meal flirting with a work colleague of mine so personally, I was happy that everyone was happy. I can talk about it now without fear of offending anyone because we are now separated after 10 years of marriage but I can honestly say we did have a great day.
I dream of only being invited to the night do at a wedding. The day but is so boring and awkward. You just want to go to the fun bit.
Family and family friends tend to be invited to the wedding and meal and then friends and people you really want at your wedding are at the reception.
On the subject of weddings, evening reception invites are not just about saving money for the hosts. Not everyone is necessarily able to or feels comfortable going to the whole event. There may be logistical problems such as work or kids.
I think one factor behind the gap year being more of a thing in the UK, is the intensity involved in obtaining the A-Level grades required to get into university plus the GCSEs before that. This means that people like the idea of a break before starting their degrees.
I think that getting into university in the US is pretty intense too.
I think that the gap year is more cultural, going back to the idea that travel broadens the mind and perhaps even the idea of the "grand tour".
It also used to be quite common to do university after the two year national service.
the depth of knowledge covered in A-levels is equivalent to US undergrad college degrees, e.g. premed in US is the same bredth, depth and content that a 16-17 year old covers in UK A level biology, chemistry, maths, psychology A levels. Then after Alevels and after pre-med both groups go into university to study medicine.
In Scotland, in the eighties, we had to buy our own pens, pencils and in secondary school we used our own folders and A4 paper. We certainly got jotters provided by the school at primary and for some secondary subjects. If the jotters were supplied by the school you covered them with old posters or wallpaper, to protect them. Same with the textbooks which the school supplied. We had to buy school uniform as well. The only thing that was prescribed was the uniform - there was a specific tie and blazer, and rules about the colour of skirts/trousers/tights/socks and their length. Girls were not allowed to wear trousers except in very bad weather, and had to wear skirts on or below the knee! Our school wasn't really strict though, they had a few varieties in blazer as the ones from cheaper shops were made of different material, and they only insisted on the wearing of a tie or blazer, not both. They would, however, send girls home to change for not following the skirt rule....
Reference Gap years. There used to be exams for Oxford and Cambridge taken in the term after the A levels (third year sixth form) this meant that from New Year to the start of the university team in September October was free for travelling or working.
These exams no longer exist but the gap year persists.
The tiered wedding system also comes from the fact many venues (such as 800-year-old churches), simply cannot hold that many people. In America, it's the person with the legal certification who can marry you; in the UK (England at least being the only country I can speak for,) it's the venue that holds the licence to hold the ceremony. If we switched to an American system, and were able to get married just anywhere, I feel that the tiered system won't be *as* common.
Renting your home used to be much more common for working-class folk. My father was one of six siblings, and the only one who ever owned his home. During the Thatcher era it became Tory party dogma to encourage home ownership, and the vast local authority housing stock was sold off to sitting tenants at giveaway prices, which is one reason there is now a desperate shortage of affordable rented property. High inflation meant that mortgages rapidly dwindled as a percentage of household expenditure, and houses could be sold for many times their cost, so ownership was seen as a hedge against inflation. Obviously it isn't, as if you sell, you need to buy something else at an inflated price!
then you have a flat or house which you can't afford to repair as well. There really needs to be more social housing, selling council housing was a disaster. When I was in my twenties there was hardly any private rentals in my area, except student housing (and students didn't want working room-mates as it messed with their council tax exemption) and social housing was near to impossible to get. I bought a flat really cheaply but in the end I couldn't afford updates and repairs. Home ownership worked when there were jobs for life, but that was a short period of time.
I've never owned my own home. I've lived-in in jobs in privately owned properties, but have always lived in rented houses and flats, other than that. (Social housing who have rented properties to me were local councils,or, as now, a housing association which employed some of its tenants, and had purchased vast swathes of ex-council social housing properties (whole estates, mixed housing of flats, Prefabs, houses etc).
My great-grandmother, who was of Welsh origin, told me that girls used to have trusseau teas, where female relatives and friends would bring homemade bedding, curtains, knitwear, napiery, and haberdashery items to build the betrothed girl's trusseau. My two oldest kids, who attended school in DC for the six yrs I worked in the US, were bemused by the use of pencils in class, as opposed to fountain pens or ballpoint pens, and with the use of multi-choice tests rather than essays or narrative questions. They were grades 7-12 and 5-10 back then.
As weddings are actually public events anyone can just pop into a church wedding if they are just passing by. Invitations to the wedding breakfast (I.e. the meal immediately following the ceremony) is usually for close friends and family. The evening reception is usually for more people and would have a larger invitation list to include work colleagues and acquaintances.
The thing is - the main part of the wedding with meal is very expensive and the numbers usually limited at the venue.
Weddings are expensive so to keep costs down, especially at the reception, is to keep number down to family and very close friends with the evening party being all your friends. The evening party also allows the bride & groom (or bride & bride or groom & groom) to change out of their wedding clothes into something more comfortable.
When I was at school, we had to provide our own pens, pencils, ruler, rubber, but writing paper was provided by the school
You're right that weddings here have frequently been all day celebrations. So, traditionally you would have the ceremony around lunchtime followed by a meal (wedding breakfast). Usually this is a smaller gathering that you would invite close family and very close friends to this, so around 50 people maybe.
Then in the evening, it's the party style reception where other friends and work colleagues etc. are invited. There's usually a buffet and a DJ or sometimes a band. No one is offended (in fact sometimes relieved) to be invited to the party only.
Until recent years, wedding ceremonies had to take place before 6pm, but now they can be at any time of day, so very late afternoon or early evening weddings with just 1 reception and guest list are becoming more popular 🙂
Growing up in the UK, being a kid, and getting excited to go and buy certain school supplies. My mum and dad had limited money, but I still had to buy swim kits, ink pens, notebooks, and a school bag, etc. at Woolworths, back in the day.
Woolworths 😍
From the UK perspective, you need to distinguish between hunting (dressed in red coats on horseback chasing foxes with hounds) from shooting (shooting game birds, dressed in Barbour jackets). Both are upper-middle-class and upper-class sports. And of course, there's also deer stalking in the Scottish Highlands.
Hunting foxes with hounds has also been illegal for over a decade. Not that the toffs pay much attention to that though, as they chase a poor fox across the countryside to watch it get ripped apart by hounds. :(
@@StockportJambo True, pet cats have also been recent victims of the red-coated brigade (see Mini’s law).
You are quite correct in pointing out the different interpretation of hunting in the US and UK. Although (fox) hunting is traditionally associated with the upper class, it also attracted a large number of farming types - often farm workers - either as followers or on horseback as hunt staff. Similarly, although grouse shooting and deer hunting are pursuits of the very wealthy, rough shooting across farmland is very popular with country people from all backgrounds. (I neither hunt nor shoot but have lived amongst these communities.)
@@StockportJambo Where I am its a seanted bag with a sent the hunting dogs are attracted too and trained to 'hunt". The bag is then dragged around a chosen route either the day before or a few days before if you have experianced hounds (it lets the hunt avoid those fields farmers who don't give permission for the hunt to cross their land). The route is miles long with loop backs and false 'dead ends' to make it interesting and so that the hunt lasts a full day. Only the Huntmaster knows the route the bag was dragged, thats so the dogs are still truly leading the way by their nose, and so the riders still feel the excitment of riding into the unknown.
No animals are harmed and no guns or knives are needed.
@@phoebus007 Yeah, I agree, I think there are different perceptions of fox hunting/grouse shooting/deer stalking from 'getting a rabbit for the pot.' I wonder if maybe the second has become less popular as gun laws tightened up?
wee humourous digression, my Granddad was the head groom on an estate. He hated when the local hunt took place, not because foxes got killed but as he would always find that some of his brushes and tack got stolen🤣
Your comments on hunting were made without considering the history and geography of the two countries. America has much more public access lands and species of wild animals which only a few generations ago were hunted for regular food sources where as in the UK you need to go back three or four centuries to find regular hunting for food. Even that long ago the vast majority of land was owned and managed by what is called the Landed Gentry. The hunting that survives In the UK is based on pest eradication (fox hunting) which was made into a sport for rural communities, or artificial rearing of partridges, grouse, deer etc to be shot for sport on the private estates. There are no large wild animals which could be hunted in the UK.
In the UK I think you are normally expected to supply your own pens, pencils, rulers and calculators, but normally things like exercise books are supplied.
Gap years are a privilege of the upper middle class. If your poor you just have to slum it and move straight from school to uni.
The way British weddings go largely depends on whether the couple being married attends church regularly (and to some extent on the size of that church). If the couple is part of a church, the wedding ceremony will likely be the largest part of the day (unless the church building is very small), with an open invitation to everyone in the church to attend, and with anyone invited to the reception or evening do also being invited to the ceremony, and potentially some people being explicitly invited to the ceremony but not anything else (if this is the case, there may be some refreshments or a buffet provided at the church for everyone before people head off to the reception, often held elsewhere). So the size of the gathering through the day goes, large, small, medium. In this case, guests specifically invited and travelling a long way may get priority to be invited to the whole day. Most weddings I've been to have followed this pattern, and a few times when I've been in the group that is at the ceremony and evening do, a number of us have gone to a pub in between to get a bite to eat and relax and chat.
However, if the wedding isn't in a church (or potentially if the wedding is in a small chapel), the wedding ceremony will likely be in a smaller room that the reception and evening do, so the size of the gathering will go small, medium, large. Only been to a few of these though.
What I have noticed - as someone who has many American friends - is that charity card are rare, I have only had a charity Christmas card from one person in the US, and it was always for UNISEF. Cards I get from the UK are almost all charity cards and I always send them, from charities I support.
Technically and legally a wedding itself is a public event, so just turn up..... pissed and gate crash the reception lol. It’s also more like, you only really invite close family, relatives and close close friends to the main event then you invite all your friends to the evening
As a Brit, I've heard of bridal showers, probably from US TV, but I just assumed they were another name for hen nights/bacholerette parties, or maybe a specific form of them (eg an afternoon in the house rather than an evening on a bar). It's definitely news to me that American brides can have both!
I find weddings boring unless they're your own. The A team for me in the reseption, the B team is having to sit through the ceremony :)
I think this every time. 😆
Ermmm just don't go !!
@@bowlingbill9633 correct weddings are a load of utter shite, most of the people there you don't like or know ,better going to the Boozer with your mates
We do have back to school week. Schools would provide everything in primary school (at least my school did), but in secondary school we do had tty buy our own pens, pencils, glue scissors, etc. And the schools provided the books and art supplies
You express my thoughts regarding school supplies shopping exactly! Although the school supply Superbowl is a perfect fit! I love it! I personally always was one of few students with a small personalized mini stapler. Always.
We had 90 in the day and with the evening guests it was 150. The venue simply wasn't big enough for thar many people to eat. Plus it would have been double the cost. Going to the evening doo means that you can dress more casual too rather than formal wedding attire.
You do have school supplies you might need to get in uk but it’s usually not as much & usually it’s more in secondary school than primary school. For instance I got a new back & pencil case every year +in secondary school (years 7 to 11) we had to bring out own pencils, pens, colouring pencils, erasers, glue sticks, paper clips (if we used them), tipex/white out, ruler, sharpener. Then if for out gcse we had say chosen ART we had to puppy our own art book, pens, oil pastils, chalk pastils, and a few other art supplies. But yes things like the work books, binders, PVA glue, pain was always supplied by the school.
Our main "school supply" ritual was before starting a new school, the ritual of buying your first School Uniform... (as we all wear them in the UK). I still remember the day I bought mine, my parents took me to the approved supplier, said the name of the school and almost with miliary precision each item was placed on the sales desk and placed in a badged "kit bag"...
Many people get married at Registry Offices which have strictly limited numbers. I have 6 brothers and sisters all.of whom were married, my wife is an only child. I had my mother, father and his wife, my wife had her mother and her aunt, and her two closest cousins. The limit at our actual wedding was 20, which was in the morning. We were stuffed with immediate family members only. Many of my wife's more distant cousins were miffed and refused to come to the evening because they couldn't come to the ceremony. Dozens of my cousins came to the evening, none to the ceremony.
There were 250 to 300 at the evening reception, which went on until two in the morning.
People loved our 'Black' wedding cake, Chocolate and Cointreau. And the wedding was spoken about for years.
Oh and it was cheap, relatively.
In the UK the ceremony is the boring bit. Everyone wanting to get it over with as quickly as possible so the fun can begin.
I would say most people in the UK would think renting is throwing money away. If you are not going to move regularly (the cost of moving/duties is very expensive) then it is very likely your house value will increase but your mortgage payments are locked in, unlike rents which will increase. So not only will you house be worth much more than you paid for it over time, you have security of knowing your monthly payments won't be put up. Of course house prices can go down but it is rare and long term you will probably still make a profit. There is limited housing stock and therefore always a demand for certain kinds of houses. Of course you do have the expense of maintaining your home if you own it.
I'd just go in the evening,have fun ,few drinks then bring as much food back home with me as possible 🇬🇧💞🌹
to be fair, I wanted to do exactly that at my own wedding...
In secondary school we had to bring our own supplies, except for paper/books. That was provided. But pens, scientific calculators etc - all had to be provided by you
As a teacher I keep a stock in my drawer fr children who forget or can’t afford their own.
You only bring your own pen and s calculator and maybe a geometry set
@@dianeferguson3555 Yeah, there'd be the odd child that would forget to bring a pen or whatever and you'd just borrow one from the teachers whose lessons you were in.
But you were encouraged to have your own, and I know some teachers in my school would dish out demerits if you didn't bring equipment more than once in a week.
@@glastonbury4304 The annoying thing about the geometry sets is they'd include items you were never taught to use. Like this triangles. I get what they're for, but they weren't half a waste of money.
@@04williamsl ...yes I agree, I remember having to use them in primary school and I was convinced I couldn't do a right angled triangle 😂🤦
Most British don't see it as A or B team , when it comes too weddings. It tends to be we don't want to exclude anyone, so we invite those closest to us for the wedding, and those who weren't but are still close are invited to the reception after.
I was invited to the evening wedding reception by a friend... I went to school with him from reception to secondary, and we were in most classes together. After school, we didn't keep in contact with him. Any how, I see him about 10 years after we had finished school. He kept saying that we were "Vic Rejects" (we both went to a private school for a couple of years, but we were moved to a public school as we were not smart enough). He kept saying how good it was to see me again, blah, blah. He invited me to his stag party and wedding, and kept saying how happy he was to see me, etc. How happy he would be if I came to his wedding, etc. I was like sure, ok, no problem I will go.
What he didn't tell me was that I was invited to the post reception party. I showed up early and saw everyone seated in the marquee eating - I couldn't find my place. Then, I saw his dad and he was like oh you shouldn't be here at this time, you should be later. I was like, oh, ok. So... What should I do? He just found me a chair and space at a table - they were pretty much on the last food courses at this point.
I was so confused that day. I thought that I was going to the ceremony, or at least the dinner. He never said to me that it was just the post reception party. I had no problem not being invited to the wedding or the dinner, I was just surprised, as he was making it out that I would be going to his wedding.
If you have one I'm your city check out Smiggle it has some of the coolest school supplies. Also the second half of the wedding I find is more for the friends you want to party with, where as the first half is calmer with speeches and conversation.
It’s not the A team and B team, it’s all about size of venue limits (remember everything smaller in the UK) and cost of the wedding as it is usually wedding and meal (this is where the venue and cost limitations are mostly, but it could also be the venue where the wedding is as it is more than likely not in a church these days and small places are cosier). Then in the evening is the party where there are less likely to be size limitations as it is usually held in a different location or bigger outdoor space possibly
Much prefer evening invites, who wants to go to a wedding...
You are weirdly ranking something that doesn't get ranked ie. weddings. In all honesty people don't want to go to the ceremony - it's long, boring with uncomfortable seats. We just want to get to the party and start drinking
If it is a church wedding then anyone can attend - invites are not necessary. Only the wedding breakfast and evening reception are by invite.
One thing I'd like to know more about is how local government works - probably because I work in local government in the UK! Is there an equilivent in the US? Who empties the bins and decides who can build houses where, and inspects restaurants to make sure they're safe, etc etc etc?
Your city, township, or borough. For some things state laws might be applicable as well. Things like building codes.
Every wedding bar 1 I have been to the wedding & reception. The one wedding I didn’t get invited to the wedding I was a plus one for my boyfriend & only the family had been invited to the wedding & all the friends+ their partners, kids etc were only invited to the reception.
Gap yearsi are usually more common after a year or two in university than when they leave school because most people that leave school early then go on to college as you have to be in education till age 18.
Iv heard uk bridge so-called their hen do a bridal shower. Not every brit wants alcohol, raunchy behaviour etc as their before wedding party. When I get married I just want to take my mum & a few best friends to a spa & have afternoon tea for my before wedding party.
The reason hunting un uk is seen as more so for the upper class is because originally land belong to the upper class & then people that owned the land owned the animals that lived on the land. So hunting became a rich mans sport because they owned the animals to hunt. Still it’s more wealthy people that own land to hunt on.
UK parent here. School uniforms here isn't a shopping experience - there are a few nominated suppliers in your area, and you have to order them before a deadline to have them ready to pick up before the following school year starts. That said, thanks to schools having their budgets slashed by up to 40% by the Tories, you're expected to pay for books & even pens and paper... so it is a thing more and more that there is 'back to school' shopping like you get in the US.
I went to school in the 90s and I had to buy my own pens, pencils and notebooks..it's nothing new.
@@Courtneyburns90 I went to school in the 80s and didn't. Guess that's when it first started to change then. :/
I think that's pretty much only the case in England (not sure about Wales). I'm in Scotland and state schools have no restrictions on where uniforms can be bought from, so it's generally supermarket shirts and trousers/skirts and the school tie at high school, and a branded polo shirt for primary, usually worth plenty of second hand ones for sale via the Parent Council (our equivalent of the Board of Governors).
@@vikkispence Maybe so... I'm Scottish, but lived the last 20 years in England, so all my school experience as a parent has been down here. It's unimpressive.
@@Courtneyburns90 nothing new in the 60s either. I went to parochial school.
Nobody fights to get on the A list at weddings, we’re more likely relieved.
Also if the wedding is at a church anyone can come and see it, it’s a public building. So you can and I have, go to the ceremony and then go to the evening do.
in uk specialization occurs when you choose your A- Levels
I do remember buying pens and pencils etc for school when I was young. But not note books etc. 'Exercise books' were provided by the school.
My daughter got married a couple of weeks ago. Because of Covid restrictions it was just the two immediate families (13 in total) and it worked really well. My daughter said she would not have wanted the post-May 17th rule of 30 because that would have meant choosing between friends and wider family.
Yeah, the evening is a lot about friends
The evening is the only part I'm interested in being invited to.
@@MrJoeshipley 🤘
Does anyone remember the wedding hoy oot. This was a common tradition in the North of England when I was a kid. ( Sadly gone now) There would be a crowd of kids waiting for the bride to emerge from her home, When the wedding entourage were all safely seated in the cars the chant would begin. Hoy oot, hoy oot , and it would go on until the bridal party responded. The windows would be rolled down and the kids would jostle for position. ( Sharp elbows and strength were needed here) then it would happen, showers of silver coins and pennies specially saved for the occasion would be thrown to the crowd. A half crown, a two bob bit, or a shilling would be like winning the lottery, it would be a right scrum with many a scraped knee. Your pennies and sixpences would then be spent in the sweet shop. It would all happen again when they came out of the church. back in the cars to go to their reception. There was usually a bigger crowd, and the chanting hoy oot would start again. Happy happy days.
I think yr being a bit unfair about this wedding thing. Though it depends just how much money the brides father can spend..(so it might be a class thing too). But surely you invite all the old people, the maiden aunts and second cousins and such who claim family privleges and who will sit down and listen to speaches.
Then in the evening you invite every last mate you can think of, the old people go home and you have a riot.
Nicely put I was going to make a similar comment.
As well as bridal showers not being a thing in the UK, baby showers are also not common. Friends and family tend to visit bringing gifts individually, not in a formal gathering like in the US.
I'm not sure I've ever been invited to just the evening reception without also being invited to the wedding. I could see that happening if the wedding venue is very small, maybe a registry office. Generally though invites are either for the full day, or the ceremony plus evening reception. Church weddings particularly are often also open to people who don't receive invites at all - members of the church who just decide to turn up, or casual friends who find out about the wedding via Facebook. They just go to the service, maybe hang around for drinks in the church afterwards or watch the photos being taken, then leave.
I got married in a registry office and people just turned up. We had lunch with immediate family afterwards and then hired a venue for a party in the evening where all friends and family were invited.
Yes, gap years are very popular in Australia.
There’s a terminological difference, reflecting social attitudes. Traditionally, in England and Scotland, ‘hunting’ was done on horseback (hence some horses are known as ‘hunters’), and not usually in pursuit of food animals. By contrast, the pursuit of potential food (deer, grouse, etc.) is known as ‘shooting’. Those lower down the social scale were more likely to engage in rabbiting (the quarry) or ferreting (one means of catching the prey), and this often amounted legally to poaching. (Hunting animals with hounds and horses is now illegal, and has been replaced by drag hunting, where the dogs pursue a non-living scented trail.)
"Hunting animals with hounds and horses is now illegal, and has been replaced by drag hunting, where the dogs pursue a non-living scented trail." You mean pretend to follow a scented trail then accidentally kill a fox or a cat.
A somewhat lesser-known aspect of the hunts used to be that they also had sections dedicated to dry-stone walling, hedging and other rural pursuits
School supplies: In secondary school (middle and high school) this is indeed a thing in the UK. Seen as a chore and stores like WH Smith’s have complete packs with everything you need, so it’s a very quick trip to the store to fulfil the need. We just don’t get excited about it.
I can remember as a schoolgirl in the 70s and 80s doing exactly what you are talking about as my local comprehensive school only supplied the exercise books and text books, whatever else was required we bought ourselves such as pens, pencils colouring pens and all kinds of stationary things, I loved shopping for them in the big stores and choosing what I liked.
In the UK hunting was banned at the end of the 20th century so it is illegal to go fox hunting in the UK at all.
School supplies vary, if you are in a state school then I think most stuff is supplied but in a private school (called public school in England no idea why) you have to buy loads of stuf including books.
In the uk you do gcse at 16 a level at 18 university at 21 - 22, finishing at 24 (some degrees take longer, architecture is 7 years). In the USA you graduate at 18 then you do college unfocused for 2 years then 2 years done so 22.
Weddings in Scotland can last for Days
Hunting is for the most part illegal in the UK. School shopping - try going into clarks shoe shop in August. Weddings in the UK are very difficult to generalise on. Take a look at Hindu Weddings and you'll find something very different.
Just my opinion, but I think the reason for sending a card is it is a more personal and thought out effort to wish someone a happy birthday or anniversary, etc. I absolutely love your videos and hearing your thoughts and experiences in England. :-)
When I was a child in England (decades ago!), sending greeting cards for Christmas and birthdays was pretty much universal, but commercial cards for other occasions were considered to be a sign of creeping Americanisation!
You don't invite people to the wedding ceremony, that has to be a public event to be a valid marriage, in order to allow for objections, anybody can go.
Quite bizarre reaction to being invited to the evening do, but not the wedding and wedding breakfast. Its no slight, close family and close friends to the main event all other buddies to the evening celebrations. Weddings are expensive, its that simple, this is way we do it.. 10 years still got lot of stuff get use to and fully alcamatise..
Our church held 60, our reception held 150. So close family ie my sisters and partners and children added up to 40 our besties were cut to 10 every one else, my cousins who I love and friends who we love were invited to the evening. I had to cut the list as I could have had 250 all day if we had the room.
There are different types of Hunts. It is normally Middle and Upper Class peeps that take part and they are organised by either the farmer that owns the land or the gamekeeper that runs the estate.
Hunting is rarely done individually and it is more of a social activity in the UK.
In Scotland the University course is 4 years. Three for a basic degree and an extra one for Honours.
That's interesting, I didn't know that! In England, I'm pretty sure most three-year degrees are automatically honours degrees, and the only way to get an ordinary degree is if you fail to get a merit by a small margin. Then you get a sort of pity degree, but they take the honours away from you.
@@monkeymox2544 - I think if you get less than a 3rd you get an unranked ordinary degree. It was explained to me one at university, but it seemed pretty implausible that anyone could do that badly.
I agree with many of the comments below about weddings, the evening do has nothing to do with how important you are. Homeownership I'm not woth you either. I have always chosen to rent since I was 16 and at 40 I have no desire to buy a house even now. I like moving to different areas of my city every few years or so, it means I can always move to a place I can walk to work. I haven't sent a single card for about 25 years
Hiya. Congrats on 4,000 subs. Stay safe. All the best to you.
Taking a gap year in the UK is seen as a bit 'snowflakey' - it's not looked on favourably and it's not that common. The usual reason is that you've failed your A-levels or have been rejected by your first choice of uni and are going to have to go to a 6th cramming college and take them again.
Hunting in Britain is "The unspeakable in pursuit of the unbeatable!!"😢😢😢😢
uneatable "The unspeakable in full pursuit of the uneatable" (Oscar Wilde)
Hunting in the UK, Item 1: A horse. That kind of rules out a lot of people. Oh, and of course, we hunt with hounds, not guns.
This "evening reception" is a relatively new thing here in the UK and it really winds me up. *Traditionally*, a UK wedding would be held in the afternoon, about 2pm and the reception followed straight after. Everyone invited to the wedding would also be invited to the reception. It would normally be speeches and a sit down meal, then it would be finished by about 5pm. More recently, weddings have become more elaborate and typically stretch into the evening to allow for dancing, so to save money, some couples choose to only invite close family/friends to the sit-down meal and less-close friends to the evening party. Personally, I don't like this and wouldn't do this because it makes the evening guests feel inferior and it splits people's day up too much (what are the "second-class" guests meant to do in between the ceremony and the evening party when the "chosen" guests are having their sit-down meal??). Sometimes, they don't even provide food for the evening party which I think is really out of order.
University degrees in Scotland take 4 years in Scotland, it is 3 in England.
Except for engineering and a few other subjects.
People don't necessarily get invited to a wedding as a b team. Most of the people invited to the whole wedding are close relations who know each other, a lot of people invited to the evening reception are friends of the couple and may not know the families very well but being young would prefer the evening reception more.
Yes you're correct about a gap year being a 'thing' in Australia and New Zealand. It's considered an essential part of growing up to take the chance to see a bit of the world before getting serious about a career and putting down roots. When I was a teenager in the 1970s, the usual thing was to go to the UK for a working holiday for a year or two. In fact there are still visa categories specially for that purpose. Nowadays it's still a common practice but the UK is a less common destination. These days depending on your heritage, you might go elsewhere in Europe or the USA, but usually intend to return home in a year or so to get serious about 'settling down'.
Actually come yr 7 here we do have to supply the schools pend n pencils etc.. yes i suppose if you loose things or your final pen ran out of ink school would lend you till end of lessons but generally its down to us parents to supply.. saying that back in my day we had a school shop to get things throughout the day.. also teachers would use this too
I’ll just focus on an aspect of one of the things you talked about - card sending. Not as a greetings card, but as a thank you card. I’ve no idea what the practice is in the US, but here in the UK as a child I was brought up to send not a card but a letter to people (family relatives and friends) who sent me Christmas or birthday cards/gifts.. These were checked by my parents, usually my mother, to see they were acceptable, with good spelling etc and were not simply rote, but that I had put some real thought into making it personal and sincere.
Now as an adult I and a small group of adult friends and relatives will send each other thank you notelets (a combination of a greeting card with a design on the front, but nothing inside so one can write a brief thank you message), for example if you have been invited to lunch or dinner, or a cocktail party, or included in a theatre outing or some other social event - not all of those who participate in such events will send a thank you or acknowledgment notelet but there will usually be a small sub-group who do so and a larger group who don’t and it’s nothing to do with how close your friendship is with particular people, rather it’s to do with upbringing and manners, you do it or you don’t, no one ever says anything about a note having been sent, or not sent, but it is noticed - it’s not entirely about ‘class’, but probably does have something to do with it, it’s quite subtle. Some people might instead now send a text message or even an email (I do this sometimes) but for a certain group of people only a written notelet will do and I appreciate it when I receive such notelets too.
People you really like invited to the reception it can get expensive though including family you dont even like. Family that you dont always get along with invited to the wedding ceremony. After reception invites i havent seen that before but would mean you can have friends there you cant afford to cater for dont take it personally they would most likely want you there all through but cant.
Weddings have got way out of hand here. I was married in Church, it was a family occasion. the reception was in a marquee in my parent's garden. We couldn't wait to get away. Our honeymoon was alternating camping with hotels. In Scotland depending on whether it was raining or not. Despite the fact we got divorced 25 years later, it was the happiest. most carefree time.
The main reason that people in the UK buy rather than rent is that the cost of renting is so high.
Also when I was younger it was very common for people to attend a wedding ceremony when they were not an invited guest as weddings are open to the public. You just sat at the back behind the actual guests.
Hunting is more a pursuit of the wealthy in the UK. Because traditionally it was only the wealthy who could do so. In the UK, owning large amounts of countryside land has always commanded a high price. Also, because the UK has a massively smaller amount of wildlife compared to America. Where, how and what you can hunt, has always been strongly regulated. So traditionally only the wealthy were allowed to and able to afford the permits and enough recreational land to hunt on. In the vast landmass of America, there's never been such limitations.
Never been to a wedding where the guests pay for their meal , although I have heard it happens
I know two people who own rifles and go hunting but mainly for rabbits and sometimes deer. They are allowed to hunt on some farmers land to kill off the rabbits and scare away the deer. I know they keep the rabbits. Not sure about the deer carcass when the are asked to kill one.
The price of houses and the desire to buy houses is not so much to do with the size of the island. Other countries in Europe do not have such a strong desire to buy.
In the 1980s the government sold a large portion of the council house (social housing) so the supply of rented accommodation reduced. People who would have rented a council house now compete with people who would have rented privately (because they were only living there short term etc) driving up rents. The legal rights of renters were reduced and many can be asked to leave for no reason after six months, this was often caused by letting agents as a new tenant means new fees. There have been some improvements in the last few years but you are far more secure buying.
Deer are culled annually to control numbers as can cause environmental damage as they are in Scotland with the increase in the Red Deer population in parts of the Highlands. The carcases go into local butchers and meat processors and onto our plates as Venison.
We have actually dropped from having one of the highest owner occupier rates in Europe to one of the lowest.
In many countries the rental market is regulated and not expensive. Renting from retirement to death would be impossible for most Brits.
By allowing buy to let to grow we have forced into future generations the cost of housing benefit for all those retirees who couldn't get on the housing ladder but are too rich for council housing.
Hunting with horses and hounds is illegal. If you are using a weapon of any type you have to have a license and it has to be kept very securely under lock and key.
Speaking of interesting little differences between the two countries: as a Brit with an American fiance, one major difference I have noticed is in the kitchen! More specifically, microwaves. In the UK, we usually have a freestanding microwave on the countertop, occasionally we'll have a built in microwave in a floor-to-ceiling cupboard. Whereas in the US, I've noticed microwaves being installed over the stovetop being super common!
yep. really ugly and prominent.
“Home ownership” is exactly that! You OWN that home and once (if you can and do, that is….) paid off the mortgage to the bank or building society, that house is now permanently yours and your asset and as it belongs to you, what you do with that home (subject to Inheritance Tax/Capital Gains Tax rules etc) is entirely up to you, Most parents, if the mortgage has been completed, leave the home and title deeds to their dependents etc for them to live in or sell on. It helps to give those, a help in owning THEIR own home. You can’t do this if you rent or live in council owned properties, hence home ownership’s popularity
You can pass the deeds to your children provided the money has not gone on care home fees.
There are two sorts of 'hunting' there is the people with the guns/horses/dogs who get dressed up and shoot things like phesants, etc.
... and then there is the people who go along with the party who drive the game for the rich people - or who hunt as part of their job to maintain deer populations etc. the former are generally called: 'you there' and the latter are groundskeepers or park rangers; depending if the land is owned by a lord or the state.
I loved going school shopping in the summer before school started again in September
You have a strange preoccupation with status regarding weddings in the UK. The 2 events have different functions here: The wedding itself is about witnessing the ceremony, often in a small registry office or if a church chances are that no-one present is part of the congregation ( many couples struggle to find a church that will let them use it) it is usually for immediate family and life-long friends. The reception is a celebration, a party and as such is more about everyone who knows the couple, most people find it painful deciding who to invite even if money is no object.
My wedding? in a registry office with our two closest friends (4 people altogether) We told our parents the night before. Our reception, 4 months later in a barn in the countryside, everyone invited except immediate family (200ish people).
When you say couples struggle to find a church who will marry them are you thinking of same sex couples? I have never heard of a church turning down a heterosexual couple.
@@jenniedarling3710
If you're not a regular church-goer, then the vicar or priest may turn down your request to get married in that church as you're not part of the congregation. If they do agree, then they will ask you to attend regularly before the wedding takes place.
I'm coming in very late but never mind .The hunting thing is so different here because it almost all happens on private land and it's generally expected that you will pay a fee to the landowner to shoot their game birds .In the past you were more likely to be invited to a weekend of shooting as a friend or acquaintance of the landowner ,so the chances were that you belonged to the same class .To host such a weekend you would need a large house on a country estate which included woods or morland or wetland on which game birds could be raised .You would be expected to provide accomodation for guests and feed them ,as well as being able to employ beaters to scare up the birds.This however is known as a shooting weekend not hunting .Deer hunting is known as stalking and that's even more exclusive .Finally ,there used to be fox hunting ,not so exclusive but still expensive because it's done on horseback with a pack of hounds in attendance .There are local day shoots in some areas which are cheaper and of course farmers etc can shoot on their own land if they wish .The only cheap method is poaching ,which is essentially trespassing and shooting someone's game without permission .Wendy Langcake .
With hunting you have to remember most of the land in the UK is owned by the Royal Estates and the gentry and has been since fedual times. I'm not quite sure how the Enclosure Act worked accept to say I believe this further reduced the land the "common people could hunt on.
Really enjoyed that.
The cards thing winds me up. If you are going to see the person or can otherwise pass on your best wishes, what is the point?
I didn't realise about the home ownership thing. In Britain it didn't used to be like that, but politics eh?
Keep the good stuff coming! You consistently produce interesting stuff.
On the topic of the home owners thing, while home ownership is more common in the UK because of the fact that changing job location would just mean a different commute, it isn't true that everyone here prioritises owning their own home. Especially in todays economy. If you look outside London, especially more North there are a lot of people within the lower classes (myself included) who will stay renting throughout their life, mostly within the social housing/Council House sector which is a completely different topic within itself.
Also with the hunting, I think that difference is mostly due to the difference of gun laws between the 2 countries. The only way you can own a gun for personal use in the UK is with a hunting licence and for that you have to be of a sound mind and it costs a lot of money and time. Only the rich and upper class can afford that. In America, guns are more readily available so its not really an achievement to be able to own a gun, so more people will use them to hunt meaning its not a rare thing and therefore not important enough to be an upper class trait.
I think the housing thing really depends on the person. A lot of people I know around my age (late 20s early 30s) have basically given up on the idea of ever owning a house in the area we live in (south west England)
As a British person, I am baffled by cards. I see the point of sending a card to someone you are not going to see, but I really don't understand why we physically hand over a card to the recipient, face to face, or why I have to give my wife a card on the actual day for birthday, anniversary, valentine etc but for Christmas I have to hand it to her several weeks in advance so that she can enjoy it, because of I hand it to her actually on Christmas Day she will throw it back at me and not speak to me for a while because I obviously don't care. 🤔 mystery.
We had to get school supplies for secondary, but it was never fun, because it meant going back to school, and the end of the holidays. I always thought gap years were an American thing, I don't know anyone who had them in the UK.
I didn't know anyone who took a gap year in the US.
About statistics on home ownership. In the UK in 2018, 63% of homes in England were owner occupied, 20% privately rented and 17% social renting (the British equivalent of what I guess would be a housing project in the States - although I understand that US housing projects are much worse). Although, twenty years ago the rate of owner occupiers was higher at 68% - it's fallen over time as house prices have risen a lot faster than wages so fewer people can afford to buy.
In the USA, according to the US census bureau, in 2018 the rate of owner occupiers was 64.2% and back in 2000 it was 67.1% so has also fallen over that time.
So there is actually no real difference between the two countries in overall figures. Also when it comes to ethnicity, white Americans and Whit Brits are both much more likely to be home owners than black Americans or black Brits.
Actually owner occupier rates were well over 70% at their peak. The reason it has fallen so much is because of the introduction of the buy-to-let mortgage in the late 1990s.