Woman loses house after spending £13,000 on friends' weddings

But she still won’t turn an invite down

A guest on ITV’s This Morning has shocked viewers by revealing she lost her home - after spending £13,000 attending friends’ weddings.

Georgina Childs, 30, claims she was forced to move back in with her parents in Woodford, Essex, when she started sinking further into her overdraft.

Speaking on This Morning on Monday, the PR account manager revealed that she had spent £13,000 attending 14 weddings in the past four years and, as the wedding invites stacked up, she began putting the costs of hotels and transport on her credit card.

“Initially there's that exciting feeling,” she told presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield.

“It's always nice to be invited to a wedding but when you start to look into the finer details where you need to travel to, the accommodation you need to book, the gift lists, all of that, it is a bit of a gulp as you realise quite how much you're going to spend.”

She also revealed that being asked to be bridesmaid seven times added to the costs as well as attending nine different hen dos.

“When you get the invite you want to book the accommodation because you want to be near the church or the venue or you want to be in the same accommodation as your friends and make the most of the weekend but you haven't necessarily budget for an accommodation bill of that month of that year,” she explained.

“It's easier to put that on a credit card and then things mount up.”

Despite her rising debts and losing her home, Childs insisted that she still wouldn’t turn down a wedding invitation because it’s a “social faux pas.”

“Some people say I should start turning down invites for once removed type friends or someone I'm not as close to but it's easy to say that, it's not that easy to turn down a wedding invite,” she said.

“I think that's almost seen as a bit of a social faux pas. It is an honour to receive an invite so to turn it down it could be seen as offensive.”

To try and cut back costs, Childs says chooses to stay in Airbnb accommodation instead of fancy hotels and wears the same wedding outfits when she can.

However, This Morning viewers were not impressed and criticised her for getting in debt just to attend someone else's wedding.

“Is this girl for real right now on @thismorning?! She’d rather live with her parents then say no to a wedding invite?!” one person wrote.

Another added: “I’m sorry but am I supposedly feel sorry for her, it’s her fault for spending the money.

“Why should brides have to accommodate to her budget when it’s their hen nights/ wedding!! It’s not their fault she can’t say no!”

Someone else said, “'If you can’t afford it, then just don’t go! It’s that simple! She doesn’t want to be rude by declining an invite but she’s on national TV blaming her friends for her own recklessness and debt problems.”

This comes after a new survey of 1,040 Brits by Provident revealed that wedding guests pay an average of £1,015 on the big day, and twice as much if it’s abroad.

The research factored in pre- and post-celebration additions including hotels, wedding gifts, outfits and the hen or stag do.

Celebratory drinks, meals and engagement party ensembles were also included in the costs.

What’s more, it found that guests at abroad weddings are spending an extra £1,035 on flights, hotels, insurance and luggage totalling a shocking £2,050 on average.