I have spent the last days at an extravagant wedding in Italy. My best friend- who is from similar background to myself- married a wealthy go-getter from the US. I really had a fantastic time, besides one bothersome incident.
Upon arrival it was quickly apparent which guests were his friends and which were hers. His friends were just like all the others we grew up with, while hers were cliche, privately educated rich types. And while his friends rented a small house to share in the hills, hers had a huge villa at the waterfront + swimming pool. I heard from the groom that rent was 14,000 euros for 5 days.
Most of us were there for several days, and sometimes in the afternoon there would be drinks and social events at the large villa. On these days all the grooms male guests were enlisted for various preparatory tasks, like tidying up, setting tables, moving furniture and other assorted decorations.
What quite bothered me is that we were the only ones given these jobs. It was basically tasks for the working class guests, while all the rich boys- who were actually staying at the villa- just sat around drinking by the pool; nobody ever asked them to do anything.
It was more setting up than tidying up. We were asked to do it so we just did. It’s the most important week of my friend’s life so I don’t want to make a fuss. They paid for us to eat a lot of fancy food, so helping out seems fair enough. My issue was more that the rich boys weren’t asked to help, and it was their villa where all the tasks were based