In the little village she lives in in Herefordshire. Very different plan, wedding in the ancient village church by a Vicar of Dibley’esque (apparently) vicar followed by a very relaxed reception in the garden with a hog spit etc. I will probably be doing much of the decorating ect as Penny isn’t bothered 
. Luckily I got loads of stuff from Lucy’s and put it in Penny’s car. . It is a gorgeous spot right by a river ect so as long as the weather is good all should be well. I’m not sure there is a plan B 
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Did you see Lucy’s? It was the last one added, (Miles) probably more now,! She was so, so lovely 
Yes, I did see Lucy’s. And I love that photo of you smiling/laughing.
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Fingers crossed for good weather. Don’t forget the photos on the day.
And here’s wishing you and the family a safe journey to the UK.
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I hope you’ve got it sorted now.
Fwiw, I sometimes book with Booking.com. No upfront deposit usually and you can cancel up to quite a short time before the date, depending on what the accommodation has set as its parameters. It’s on their entry on the site. We were away last week and I only paid for our gîte a week or less before we arrived.
At the risk of sounding like your mum (sorry), it gives you more choice and certainty. With Booking.com, once I got to Genius Level 1, which didn’t take long at all, I started getting discounts on accommodation.
No not yet! I was multi tasking in class meetings at school yesterday, thought it s bit rich to get out my card . Today I’ve been to Bergerac, been to the estate agency to send some emails, been to the Dr (20kms each way) and come home and collapsed in a heap, I’m so tired! I need to go and do a house visit in an hour and have hundreds of plants I need to get in the ground. No not yet, fingers crossed the place I found is still available when I get back to my computer . It was on booking and I got half way through reserving.
I always use booking.com and set filters if I need parking, pet friendly etc. Look at prices and then a score over 8 with several reviews. Then read the reviews carefully. I have found amazing BnB and chateaux and apartments.
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Don’t forget to check if cashback is available with booking.com either F or UK. It quite often is.
I’ve never noticed that option, Karen. How does it work please?
Karen if you have time can you please do a post on cash back and how it works ect. I’ve never used it and often think to ask you as you mention it often. I now have a burner (work ) phone so I’m a bit more open to apps on there!
YMMV but I’ve had mixed experiences with booking-dot-com - once I booked a hotel in London through them and they failed to pass the booking on to the hotel, which left me having to find somewhere to stay at 9.30 at night.
And another time I booked a hotel in Rouen with them, and they (or maybe the hotel) charged my card on arrival and then again when I checked out, and didn’t refund the holding deposit for a couple of weeks, which was annoying - I had to top up my Wise account to make sure I had sufficient Euros for my trip.
So these days I am more inclined to book direct with hotels - they tend to prefer it because they don’t have to pay fees to the referrer, and usually give you the same or better rates anyway.
Booking sites are however handy for doing research on where to stay.
When I worked for Simpson Travel we had s terrible experience for one of our owners. A big group of Dutch or Germans showed up with a booking from booking.com that had been totally faked! They’d copied loads of the info and photos and obviously taken the money and ran! Not sure what the outcome was as I lost my job with covid 
So I’ve booked! Looks pretty good considering its cheaper than a cheap hotel for 4 people.
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I did book through booking, couldn’t find same price elsewhere!
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Sometimes you can’t book direct if it isn’t a hotel.
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I’m pleased you have somewhere to stay. Now you can concentrate on wedding stuff. 
We’ve only had good experiences with Booking.com. A couple of years ago I’d booked a gîte on Booking.com and not too long before we travelled, the owner contacted me to say there was a major electrical problem and the rental wouldn’t be available. We got online pronto and found something else so the stress didn’t last too long.
Booking.com got in touch to ask if they could help us with finding something else but we’d already done it. Hopefully they’re equally helpful at short notice but of course your group of people weren’t actually clients.
I have another story about our other experience with Booking.com but it would take your thread way off topic.
I would suggest looking at moneysavingexpert.com. Cashback works broadly the same wherever you are so that is your starting point.
In France I agree with fellow poster @Raçhman that igraal and ebuyclub are worth a look and some like poulpeo. In the UK everyone I know uses Topcashback and Quidco.
if I was in another country I’d look at local forums to identify which cashback co oeople are using and which ones are (relatively) reliable. Germany has some good ones, for instance payback de. Cashback is just the cashback co earning an affiliate commission and passing some to you.
The advice in my post upthread about clearing cookies in browser and making sure you’re not denying tracking by any setting or app and going straight through from the cashback site to do the transaction on the site you’re buying from, is important. That is why I suggested use one browser openly very relaxed settings - and use it just for cashback. I mostly use Opera. As you want your cashback to track and you’ll want to be paid. Lots of people track their cashbacks due with diary or spreadsheet.
Not a lot else to say really! The tip about buying giftcards on cashback sites gives instant discount on retailer site. Otherwise you’d typically be waiting 2-4 months for payout and sometimes longer. Oh, and never use for Hilton I don’t know anybody who’s got paid on a Hilton transaction.
in your case I’d also check US and Aus cashback sites. Read the conditions carefully - for years I used IHG USA via topcashback.con (US site) to book Europe hotels and got paid more and more accurately than Topcashback.co. uk was offering.
Hotels are suffering ATM so the chains have some highish % out there. So has hotels.com, agoda, booking.com, and you might find cashback available on Trip.com. Even kayak (.com, .fr, .co.uk etc) is probably on a few.
Check the sites generally and see if retailers ypu use are on them.Your Wise account can accept US$ from American Clearing House (ACH) and other currencies so that’s how you get paid out
Other than that just check the main sites and get stuck in..
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