It is truly an honour to be invited to somebody’s wedding.
It means that you are among the group of people who the couple hold dear to their hearts.
You are special to the bride and the groom and they want you to witness their first step into married life.
In turn, you as an invited guest will prepare for the wedding and will spend time looking for that special gift that you think will mean a lot to the couple. But, what if, along with the wedding invitation comes a set of rules which the bride expects you to observe, and that is paying for your own meal?
A bride who is worried about being unable to afford her wedding took to social media to ask people for advice. A screenshot of the post has gone viral.
The post was put on Reddit with the harsh headline: “Bride fails to budget appropriately, wants her guests to pay for her reception”. The woman’s name and the photo were blurred out, but her post read: “Did anyone ask their guests to pay for their meals?
“Everything is so expensive at the moment. We’re either going to postpone our October wedding, cancel the guest part or ask our guests to pay for their meals in lieu of gifts.”
She added, “I’ve sent invites out so not sure how we’d go about it. Please help. I’m stressed and sad,” followed by a crying emoji.
It is a common perception that out of everything at the event, the guests mostly remember food variety and quality. This is why even though the organisers spend a lot to have a beautiful event, they have full-on debates on deciding the menu and choosing caterers. The expenses incurred are never covered by the gift money that the guests give. In fact, the food they eat is a lot more expensive.
People did sympathise with the woman, saying she was being more than reasonable if she was prepared to forgo the gifts in order to have her guests there with her.
One user wrote: “Personally if I was asked to pay for my food within reason instead of a gift, I would be really happy with that. So long as that was the understanding from the start. Some people just want to spend the day with their family and friends. I see no issue with that.”
Another user wrote: “Exactly what I was going to say. Not a terrible deal if meals are in a reasonable price range and gifts aren’t expected. I’d be okay with it.”
