Photo: Gorodenkoff / Shutterstock
She didn't have enough money to pay for the food at the reception.
By Nia Tipton — Written on Mar 12, 2023
A woman was ridiculed by a bride after refusing to eat from the costly food menu provided at the reception.
Posting to the subreddit "r/AmItheA--hole" (AITA) — a forum where users try to figure out if they were wrong or not in an argument that has been bothering them — she explained that she'd been invited to her work colleague's wedding.
Everything at the wedding had been going smoothly until it was time for the guests to sit down for dinner during the wedding reception, and the woman noticed how expensive the meals were.
She left the wedding to go eat at McDonald's because the bride was charging for food.
In her Reddit post, she wrote that after receiving an invitation from her colleague to attend her wedding, she was ecstatic.
She decided to ask the bride, before the day, if there would be any fees that she'd have to pay. The bride assured her there wasn't, saying, "No, you don't have to pay me anything."
"On the day itself, everything went well until the reception," she recalled. "To my shock, I was presented with a wedding menu that had prices on it."
She noticed that everything was "ridiculously expensive," pointing out that a steak was priced at $50.
After seeing the menu, the woman internally debated if she should confront the bride, who had previously told her there were no additional costs at the wedding. However, she ultimately decided against it to not embarrass or ruin her day by calling attention to the price in front of everyone.
Though, she was now stuck with what to do in terms of another option, considering she didn't bring enough money to purchase something off of the wedding's menu.
"I remembered that I saw a McDonald's about five minutes away from the hotel. As tactfully as I could, I asked the bride if I could make a quick stop [at] McDonald's as I didn't bring enough money for the reception meal."
She made sure to tell the bride that she wouldn't be gone long, and would return in time for the "gift ceremony" and cake being cut.
The bride called the woman 'cheap' for wanting to leave and eat somewhere else.
While the woman had been extremely respectful and even assumed the bride would have no issue, that wasn't the case.
"To my horror, she got really upset. She said that she put in so much effort to get this 'Michelin-star restaurant service' yet I still wasn't happy."
The bride argued that the woman was trying to "bring her down" by choosing to eat at McDonald's than at the wedding reception. She rebutted, pointing out that she was told there would be no extra costs at the wedding, and because of that, she didn't bring any extra cash with her.
The bride then "scoffed" saying that it was her own fault for not bringing any money and that when she said there was no fee for her wedding, she meant there was no attendance fee.
"She replied, 'What I meant was there is no attendance fee! You literally assumed that you'd get a free five-course dinner. Wow, you're cheaper than I thought!'"
The bride promptly asked the woman to leave her wedding altogether, who was left "hurt" and "dumbstruck" by the request. When she returned home, she told her boyfriend about what happened, and while he thought the entire thing was funny, he admitted that she was in the wrong.
He told her she chose the wrong time to be "stingy" and should've just paid for the food at the wedding or paid the bride back later.
"My other friends agree as well, saying that it was not tactful of me for doing that at the wedding - and although she lied, I should have just brushed it off instead of dampening her happy spirits."
Most Reddit users agreed that she was NTA (Not The A-hole) for refusing to buy food at the wedding.
"This was ridiculous. If she hadn’t told you a lie about it, it wouldn’t have been as big a deal but it is still bizarre," one Reddit user wrote.
Another user added, "Never before heard of a wedding where you have to pay for the food. If there's a food fee, she should have told you or it should have been clarified in the invitation."
However, the Redditor pointed out that she could've handled it better.
"You should have just gone to McDonald's in secret and came back later. When asked, you could just say you [weren't] feeling well and didn't want to eat."
A third user chimed in, "I mean you definitely could have just slipped out quietly and not said anything. But it sounds like she's the one that escalated the situation afterward as well."
"If you find yourself in a situation at a wedding next time consider talking to the [maid-of-honor] or another member of the wedding party instead of the bride," a fourth user suggested.
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.