Bride and Groom Allegedly Forced Guests to do Dishes at Wedding
We've all been to a few bad parties in our time, but one Redditor's experience at a poorly-budgeted wedding held in the Southern United States some years ago might take the cake.
In a post that spared no detail, Reddit user @Kidpixthrowaway dished on the nightmare nuptials. Since it went live on June 24, the post has accrued 80 comments and 721 upvotes, the social media platform's version of Facebook's "likes."
Setting the scene, @Kidpixthrowaway wrote that the wedding took place at a "gorgeous and expensive venue." Nothing seemed amiss at first, she wrote. The ceremony went off without a hitch, the bride and groom posed for pictures, and the food was made with "top-of-the-line" ingredients.
Loading up her plate, @Kidpixthrowaway, who was 21 at the time, sat down and waited for her boyfriend (now her husband) to finish up in the bathroom. When he returned to their table, however, he reported that there was no food remaining.
"Okay, no problem," @Kidpixthrowaway thought. She claimed that she then notified the bride's mother, only to be informed that the situation couldn't be helped. The bride and groom had allegedly shelled out so much money for the venue and the bride's dress that they barely had any left over to spend on catering. What food was served had been prepared by a family friend who happened to be a chef. What's more, there was allegedly only enough of it to feed three-quarters of the guests, so the remaining quarter went hungry, she said.
The event had more indignities in store for the attendees. Just as the reception began, @Kidpixthrowaway wrote, the maid of honor asked several guests, including @Kidpixthrowaway herself, to follow her into the un-air-conditioned kitchen. Baking in the Southern summer heat, @Kidpixthrowaway recounted how she listened in shock as the maid of honor ordered her and her companions to wash "stacks" of plates and cups.
"Apparently part of self-catering is you rent the dishes and glassware, and if they aren't returned clean at the end of the evening you lose your deposit. But since the bride and groom are pinching pennies at this point, they haven't hired anyone to clean up," she wrote.
So, @Kidpixthrowaway said she spent the majority of the reception scrubbing dishware and cutlery as the bride and groom celebrated their wedding. However, she wrote, she didn't miss much, true to form, the newlyweds didn't have enough cake for everyone.
The couple reportedly divorced a mere three years later. While @Kidpixthrowaway did not reveal the cause of their split, she wrote that she and her entire immediate family declined their invitations "to the bride's second wedding."
In most countries, weddings are a financial as well as an emotional investment. While the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic skewed data for the years 2019 and 2020, engaged couples spent an average of $33,931 on weddings in 2018, according to The Knot, which conducts an annual study of related expenses. That figure included the average cost of a wedding dress ($1,631) and the average cost of catering ($70 per person).
