All Expenses Paid
My father offered to cover all the expenses for my wedding. But there was a catch. He meant “everything” in a very selfish way. He want himself and his buddies to have an open bar, while the rest of the guests paid for their drinks.
His idea was to park his motorhome at the venue and hand out drinks only to people he recognized. When we said this was illegal, he wanted to have a voucher-operated bar. He wanted to have an infinite number of vouchers while the rest of the guests would only receive one.
Unbelievably, he thought we would fall all over his ingenuity and magnanimity. In the end, we had to settle for no open bar. I believe he encouraged his friends to open a tab and present it to him later, but that was a situation I couldn’t control.
Oh, his “offer” also encompassed the pre-wedding dinner. He insisted on a fancy restaurant with a wide range of courses, including prime rib, and drinks. All of that for a surprisingly low cost per person, equivalent to around $10/head.
So, we got the dinner like he asked. But there was something we didn’t know. He had the restaurant split the bill: The first $10 covered by him for each person present, and the remaining balance on me. Two of his guests were no-shows, though, so I had to cover their food costs, an additional $20, since the meals were already prepared.
The most frustrating ordeal was his refusal to contribute or even approve of the wedding unless I confirmed my wife’s medical expenses were settled. The year before, she’d had a serious care accident that left her uninsured and hospitalized, and with nurermous bills.
At the time, he told me to leave her and even tried to stop me from visiting her in the hospital.I managed to convince him that her parents’ military insurance could take care of it, though that was a lie. He bought it since he knew nothing about military benefits and had never met them.
This pretext managed to keep him quiet during the ceremony. Unfortunately, it took almost the first decade of our marriage to clear those medical debts. Thanks for nothing, dad.