Strings Attached
I hate wedding culture. My fiancée and I thought we would escape the drama and money by having a small thing. Well, family started trying to throw money at us to make it bigger and more spectacular. We were surprised, but it was a good surprise. Then the demands started coming out.
They wanted this, they wanted that, they wanted this person to come, these colors, dresses can’t do this, this person has to be flower girl, this person HAS to be a groomsman, etc., etc.
Suddenly it didn’t feel like our wedding, but an excuse for our families to have a family reunion. We put our foot down and said: Thank you all for your kindness and generosity when it comes to our wedding. Unfortunately, it looks like we may not have been on the same page as the rest of you.
When we were offered money for this wedding, we did not realize it came with strings attached. With so many requests and so many demands from people we didn’t expect would think they had a say in our wedding, we have decided to give everyone their money back.
Our understanding of what a gift is must be very different. If you would like to give us money without strings attached or requests or demands, we will gracefully accept it.
But if you believe a gift should come with stipulations, we must regretfully and politely decline. This has caused an epic storm. To the point where I have people saying they will never come to our wedding (honestly, not the worst thing in the world), that we are spoiled, all this.
My parents are rather upset about it, but my fiancée’s family (who never made any demands and gave us a small cash gift) said we did the right thing. We are halfway to canceling the whole party and just absconding into the wilderness to do the wedding the way we want. Story credit: Reddit / weddingofmy