Being invited to a close friend's wedding and being congratulated on their union is a very happy moment, but one “guest” is feeling a bit devastated after her wedding invitation was rescinded. Writing on Reddit's “Weddings” subreddit on August 25, 2024, the woman explained that she had already spent over $1,000 on a flight from North America to Asia, but a college friend told her she could no longer stay.
The guest began her post by sharing that a year ago, a college friend emailed her and some other college friends with the date of their overseas wedding in Asia. Last week, the woman spent over $1,000 on plane tickets to prepare for the ceremony. But a few days later, the bride contacted the Reddit user and her friend group to explain that she could no longer invite them to the wedding.
The woman had already made travel plans, so she sent the bride a separate message explaining the situation: “Hey, we just booked the tickets and everything 3 days ago. Our agent knew and found out (I don't think anyone else knew), so we're going to cancel but we don't think we can. I understand that we're limited in numbers as a family, so it's okay, don't worry.” The bride responded to the poster's message and asked him to let her know the situation. She said that if she couldn't cancel her flight, they would try to make an exception for her, but not for the rest of the group.
Now the woman is struggling with what to do: cancel her plane ticket and get a partial refund (if she's eligible for a refund), or attend the wedding but feel unwelcome because it's a “mandatory invitation.” Additionally, she noted that her friends would feel “terrible” if they found out she was given preferential treatment. To help her decide, she reached out to Reddit. “I feel so bad about all of this,” she said.
Online, the incident left people confused and questioning why the bride didn't help her guests and the rest of the group find alternative accommodations, leading many to conclude that she was trying to cover up the real reason for cancelling the invitations. “I think she invited way more people than they could accommodate and she thought that not that many people would actually attend an overseas wedding,” one commenter wrote.
Others were stunned by the bride's response, noting that guests shouldn't feel embarrassed. “Your friends should be horrified,” one Reddit user said. “What they did was incredibly rude. It's one thing to let everyone know that you understand if the hotel is unexpectedly booked and you can't attend for some reason, but it's beyond rude to explicitly tell everyone not to come.” Others encouraged the Reddit user to just get on a plane and take a mini vacation.
