My best friend demanded I pay $2.5K to attend their wedding, tip bartenders: ‘Scam couple’
The bond between Phil* and Jake* has made them inseparable; for years, the pair have done everything together and consider themselves best buddies.
So when Jake announced he was marrying his US-born girlfriend, Nina*, Phil was over the moon.
Not long after announcing their engagement, the newly engaged couple sent out their wedding invitations, and, of course, Phil and his girlfriend Lily were invited.
Couple requests exorbitant payment to attend wedding
The British couple were ecstatic for Jake and Nina, immediately RSVPing “Yes” to the happy day.
A few months after sending their response, an email landed in Phil’s inbox.
The email read: “Thank you for RSVPing to our wedding, and thank you for helping us have the wedding of our dreams.”
Everything seemed fine until Phil scrolled a bit further.
“At the bottom of the email, Phil saw a link that said ‘Click here for payment,’” his friend Luke* recounted on Reddit. “He assumed this was a link to the honeymoon fund and went about his day.”
Curiosity took the better of him, and a few days after receiving the email, Phil reopened it and gave the link a click.
The link took Phil to a payment page, requesting a donation of $2,528 (£2,000) (A$3688) for “attendance at the wedding.”
Naturally, he thought the email was a scam, so he immediately contacted the wedding venue to inform them of the communications.
Instead, the venue informed Phil that the email was, in fact, correct.
“Nina and Jake thank you for your contribution to enable them to have their dream wedding,” they told the British man.
“Phil was astounded, but because he cares about his friend, decided to empty his entire savings to attend the wedding,” the post continued. “But in hindsight realised the invite of his partner was probably not as generous as he originally realised.”
He swallowed his anger and paid the amount; it was his best friend, after all.
The wedding eventually rolled around, and despite the payment debacle, Phil and his girlfriend Lily were excited to watch their friends get married.
But when they arrived, they quickly realised drinks were not a part of the dinner package.
“Phil and partner had a couple of drinks and the bill was about $37.90 (£30) (A$58),” the post continued. “At the end of the wedding, when checking out, Phil went to pay his bar bill. The bill was the £30, plus nearly $252.72 (£200) (A$386).”
Phil was instantly puzzled, and had no clue why he was charged the extra amount.
He was later informed by the bar staff that the married couple expected their guests to front not only the bill to hire the venue but the tips for staff.
“Note this is in the UK where tipping the venue is not a thing that happens (nor does charging guests for attendance for that matter — but does that happen anywhere?),” the post added.
Fed up and with no money in his savings, Phil negotiated a lower tip amount for the staff.
“After the wedding, Phil checked the cost of the venue and calculated that the cost had been spread amongst the guests but NOT the bride and groom,” the post read.
“So, they had basically got a free wedding out of it.”
“Dream wedding? Get the guests to pay for it!”
The Reddit community were shocked by the “entitled” actions the couple took for their wedding, absolutely gobsmacked at their treatment of friends and family.
“Wow that would be enough for me to cut all contact with supposed not friend,” a shocked person wrote.
“I would never, ever empty my savings for a scam couple like that,” said another.
“To be honest, I don’t know what’s worse, charging the guests or emptying your savings for some entitled people to get married,” said another.
“This is beyond tacky,” another summed it up. “This is downright grifter behaviour.”
“Dream wedding?” the original poster quipped. “Get the guests to pay for it.”
*Names have been changed
