Today’s Friendly Wedding PSA: If A Guest Doesn’t Show at Your Wedding, Please Do Not Send Them a Bill for Their Meal
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Remember when we had that bride who felt that because one of her wedding guests had not bestowed upon her a thoughtful—and more importantly, monetary—gift that that guest had somehow managed to attend her celebration “for free”?
Well, seems here we’ve got a couple of the same ilk, who felt the need to invoice one of their guests who couldn’t attend their wedding at the last minute, lest she get away with sticking them with the bill for her uneaten meal.
Jessica Baker and her husband were set to attend the wedding of one of his cousins when their childcare fell through at the last minute. Because it was explicitly an adults-only wedding, they felt they had no choice but to stay home, and they missed the wedding.
A few weeks later, Jessica opened her mailbox to find a bill for the two meals left uneaten at the relative’s wedding, along with tax and service charge for good measure. Reimbursement to the tune of $75.90 was requested for their empty seats and untouched plates.
Now, there’s all sorts of bad behavior going on, here—I don’t know how last minute these plans fell apart, but I’d say that even if Jessica was certain the bride was getting her hair and makeup done by that point, a text or something just to explain what was happening and that they were sick to miss it would have still been the proper heads-up to give, even if the bride didn’t see it until two days later when she was boarding the plane for the honeymoon. And of course, I’m not sure that publicly lambasting your husband’s cousin on social media is the most classy and diplomatic way to handle the situation, either—but sending any no-show wedding guests a bill is most definitely not an option when it comes to how you might express your displeasure to said guest.
Are you allowed to express disappointment and hurt in a situation like this? Sure. Via a polite phone call or email or some other sort of adult communication. Totally within your rights. But jotting up an invoice and firing it off is cray, makes you look really bad—like, much worse than your impolite no-shower—and is going to result in, well, this. And this is a mess.
Talk to each other, people. Don’t be cray.
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