There is something about weddings and funerals that make people act strangely. Or perhaps, these milestone moments bring a person’s true character to the surface. Sometimes you expect and accept the odd behavior, and sometimes it causes irreparable damage to the relationship.
A friendship ended for one bride who asked her guests to follow a set of rules she explicitly outlined on her wedding website. Even though the rules were not necessarily outlandish or unusual, the bride still found that she was the target of online ridicule. But it didn't end there … the backlash occurred IRL, too.
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Cora Breilein is an event planner who recently shared her wedding planning process on TikTok.
Cora Breilein and her husband Jared hosted an intimate wedding on April 22, reported Insider. The guest list was limited to 96 people. As an event planner, Breilein not only knew how to bring her vision to life, but she made sure to communicate the rules so that her guests could partner with her in making the wedding of her dreams a reality.
That included attire requests, a warning about tardiness, and cuts to the guest list — including plus-ones.
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It was her rule about plus-ones that got people feeling a certain type of way.
Breilein detailed all of these rules on her wedding website and even shared the rules on her TikTok. But there was one rule in particular that had the internet talking: the plus-ones. The bride and groom only wanted people they knew at the wedding, so every guest at their wedding got an invitation with their name on it.
“We didn’t want to meet anyone for the first time at our wedding,” Breilein told Insider. The couple wanted all their guests to have the potential to be in their life long-term. Fiancés, long-term partners, and spouses of their friends were welcome, and each received an invitation.
The plus-one rule made Cora lose a friend of over seven years.
People on the internet called Breilein’s decision "pure insanity.” Breilein turned off comments on the original post, but in a follow-up video, she also said that several strangers called her a "b—-" because of the guidelines.
But more than the online backlash, the plus-one guideline caused Breilein to lose an actual, real-life friend.
Breilein shared that she had a friend of seven years, but when this woman learned that she could not bring her boyfriend to the wedding (a man neither Cora nor Jared had met), things went sour.
Cora said the relationship was already on its last leg.
To be fair, Breilein said that the relationship had suffered during the pandemic. But she extended an invite to her friend as a symbol, saying, “I still want you to be in my life,” Breilein explained.
“There's a big difference between a friendship in which you talk to them every day — they're in your lives, you're going to raise your kids together — versus one where there's maybe some post-pandemic awkwardness." The friend declined the invitation and the two have not spoken since.
Despite the backlash, Cora doesn't regret anything about her wedding day.
Though that friend and several people on the internet didn’t agree with her decisions, Breilein said she doesn’t regret any of her wedding day guidelines.
"The fact that we knew every single person there and I was able to belly laugh — that made it feel so special, and it was so worth it," she said.
Good for her. At the end of the day, friends and people on the internet should remember that a wedding is about the bride and the groom. And since they’re likely spending thousands on the day, they should be able to — within reason — have what they want.
