My Friends Scammed Me & All Their Other Guests Into Paying $3,000 Each for Their Wedding

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When you’re invited to a wedding, you can assume that you’ll have to spend some money. More often than not, you’ll have to travel, pay for lodging, buy a new outfit, etc. Things can get pricey. But the idea is that when you support the couple and want to be there to witness them profess their love for one another, you do it.

That is what it means to show up for the people we love. One friend, however, found that his goodwill and support was misused when a bride and groom used their wedding to take advantage of their guests. 

Jack got an interesting message after he RSVPed for his friend's wedding.

A friend of Jack, the wedding guest, went to Reddit to share the story. The OP wrote that Jack was invited to Sophie and Jeff’s wedding. He’s known Jeff for a long time and was excited to attend the event with his girlfriend.

Months after he RSVPed, he received an email that read, “Thank you for RSVPing to our wedding, and thank you for helping us have the wedding of our dreams.”

At the bottom of the email, there was a link that read, “Click here for payment.” Jack assumed the link was for a honeymoon fund. He didn’t click it right away and went on about his day.

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He got a big surprise after clicking on the link.

via GIPHY

Days later, he revisited the email and clicked the link. It took him to a page that requested just shy of £2,000 (more than $2,600 US) for attendance at the wedding. He assumed it was a mistake and contacted the wedding venue to alert them. But when he spoke to someone at the venue, the person said, “Sophie and Jeff thank you for your contribution to enable them to have their dream wedding.”

“Jack was astounded,” the OP wrote. “But because he cares about his friend, decided to empty his entire savings to attend the wedding. But in hindsight realized the invite of his partner was probably not as generous as he originally realized.”

Then he got hit with additional charges at the wedding.

To compensate for all the money he’d shelled out, Jack decided he would indulge in all of the free food and booze the night of the reception. But on the night of the wedding, Jack learned that in addition to paying to simply attend the wedding, he also had to pay for drinks as they were not included.

By the end of the night, Jack and his girlfriend’s bar bill was nearly £200 (nearly $270 US) even though their drinks cost about £30 ($40 US). The venue told him that the bride and groom requested that every guest be charged this amount as a tip to the venue.

Later, he realized the couple had the guests pay for their reception.

When it was all said and done, Jack checked the price of this venue. He realized that the cost for the whole shindig had been paid for by guests and not the couple. “Not only did the bride and groom pass on the costs of a ridiculously priced venue to the guests…but then they passed on the cost of a tip to the guests WITHOUT TELLING THEM, as a required charge on check out,” the Reddit post explained.

The OP wrote that he had never heard of anything so entitled in his life. Neither had the people on Reddit.

Redditors said Jack should cut off his friend.

“Uh…Yeah, no,” one user shared. “Once I saw the payment screen, I would have called and canceled my RSVP. I don’t care who the bride and groom are to me. You want a specific type of wedding, pay for it yourself. What they did was down right tacky.”

Others were shocked that Jack paid the money in the first place. “Your friend Jack and every other guest were absolute idiots for just meekly going along with this scam,” another person offered.

Someone else suggested that Jack end this friendship. “In essence they manipulated and used you to get a free wedding and honeymoon leaving you struggling to pay your rent. That they are disgusting money grubbing low life’s and to never ever contact you again,” the person wrote.