AITA for Refusing to Fund My Daughter Expensive Wedding? At a recent family dinner, Linda, a 51-year-old photographer, sparked a heated debate about her daughter Emma’s extravagant wedding plans. Excited about her upcoming nuptials, Emma set her heart on a lavish celebration with an estimated cost of $40,000. To help cover the expenses, she asked family members for financial contributions.
Drawing from her extensive experience photographing weddings, Linda voiced her concerns about the high cost. She suggested that Emma might consider scaling back the wedding to avoid the pitfalls she has seen—where extravagant events often lead to unmet expectations and shorter marriages. Linda’s advice was meant to be practical and heartfelt, based on her observations of the wedding industry.
Let’s swiftly assess a handful of the top comments: AITA for Refusing to Fund My Daughter Expensive Wedding?
NTB.
The issue isn’t small weddings somehow guarantee a happy marriage, it’s that your daughter doesn’t get to demand how much you or anyone else contributes. If one is old enough to get married, one is old enough to pay for the wedding they want.
You and your wife decide how much you’re willing to contribute based on your own finances. If you want to have a say in certain things like the invitation wording, guest list, menu or bar then you should take that into consideration but other than that, if you want to contribute, decide on how much, write her a check and let her plan how she wants. She can either plan the wedding with the money offered or pay the extra for the wedding she wants herself. That’s what adults do.
Frankly, your daughter sounds very spoiled and entitled and that’s going to be more of a problem in her married life than the size of her wedding.
Bramblin_Man writes:
$40,000 is a down-payment on a house, not the cost of a glorified party: unless your last name is “Warbucks” then it’s a fairly ridiculous ask. However, you equating that to “your marriage won’t last” is a pretty low blow, and wholly unnecessary. There are a hundred other ways you could have chosen to voice your concerns to your daughter, and instead you essentially went with attacking the stability and prospective longevity of the relationship she is currently all-focused on celebrating and cementing?
Weird choice sir [EDIT: Madam], and undoubtedly counter-productive. EAB
Friendly-Beyond-6102 writes:
On what planet do uncles and aunts chip in (significantly) for the wedding?! Your daughter is deluded and entitled. NTB.
YTB for your reasoning which may be your experience but is not necessarily a fact. The better way to handle it would be to explain that expecting several family members to donate so she could have her dream wedding is childish and she should have a goal of having a great marriage instead of a great wedding.