If you get a wedding invitation in the mail, there is always information about how to RSVP. This way, the bride and groom will know how many people are planning to attend their wedding and can plan accordingly.

One bride ended up having a lot of guests decline to attend her wedding after they RSVPd, but we’re on the side of the guests here because the bride gave them additional information after they had already said they would attend.

One wedding guest explained the situation on Reddit. He started by saying that he and his wife planned to attend the wedding and sent an RSVP. Later, they received a voicemail from the bride telling them they owe her $150, $75 each for dinner at the reception.

He was shocked and unsure what to do. It was so unexpected. Once he wrapped his mind around her request, he called her on his lunch break and asked her why she was charging them a fee for dinner. She responded, “Who are you to ask about what I’m doing for my wedding?! I don’t understand why all of these folks are declining after my calls to them like we’re supposed to pay for everybody to d*** eat. It’s ‘my’ wedding! You either pay or you don’t come!”

He tried to explain to her that she should have mentioned the fee on the invitation instead of after receiving RSVPs, but she didn’t want to listen. She repeated, “Either pay or don’t come.” He chose not to attend the wedding.

On Reddit, instead of expressing shock that a bride was charging her wedding guests for dinner, many people shared similar stories. One person wrote, “We had one of these cases where the bride RSVPed with a list of demands (outfit in pastel tones you MUST buy, pay for the hotel and a minimum value monetary wedding gift plus one of the very brand name items from these wedding lists you can make). 180 guests were supposedly invited, but the majority was confused after the demands came; the bride than said in a fit of anger how they were expecting the guests to pay for her dream wedding + partly first house purchase, She was very upset when declines started pouring in, because she already ordered the food for the initial RSVP.”

Another Reddit user shared, “I’ve seen one bride going as far as demanding the min. price for their wedding gifts to be 200 euros (~250$). She said this was because she ‘doesn’t want any random garbage and it’s not THAT much money you can save up.’ To no-one’s surprise, the guests weren’t on board with this and the wedding had to turn into ‘a small gathering with only people closest to us.’

Some Reddit users said the bride should have phrased it differently. She could have asked for a monetary gift instead of a gift from a registry. One person wrote, “It is completely ok to ask for monetary gifts instead of registering. Considering the attendance would be way higher hadn’t she asked for that set $75 pp, and guests would probably give on average that much, she would have had more money in the end.”

Another Reddit user shared, “My sister was going to do this. She planned to charge guests $75 per person to attend the reception at her wedding to cover the cost of the venue instead of asking for gifts. The venue changed and she didn’t end up charging money. Apparently this is a fairly common thing now, but I cant help but think its incredibly rude. People (family in particular) often feel obligated to attend weddings and gifts aren’t really gifts if they are considered obligations. I don’t think anyone should be expected to pay to attend a wedding.”

Do you think it’s rude to be charged admission to a wedding reception? Do you think it’s rude to ask for a monetary gift instead of a gift from a registry gift? Have you ever been invited to a wedding where the bride asked for money or made outrageous demands of her guests?