Not everyone can afford an elaborate wedding, and that’s ok.

What would you do if you were a bridesmaid in your best friend’s wedding, but when you showed up, she put you (and the other bridesmaids) to work getting everything ready for the ceremony and reception? She even had a cash bar, but for the groomsmen, it was open.

That is the situation that the woman in this story was in, and at the end of the wedding, she learned that the bride’s parents were very rich and offered to pay for the whole thing. She was very upset about what happened, but there isn’t much she can do.

Personally, I think it is awful to force your bridesmaids to do that work without them knowing ahead of time. Read through the full story below and see what you think.

My childhood best friend’s wedding was the worst.

I was a bridesmaid in my childhood best friend’s wedding. I wasn’t expecting it to be such a mess, but it was the worst 24 hours of wedding “festivity” I have ever experienced.

Everything is starting out well.

She was not a bridezilla at all and let us choose our own dresses in the color she chose, which was great. My parents were invited as was my family (husband and kids), but since we lived 8 hours away, I opted to go with my mom and dad and leave my kids and husband at home.

So, my dad drove me and dropped me off at a hotel the night before the rehearsal and I rode to the venue with another bridesmaid.

Nothing too bad here.

We were supposed to stay at the venue the night before the wedding since it was about 40 minutes outside of the city and in the middle of nowhere.

I got to the rehearsal lunch and it was on the lawn outside of the venue and there was a potluck set up. Ok that’s fine, I get that not everyone has a huge budget.

Things are starting to get weird.

We do the rehearsal and eat this weird potluck meal and then the bride says to all six bridesmaids “don’t forget to make yourself a plate for dinner and go put it in the fridge inside.”

I was immediately taken aback, but I followed directions without objecting. That night we were supposed to be having her “bachelorette party,” so I was expecting to go out or at least order in a meal but instead we had funky potluck leftovers. Ok fine, whatever, it was one meal so I moved on.

 

Then, we all have to help set up tables outside and my friend says “I need you guys to make your bouquets, prepare food for tomorrow, and iron the table cloths, and set up chairs and tables.

We spent six hours working our behinds off and my back was screaming after Ironing these cloths with her sister. Again, I get that budgets can be tight, but there was no warning that we were going to be put to work and I was in a mini dress and heels doing hard labor and moving furniture.

Why couldn’t her husband and his friends pitch in and help?

Her husband-to-be and his white trash friends left right after the rehearsal and stayed in a hotel and got trashed. Not a scrap of help from them.

Come 8pm, we were all exhausted, but we rallied and ate our crusty potluck food while the seven of us shared a solitary bottle of champagne. It was nice to catch up and chat.

This type of thing should be discussed ahead of time.

The morning of the wedding, we all got dressed and did our makeup and then the other bridesmaids started freaking out because they didn’t know how to do their hair, and the bride said we all needed to try to do something with our hair.

As a mom of two daughters, I stepped in and did the hair of 4 of the bridesmaids and had to scramble to do my own before the ceremony.

The bride had a hair stylist and makeup artist come in. If she had offered, I gladly would have paid to have mine done, but it was not an option at that point.

An open bar can be very expensive.

The ceremony was fine, but I was just ready to go home. Then we get to the reception. They brought in a BBQ truck to provide the food, which was forgettable, and they had a bar but I was told that we had to pay for our drinks.

Again, ok that’s fine, I’ll buy my own pinot gris. Then I see the groomsmen getting progressively more tanked and they are at the bar every five minutes.

Well, this isn’t fair at all.

I asked the bride what was up with that and she said “Oh, _new husband_ paid for his groomsmen to have an open bar.”

Neat. These dudes were being so nasty and it was throwing the vibes off massively. The bridesmaids and I danced and enjoyed ourselves as best as we could with our self-purchased drinks and then finally it is time for the bride and groom to leave.

I would be pretty upset at this point.

A huge limo rolls up and the bride is shocked. She says to me “omg, my parents said they had a surprise for us!” She then informed me that since I had moved away, her mom and dad had become multi-millionaires because they had invested in properties all over town so they could afford the limo.

I asked tactfully if they had been the ones who paid for the wedding and she said “oh yeah, all of it. They are loaded.” You could have fooled me…

Good, she is smart to put a stop to this.

The bride and groom rode away and then her parents came up to the wedding party and said, it’s time to tear down. The groomsmen were blitzed and slinking away and the other bridesmaids and I were so upset.

I finally just said no. I had my parents there at this time so I hopped into their car and hightailed it out of there.

Nobody will be surprised to see that the husband is a bad person.

It was the worst wedding I have ever been to and it made me so angry to find out that her parents are loaded and they just didn’t feel like paying for their youngest child to have a nice wedding.

She’s somehow still married to her husband but I hate him so much. They came to visit my family once a few years ago and he kept pulling my dog’s tail, which confirmed my suspicions that he’s just a jerk.

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She didn’t need to splurge on the wedding, but going cheap and forcing the bridesmaids to do the work was unacceptable.

Read on to see what the people in the comments think about it.

This commenter is exactly right.

She was right to leave at the end.

Oh, I bet this is exactly what happened.

It was making me mad too.

If you enjoyed this post, check out this story about a single person who is dumbfounded when her friends insist couples count as one person when splitting a check.

This was just crazy.

The bride was out of line in so many ways; I’m surprised any of her bridesmaids are still friends. She was deceptive with them, and then let the groomsmen drink for free.

There is nothing wrong with an inexpensive wedding, but this is not the way to do it.