The journey into wedded bliss is a time filled with love and joy. However, the expenses associated with weddings can quickly turn that joy into stress, as one father recently discovered. He turned to Reddit’s AITA (Am I The A*****e) thread to seek advice on a conundrum he was facing with his daughter’s extravagant wedding dreams.
Originally, the father from New York had made a heartfelt promise to finance his daughter’s wedding, as many parents do in support of their children’s journey into married life. But as he soon found out, his daughter had grand aspirations for her special day.
Contrary to traditional expectations, she wanted a destination wedding in the beautiful landscapes of New Zealand, with a guest list of 100 to 200 people. The price tag? A staggering $200,000. This revelation left the father torn between his desire to fulfill his daughter’s wishes and his reservations about the excessive display of wealth, fearing it would alienate family members.
“My wife feels I should do it because we can afford it,” he wrote, “but I find it to be a pointless showing of wealth.” Now, both his daughter and wife are not talking to him, leaving him in a state of dilemma. Should he go ahead, “burning money” and potentially alienating family members, to make his daughter’s dream wedding a reality?
Reddit users swiftly weighed in with their opinions. Some expressed the belief that if the daughter couldn’t finance a destination wedding herself, then she shouldn’t have one. They argued that the additional expenses of flights and accommodations should be her responsibility too, not just the father’s. Furthermore, her behavior of not speaking to her father further fueled the opinion that she didn’t deserve such generosity.
A compromise was also offered by one Reddit user: the father should contribute an amount he was comfortable with and provide a budget for the wedding. Anything beyond that budget would have to be covered by the daughter and her fiancé. This approach would allow the daughter to plan her dream wedding within a realistic budget.
As of now, the father has not provided any updates, only mentioning that his daughter is labeling him a jerk and refusing to speak with him. It’s truly disheartening to witness such ingratitude.
This story serves as a reminder of the delicate balance between generosity and practicality, especially in the role of a parent. It poses the question: What would you do in his situation?