Bride Says Uncle ‘Ruined’ Wedding After He Offered to Contribute $15K, but She Was Expecting $50K

Mar. 15, 2025

Stock image of bride walking down the aisle.Photo:Getty

Getty

One bride is upset after discovering her uncle wouldn’t be contributing as much money to her wedding as she’d hoped.

In a now-viral Reddit post on theAm I the A–hole subreddit, the uncle, a 35-year-old man, explains that he’s always been close with his older sister, Emily, 38, and her daughter, Lily, 22. He recounts how Emily had Lily at a young age and was a single mom for most of her life. He has tried to support the family in various ways, including paying for summer camps, college applications and Lily’s first car.

When Lily announced her engagement to her long-term boyfriend at a family dinner a year ago, he offered to help cover some wedding expenses.

“I never said I’d pay for everything, but apparently my offer was interpreted as me footing the bill for the whole wedding,” the uncle writes on Reddit. “It became clear when Lily and Emily started planning a big, extravagant affair—destination wedding, 200+ guests, you name it.”

“I sat them down and said I’d contribute $15,000, which I thought was a pretty generous amount. But they both seemed really upset,” he continues. “Lily said I ‘promised’ to pay for the wedding, and Emily backed her up, saying I ‘always supported them’ and this was the least I could do. Apparently, they were expecting I’d cover a $50,000+ wedding. I told them that wasn’t happening. $15,000 was all I could give.”

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Stock image of a wedding venue.Bouquet for a Day

“Here’s the kicker: Emily and Lily are now saying I’m being manipulative, offering to help and then taking it away at the last second, making them look bad in front of the groom’s family,” he continues. “They claim they never would’ve planned something so extravagant if I hadn’t promised to cover it all. But I never said that. I said I’d help.”

He adds, “I feel like I’ve done more than enough over the years, but now I’m being treated like the villain for not paying for this giant wedding.”

Stock image of a wedding table.Tetra Images/ Getty Images

Tetra Images/ Getty Images

“How incredibly entitled,” one person replies. “I think it’s absolutely awful how they’re trying to take advantage of your generosity. If an uncle offered to give me $15k for anything, I’d be so grateful!! They dug this hole themselves, and now they’re finding out your boundaries are, in fact, ACTUAL boundaries that you plan to stick too. Good for you!! They could have planned a perfect good wedding for $15k or threw in a bit of their own money for a $20k wedding, smh.”

“I wouldn’t give them anything at this point! They don’t love or respect him. This is horrible,” another reply says.

Someone else chimes in, “As someone getting married in 2 weeks, our wedding is under 10k because 1. we paid for everything ourselves and it’s what we could afford, and 2. we don’t feel entitled to anyone else’s money. This is insane.”

source: people.com