A 35-year-old man is confused if he's at fault for not contributing $50,000 towards his 22-year-old niece's marriage. The bride is upset that she won't get as much money as she'd hoped for her marriage despite receiving financial support from her uncle for years. The man shared his ordeal in a Reddit post this week about how her older sister, Emily, and her daughter, Lily, are portraying him as a manipulative villain who offered them to help with the marriage but is backtracking three months before his niece ties the Knot.
The uncle elaborated on how he had supported Emily and Lily in many ways for years, such as paying for Lily's college applications, summer camps, and even her first car. Emily, 38, was a single mom for a long time and welcomed Lily to the family at a very young age. Naturally, when Lily announced her engagement plans almost a year ago, her uncle offered to help. While the Redditor never said he'd pay for everything, Emily and Lily assumed he would. The uncle began to understand that they were banking on him to cover all marriage expenses when they started making an extravagant program for a destination wedding with over 200 guests on the list. Wedding costs don't stop there. You have wedding bands, engagement rings, venues, vendors, and miscellaneous expenses that can quickly increase the bill to a sizable amount.
Uncle's $15,000 Offer Got Him Completely Sidelined From The Wedding Plans
The uncle knew it would be a difficult discussion, but he said flat out that $15,000 was all he could contribute. The mother-daughter duo didn't take it well. Moreover, Lily said that her uncle had "promised" to cover all wedding expenses while her mother supported her, saying it was the least he could do. Denying to pay for everything got the uncle removed from his niece's wedding plans entirely. Over time, he found that Lily and Emily had already made bookings. Lily has stopped talking with his uncle, but Emily calls him to say he "ruined" the wedding and they would lose the deposits. These allegations escalated when the uncle was held responsible for making Lily and her mother "look bad" in front of the groom's family. Moreover, they claimed they wouldn't have planned a costly wedding if the uncle "hadn't promised to cover it all." The man stood his ground and clarified that he offered help but never said he would pay for everything.
Is The Uncle At Fault?
A recent USA Today survey of over 2,000 Americans revealed that over 52% spend under $10,000 on their wedding, and 44% invite 50 or fewer guests on the special day. Only 20% of the survey participants spent over $30,000 on their wedding, and 3% over $50,000. Over 10% who spent too much regretted doing so. Elsewhere, the Knot estimated from a 2023 survey of almost 10,000 US couples that the average cost of a wedding, including reception and ceremony, was $35,000. The Knot's findings also revealed the average wedding size was 115 people.
These figures look small compared to what Emily and Lily are planning. It also shows that the uncle's $15,000 offer is generous, covering nearly half of what Americans spend on weddings on average. While people on Reddit supported the man entirely, many wondered how "incredibly entitled" Lily and Emily felt. Many highlighted how they were ungrateful for the $15,000 and overlooked the man's support since Lily's childhood days. Some were shocked and termed the situation "horrible" and said he shouldn't pay for anything at this point.
