Man fumes after spending £2k on his cousin’s wedding only to realise he’s not invited

The man owns a printing company with his wife and as a kind gesture, offered to create banners, signage and guestbooks for his cousin-in-law – only to be snubbed at the 11th hour when they were told that they weren’t on the guestlist

One of the most stressful parts of a wedding is the expense, as there’s so many elements to factor into your big day – from the venue and food to the smaller details like flowers and table settings. Some people plump for a small intimate ceremony to keep costs down, or even elope to take the pressure out of the day, but for loved-up couples who want to throw a big bash, the costs soon rack up.

One man has been left in the lurch by his cousin-in-law after kindly offering to create decorations for their big day, only to find out that him and his wife aren’t invited. The couple, who own a design business, forked out ‘nearly $2,000’ to create banners, signage and guestbooks for their relatives, but were snubbed at the 11th hour.

Taking to Reddit to explain the situation, the man, who remains anonymous, wrote: “I own a printing company that I run with my wife. Her cousin came to us and wanted us to do all the signage, banners, guest books, life-sized cutouts, etc for her wedding.

“We do this all the time for friends’ weddings and events, and we never charge. We’re happy to help out and it’s usually a lot of fun working together to make some cool stuff.

“A few weeks before the wedding, her wedding planner tells us they need all the items by X date so they can set it up for the wedding. At this point, we hadn’t received our wedding invitations and didn’t even know when the actual wedding was.

What would you do in this situation? Tell us in the comments…

The couple then were shocked to realise that they weren’t on the guestlist, as the husband continued: “My wife texts her and tries to clarify when the wedding is and if we missed the invitation somehow.

“Her cousin replies and says ‘Oh we downsized the wedding and we decided to have like a close friends and family thing’ and that they didn’t have space for us in the small venue”.

Taken aback by the serious snub, the husband wrote: “My wife and I are pretty hurt and insulted. And on top of it, we’ve spent close to $2000 on all the materials. Her cousin and the wedding planner kept making tiny revisions to the artwork, had us print samples to see how it would look in person, resized several of the items a few times, etc.

“All that cost a ton of time and money. And we’re a functioning business, so we either had to delay other orders or stay late and print her stuff on our own time”.

Reluctant to fit the bill themselves, the couple decided to act fast, but the cousin didn’t take too kindly to their response.

The man explained: “So I went ahead and billed her for our cost and said we needed payment before delivery because I’m not going to chase her for payment for months/years after the wedding. We’re not making money on it, just charged her for the cost of materials

“So far we’ve gotten threatening calls from the cousin, her fiance, some random members of my wife’s family that I don’t know, some of the groomsmen, etc essentially calling us a*******. After the harassment, I’m considering charging full price or else we won’t deliver the items”.

Many people flocked to the criticise the cousin’s ‘cheeky’ behaviour, and urged the man to charge full price for his design work.

One Reddit user wrote: “Yeah I say go ahead and charge full price. Their behavior [sic] is straight up tacky.”.

Another joked that they should clap back at the newlyweds with the line: “Sorry, we had to downsize the discount to cover close friends and family only”.

A third person wrote: “They can’t expect a wedding gift from people who didn’t make the cut. Once you & your wife were cut, it became a business transaction & you have every right to bill them & receive payment before delivery”.

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