Fury as Truth Behind Why Bride Had Cash Bar Exposed: 'Cheated'

A bride has drawn anger after revealing how she made "roughly $20,000" from her wedding guests by setting up a paid bar.

Writing in a Reddit post shared under the handle did_i_stu_stutter, a close friend said she was left "seeing red" after the bride revealed the plan she hatched with the groom to pay for their lavish honeymoon in Italy.

Having a wedding on a budget can be tough, especially if the happy couple are looking to save money for their honeymoon. The average cost of a honeymoon last year was $5,100, according to a 2022 survey of nearly 12,000 newlyweds conducted by The Knot.

The couple featured in the Reddit post managed to save that and a whole lot more after planning a cash bar for their wedding.

At the time, the friend thought nothing of it. "The bride and groom aren't big drinkers, so I can totally get why they wouldn't want to fund anyone else's total buzz on their dime," she wrote.

She only learned the truth after meeting up with the bride two months later to discuss the honeymoon trip. This left her "stunned."

"She told me that a family member of hers owns a liquor store and gifted all the alcohol for her wedding to them," the friend wrote. The bride said she then hired a bartender and told all the guests the bar was cash. The drinks were not cheap either.

"She set the prices as standard," the friend wrote. "I probably spent about $100 on four or five drinks plus tips." With around 200 guests in attendance, the friend estimates the couple made around $20,000 in drink sales.

"That doesn't include the gifts people gave her! I personally gave her a $200 check," she added. When the bride divulged this, her friend was immediately furious and stormed out of the lunch after telling the bride to pay since she had "made so much money" off her already.

She then told the rest of the bridal party what had happened and things "blew up." Now the poster is wondering if she was wrong for revealing the truth.

Diane Gottsman, a national etiquette expert from the Protocol School of Texas, told Newsweek the bride brought it on herself.

"While there is nothing wrong with a person who wants to be prudent and save money, charging guests for their liquor while pocketing the cash does not fall under the category of a gracious host," she said.

Even so, Gottsman said the friend was perhaps rash in sharing this information so quickly.

"It is understandable that the friend who found out about the bride's behavior would be irritated, but publicly sharing the information to others instead of addressing it with a bride is another impolite offense," she said. "This was not the friend's story to share. Their goal was to anger other guests by gossiping, which is toxic and ruins friendships and damages relationships."

But while Gottsman said there was blame on both sides, most on Reddit focused their ire on the bride.

"She lied to, manipulated, and cheated the people she was supposedly closest to in her life," one user wrote.

Another commented: "She could've done a little sign that said '$5 drinks — all proceeds go to the honeymoon / starting our life together!'"

A user said: "This 'friend' of yours is pretty much manipulating everybody at the wedding into paying for her honeymoon."

Another commenter wrote: "She essentially stole from you. I know that's not exactly what happened, but she took money under false pretenses. She lied and took something that wasn't meant to be hers. And for what? To fund an extravagant vacation? How tacky."

Newsweek could not verify the details of the case and reached out to u/did_i_stu_stutter for comment.

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