Bride and Groom Invite Guests to After Party for Costco Cake and Cash Bar but Not the Wedding — and Asked for Gifts

Mar. 15, 2025

A bride and groom dancing at their afterparty (stock image).Photo:Getty

Getty

A bride and groom caused “quite the uproar” after inviting some of their guests to their afterparty — not their actual wedding — and requesting cash gifts to boot.

In a lengthy post onReddit’s “Wedding Shaming” forum, a person explained that their partner’s relative, the groom — who comes from a “massive” family — planned “a beautiful winter wedding” for just three days after Christmas last year. When it was time for the wedding invitations to be sent, the bride, described as being difficult and “rude,” invited more of her family members while most of the groom’s loved ones only got invited to the after party.

“Where a sheet cake will be provided and guests are encouraged to dance with the happy couple,” the original poster (OP) wrote. “The invites are sure to specify that the attendee is only invited to the afterparty, and that it is a cash bar.”

On top of that, the bride and groom noted on the invites that they would “greatly appreciate a cash donation toward their future, forever home.”

“These invites caused quite the uproar amongst the guests,” the OP wrote, explaining that the wedding venue was a nearly 90-minute drive from most of the guests and would mean those attending the afterparty would be heading out onto dark, icy roads at night to travel to the destination. “The note on gifts is further fuel to the already growing dislike for the whole ordeal.”

The day of the wedding, many guests bailed and chose to stay home due to a massive snowstorm. However, a small group of the groom’s relatives made the trek to the afterparty — just as the wedding guests were finishing up their reception meal — only to be served slices of “a cheap, dry sheet cake from Costco” and nothing else, plus pay for their own drinks.

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Still, others gave the bride and groom the benefit of the doubt and questioned if the reason why they chose to invite some guests only to the afterparty was because of the huge size of the groom’s family.

Stock image.Getty

“How big was the wedding? If the family is insanely massive it’s no wonder some were relegated to afterparty invites, as they probably wanted to invite everyone but it was logistically and financially impossible to invite [everyone] to the dinner portion,” someone commented.

A few people also pointed out that cash bars are becoming more common at weddings and similar events. “I feel like they were way more common & now it’s more typical to have more of an open bar situation because like everything wedding-related, it’s gone nuts [with] the expectations & money involved,” one Redditor wrote.

“I get how it appears tacky but from my perspective, one side of my family are huge drinkers,” another wrote, referring to cash bars. “They are also belligerent and argumentative when they drink too much. There is no way in the world I’m paying for their alcohol.”

source: people.com