Wedding Guest Discovers That Wealthier Guests Were Served 'Better' Alcohol and 'More' Food: 'Not Hospitable at All'

Mar. 15, 2025

Food at a wedding (stock image).

A wedding guest was surprised to learn that wealthier guests were given “special” treatment at the reception — including being served “high-end wine bottles” and a “plethora more food.”

In aposton Reddit’s “Wedding Shaming” forum, the anonymous guest shared that they recently attended a family friend’s reception and were provided smaller servings of the meal and cheaper alcohol than those sitting at other tables.

As the user explained, the groom’s family is “an extremely wealthy family who paid for the wedding” with “no expenses spared,” but the “stubborn” groom refused the involvement of his parents aside from accepting their money.

A bride and groom saying their vows (stock image).Getty

Getty

The wedding reception consisted of a “cocktail hour in the blazing sun, with one open bar and one bartender for about 150 guests,” no hors d’oeuvres or appetizers and a dinner in a plastic tent “in the dead heat of summer” with only one door for ventilation, according to the guest.

The guest — who was “not close to the groom or bride” but rather a family friend — wrote that the seven-course meal itself took three hours to be served and was missing a dish. The meal was also presented “buffet-style at the tables,” meaning when they got to the steak portion, the table of eight was only served four slices.

Amid the meal, the guest made a dismaying discovery. “We slowly started to realize that the ‘very wealthy’ guests at the wedding had been given a lot more and high-end wine bottles, scotch, tequila. And a plethora more food,” the Reddit user wrote. “At the end of the night, there was no dessert, just a table of Oreo boxes and cut up apple slices.”

Seeing all of this, the groom’s mother “left in tears because of how ashamed she was over how the majority of the guests had been treated.”

“The groom’s mother was ashamed of everything,” they recalled. “I think the groom’s father said ‘my guests get the best’ and that’s probably what the caterers listened to so that’s why the wealthy guests got more food and better alcohol.”

Per the original poster, the groom’s father even asked the caterers to take “special care” of his guests, including providing them with wine from his “personal collection.”

Wedding food (stock images).Getty Images/Martina Lanotte/EyeEm

Getty Images/Martina Lanotte/EyeEm

Never miss a story — sign up forPEOPLE’s free daily newsletterto stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

One Reddit user, who wrote that they were not from a “wealthy family” themselves, even explained how their brother still managed to pull off a “feast” at his wedding.

“You can have money and be tacky or you can use what you got to the full extent and be a nice host,” they wrote. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more beautiful event than said wedding and everyone left very happy. Food is seemingly the least important part of the evening, but let me tell you if you feed your guests well, nothing else will matter.”

source: people.com