After a couple gets engaged, their friends and family traditionally spend the months ahead of their wedding day attending multiple celebrations in their honor, from the engagement party to the bachelor and bachelorette parties. According to a post on Reddit’s “Wedding Shaming” subreddit, which was posted on December 14, 2024, one couple went all out in the months leading up to their nuptials, throwing multiple pre-wedding events with exorbitant price tags that many of their wedding party members went into debt to afford. After spending all of that money to attend celebrations, the maid of honor was kicked out of the wedding party less than a week before the ceremony.

In the post, the Redditor detailed the outrageous extravagance of the bride and groom’s wedding festivities, which he heard all about from his friend, whose girlfriend is a bridesmaid in the wedding. The original poster explained that throughout the course of the pair’s three-year engagement, they threw an excessive number of wedding-related events, including three engagement parties (one of which was a surprise party that the bridesmaids orchestrated), a couple’s shower, a bridal shower, a bridal tea, a bachelorette staycation, a bachelorette trip to New York City, and a bachelor trip to Las Vegas.

Attending all of these pre-wedding parties quickly added up for the wedding party members: Each event required a new outfit, a gift, and in some cases, airfare and lodging. “All of these were elaborately themed and required costumes except for the bachelor trip,” the Redditor continued. “They also each involved elaborate gifts both (both expensive material things and heartfelt homemade gifts that the bridal party spent weeks crafting).”

The Redditor noted that the bride’s family is well-off, but none of her bridesmaids have the means to afford these wedding-related gatherings and the expenses associated with each. “Most of the bridesmaids do not come from money and are early career adults who absolutely cannot afford this experience but have nevertheless gone into debt for it so they can ‘be there for their friend,'” the OP added. “Of course no one forced them to but it’s just hard to wrap my mind around the cult of bachelorette culture.”

Even after showing up to all of these events and funding the many ensuing expenses, the maid of honor was no longer needed. “After all of this except for the NYC bachelorette trip, the bride proceeded to kick the MOH out of the wedding party 6 days before the wedding to promote another bridesmaid,” the Redditor revealed. 

The Redditor ended the post by concluding that “no amount of money in the world can buy class,” a statement that caused some division among the Reddit community. While some agreed that the relationship of couples who prioritize an ostentatious display of wealth on their wedding day probably won’t last long, others claimed the amount of wealth a person owns has nothing to do with their level of “class.” “This isn't how rich people do weddings, this is how obnoxious, entitled, self-centered people do weddings,” a Redditor argued. Some even suspected that their elaborate pre-wedding parties were a facade. “They sound like grifters who want everyone to think they are wealthy,” another wrote.

Many asserted that the bridesmaids decision to oblige has reinforced the bride’s unjust behavior. “This garbage will continue as long as the bridal party continues to participate,” someone hypothesized. Another stressed the importance of declining a wedding-related invitation if it requires going nearly broke. “When will people learn to live within their means,” another Redditor asked. “Don’t go into financial debt to please others.”