Chambers

AITA for not paying for my wife's parents stay at a luxuary hotel and for not inviting them to our wedding

Anonymous in /c/AmItheAsshole

586
My parents gave my wife £10k towards our wedding, which was going to be in an all inclusive hotel and was going to be very high end. Something my wife always wanted and I was happy to go along with. We were going to have a lot of luxuary extras such as private bar, adult only, a priavte pool, extra drivers and a few other bits. £10k was supposed to cover all of it if not even more. The plan was that any extra money we had after the wedding, we'd keep for our new life. I'd been carefully watching the budget and was about to get to the point where I'd have to pay our deposit on the venue when my wifes mother rang me saying that the money I was given was for "my own family" to be used how I wanted but they would be covering their own family them selves out of their own pocket. I found this a bit strange but assumed she was just saying that because she didn't want it to seem like she was begging. I tried explaining to her that my wife and I had familes to cover ourselves and that the money would cover everyone. She said "thats not my problem" A few days later, was when my wife and I sat down and I asked her what she wanted to do with the wedding, she said that her parents have already paid for a completely different venue and that it would be too hard to get a refund. I asked why she didn't tell me and she said that her mother wanted it to be a suprise. It was no suprise to me, as her family paid for literally everything in their life, they wanted to pay for the wedding and I honestly didn't expect them to at first but she assured me that they wanted me to pay half. Something that I was completely comfortable with doing as I earn a lot more than she does and have saved up 4x what she has.<br><br>I was very confused at to why her mother would say what she said, and even more confused that the venue my wifes parents had chosen was not only not all inclusive, was going to accomodate all children and was not a private venue as previously planned and had downgraded on basically every single luxuary extra possible. It was literally was just a normal wedding at that point. This was literally nothing like our original wedding. I tried talking to my wife about it but she just said "make do" I tried to talk to my wife about it again and she said that she didn't know they downgraded so much and thought it was just the private venue and all inclusive that they didn't want. When I asked where the £10k went she said that they had spent it on a completely different honeymoon for us. I was honestly not bothered at all, I was going to marry the woman I loved regardless of if it was in a feild or a 5 star hotel. What did bother me though was that they spent my parents £10k of their own free will, going against our wishes completely and without telling me. She said they didn't tell me because they didn't want me to feel like I owe them anything. When my parents found out, they were absolutley furious and wanted their money back.<br><br>I tried talking to my wifes mother who said that if they want their money back they can send a police report to get a refund but as far as she's concerned the money is spent and gone. She also said that she expects us to cover their stay at their chosen hotel as it is "our wedding". I said no. We then had a massive argument ending with her hanging up on me. I then did something I regret. I didn't tell my wife about the argument and I didn't tell her that they hadn't paid the hotel stay in full. When she asked, I said "Yeah, I said that you can stay in one of the hotels for free, as long as you cover your food and drink." She said "make sure to book a good one for us" And I said "yeah, I will, the one I have chosen has a private balcony with a sea view." Fast forward to 6 months later. (Our wedding was last weekend) And my wife and I are now married! Absolutely best day of my life and I'm so happy it went so well. Until my wifes mother started complaining about how awful her hotel room was, how terrible the food was and how bad the customer service was. I told her flat out that I didn't pay for it and that if she wanted a luxuary hotel then she should have paid for it herself instead of spending my parents £10k on something that you knew we didn't want. There was a lot of shouting as you can imagine. A lot of people started staring and then I got up and walked away.<br><br>I'm just after getting home from our honeymoon and I was met with a very angry mother and father in-law. They had a big go at me and I had a big go back at them. Honestly probably the worst argument I've had with them. They said that they want me to pay them back the money that THEY spent on their hotel stay and food and drink. I said "no, you spent my parents money against my wishes without telling me, if they want to stay in a luxuary hotel then THEY can pay for it. Not me." Her mother said that I'm clearly stupid if I think that they are made of money and that was a stupid thing to say. Honestly, I'm the stupid one. I am the one who got myself into this mess and I'm the one who has to deal with the argument now. But AITA?<br><br>Edit: Wifes parents live in a £600k house, earn atleast 2x what I earn, have a brand new range rover, go on atleast 4 holidays a year, have an extra property in france and have atleast 2x as much savings as me.

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