A 25-year-old bride felt completely blindsided when she discovered why her longtime friend never showed up to her destination wedding in Bali. She and her husband had generously offered to cover travel and accommodation costs for several friends to make attending the celebration easier. What she didn’t expect was that one of those friends would take the free trip and use it for an entirely different purpose. The story quickly spread on Reddit, where thousands of users weighed in on whether she had every right to pursue legal action.
The bride explained that for her friend, referred to as Gemma, she paid a $2,000 plane ticket and an additional $150 to $300 for a share of the hotel stay, bringing the total she spent on Gemma to around $2,300. Gemma’s husband paid for his own ticket separately. The expectation was straightforward: attend the wedding. But when the big day arrived, neither Gemma nor her husband was anywhere to be found, leaving the bride scrambling for answers on what should have been the happiest day of her life.
When she finally reached out to Gemma for an explanation, the response was stunning. “Gemma took the free plane ticket to Bali and the hotel room, and when I asked her why she didn’t come, she said it was a perfect opportunity for them since they couldn’t afford their own honeymoon,” the bride wrote in her Reddit post. To make matters worse, Gemma’s husband reportedly admitted he simply “didn’t feel like going” to the wedding. The bride added, “It really hurt me because we’ve been friends for over 10 years.”
WIBTA for suing my friend when she didn’t come to my wedding?
by u/sweetandsourcum in AmItheAsshole
Now the bride is weighing whether to file a small claims court case to recover the money she spent. She hesitates, though, because Gemma recently gave birth and her husband is currently out of work. She openly wondered in her post whether pursuing the matter would make her look like the bad person in the situation. Despite her own doubts, the online response she received was overwhelmingly in her favor.
Reddit users didn’t hold back in expressing their outrage over Gemma’s behavior. “Someone offers you a free vacation with the condition that during it you attend one celebration? I would take that opportunity with open arms. Taking a free trip and then not showing up at a friend’s wedding — that’s really disgusting,” one commenter wrote. Another user put it clearly: “You didn’t give them a honeymoon. You just helped them get to your wedding so it wouldn’t be a financial burden.” That same user continued, “They could have done both — spent time together as if on a honeymoon, but also showed up to the wedding. Taking your money and using it exclusively for themselves is not okay.” Some commenters advised the bride to cut all ties with Gemma entirely, while others encouraged her to at least attempt to recover her money through the courts. As one comment summed it up: “Abusing a friendship is taking $2,000 and then not even showing up to the wedding.”
Small claims court is a division of the civil court system designed to handle relatively minor financial disputes, typically involving smaller sums of money. In the United States, the limit for small claims cases varies by state but generally falls somewhere between $5,000 and $10,000. The process is meant to be accessible to everyday people without requiring a lawyer, which makes it a practical option when someone feels they have been wronged financially. Cases like this one, where money was given under a clear implied agreement, can sometimes qualify for recovery if the plaintiff can demonstrate that the funds were provided under specific conditions that were not honored. Destination weddings, which have grown increasingly popular over the past two decades, often come with significant logistical and financial challenges for both the couple and their guests, making situations like this one particularly complicated to navigate.
What do you think — should she take Gemma to small claims court, or is it better to simply walk away from the friendship? Share your thoughts in the comments.
