A Minnesota couple were in “shock” after they received a bill from a bride and groom for missing their wedding.
Minnesotan mother of two, Jessica Baker, 33, and her husband missed a relative’s wedding because their babysitter – Baker’s mother – had to cancel last minute. With the wedding invitation indicating that children were not to attend the wedding, the couple made a last-minute decision to skip the wedding. Just a month after the August 29 ceremony, Baker received an invoice in the mail for $75 from the newlyweds.
The bill, which totals $75.90, includes the cost of two “Herb Crusted Walleye” at $30 each, and a “Service & Tax Charge.” The note that follows reads, “This cost reflects the amount paid by the bride and groom for meals that were RSVP’d for, reimbursement and explanation for no show, card, call or text would be appreciated.”
“I was just shocked,” Baker told ABC News of receiving the bill. “I laughed a little bit and just kind of thought about it, that maybe there was something I could have done differently. Obviously, they were hurt if they sent us an invoice, but I just didn’t feel there was a whole lot I could do to rectify the situation.”
Baker’s mother called the couple and cancelled last minute because of a situation with Baker’s brother’s children. “We got a call from my mom saying that my brother’s daughter was sick with hand-foot-and-mouth disease and my mom had been exposed and didn’t want to expose my kids,” Baker explained.
The wedding guests did not inform the bride and groom or any relatives to let them know they wouldn’t be in attendance, remembering their wedding day as a guide.
“We had discussed if we should contact anyone and decided against it because, coincidentally enough, we’d had people RSVP and no-show to our wedding and I knew when I got married I didn’t want to be bothered with phone calls on the day of my wedding,” Baker recalled of her wedding guests. “I just assumed, I guess, that we’d let them know the situation later on.”
Baker also cited their lack of communication with the bride and groom prior to the wedding as another factor in not reaching out on the wedding day. “The bride and the groom are a couple that we’ve not heard from for the 12 years that we’ve been married, so I’m not very close to the bride and groom really at all,” she commented. “The bride’s brother was the person we were closest to. There wasn’t a rift; it’s just extended family.”
After the arrival of the invoice, Baker snapped a photo of it and posted it on her Facebook page, but when her friends’ comments started to pour in, she decided to share it with the public. Baker then posted the bill to a local Minneapolis-St. Paul news station’s Facebook page, where it quickly went viral.
Baker threw out the invoice prior to posting the images online, but said she would consider making a donation to a charity in the bride and groom’s honor.
The newlyweds are remaining anonymous, but said in a statement to ABC News: “We apologize for not being tactful in expressing our disappointment in your absence. We waited three weeks after the wedding for any correspondence and received nothing, this along with your last minute RSVP caused us to act on emotion rather than logic.”
