My son gets married this year after knowing the future bride a relatively short while. My Dad has given a substantial amount of money to son to enable the wedding to happen. I have asked if there’s any way that two more relatives that my Dad is very close to be offered a place at the wedding and we were refused. I get that these relatives aren’t close to the bride and groom but it would mean a lot to our side to see them there. Dad is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s I feel that Dad has been denied sharing his day with people that he grew up with and had known all his life. I am acting as my Dad’s advocate because he has a little cognitive decline due to his diagnosis. Bride has stated that does not want anyone she doesn’t know attending (despite being social media famous and hiring a content creator to document the big day). My feeling is that the day is all about the social media influencer marketing campaign. I was told in no uncertain terms that this was to be discussed again and I was accused of being manipulative and gaslighting by son. I was extremely upset about this. Never has my son behaved in this way toward me in the past. Son appears to be completely blindsided. Posts on social media have been shared by the brides mother pertaining to weddings not being used as a family event/reunion. I totally get that spaces are limited but we are talking about maybe three people that our family would love to share our happiness and pride with on the big day. I have also offered to pay for the extra spaces for these 3 guests. The venue has a large capacity and can cater for many more. Dad is in really poor health and the groom is the only grandson. Son and bride have invited 9 guests from son’s family out of a party of 65 people. Seemingly brides family have very different views about weddings. Our family believes that weddings are the coming together of two families to support the relationship of the couple and that family should take priority. Maybe I am old fashioned and times have changed?
AITA for feeling that my Dad and our family’s financial contribution and feelings have been totally disregarded? And the allocation of guest places has been somewhat restrictive toward our family? I feel so upset that we have dealt with like this and really don’t feel like even attending.