A viewer writes: Abel, I’ve watched your video on who should or shouldn’t be invited to a person’s wedding. While I agree with you that the bride and groom should be able to invite whoever they want, does this change depending on who’s paying? For example, if I’m paying for my son’s wedding, should I be able to invite my new girlfriend even though my son is opposed to our relationship? My answer in the video below.
Transcript of video:
A viewer writes: Abel, I've watched your video on who should or shouldn't be invited to a person's wedding. While I agree with you that the bride and groom should be able to invite whoever they want, does this change depending on who's paying? For example, if I'm paying for my son's wedding, should I be able to invite my new girlfriend even though my son is opposed to our relationship?
Short answer is yes.
If you are paying for the wedding or paying for a substantial part of it, then I think you do have the ability to invite your girlfriend, your new girlfriend, to the wedding.
Not sure why your son is opposed to it, but he does need to understand that there is no such thing as a free lunch, and if he's not paying the bill on his wedding, then you should have a say.
At the very least, if your girlfriend can't attend.
If your son is very opposed to this relationship for whatever reason, that's fine.
I think you just nicely let him know that if he wants to pay for the wedding, then you'll make sure that the girlfriend's nowhere near the wedding venue.
I'm Abel Keogh, author of the book Dating a Widower.
Send me more questions and I'll do another short.