My cousin who lives in North East England was supposed to be getting married next month.
Attending won't be cheap, but we were looking forward to celebrating Anna's and James' special day.
They will have all the trappings of an extravagant wedding. They are not wealthy and have taken out a large loan to pay for for it.
The bride and groom asked guests to give them money for their honeymoon in the Caribbean instead of gifts. We were happy to do that and sent them £300 a few weeks ago.
They originally intended to have the legal marriage ceremony in their local registry office a day or two before the wedding celebration and a non-legal humanist ceremony on the day. I know this is a fairly common thing nowadays and had no problem with it.
I found out last night Anna and James have decided to have the legal ceremony while on honeymoon, not before the "wedding". I wouldn't see this as too much of a problem if they were going straight on honeymoon from the wedding, but they are not.
It turns out that they haven't even booked the honeymoon yet and intend to go "sometime next year".
The "wedding" next month will go ahead exactly as planned. The bride and groom do not intend to tell guests that they won't actually be married. The only reason I know is because my aunt is very upset and told her sister (my mum).
I know that a few members of the family are stretching financially to attend this "wedding" for a couple that will not be married at the end of it and probably won't be married for as much as 18 months after it.
Am I being unreasonable for being angry about this. That we have been deceived into attending a sham wedding?