Woman Says Sister Is Charging Her to Be in Her Wedding Party, Including a $150 'Bridesmaid Fee'

Mar. 15, 2025

Bride with bridesmaids in stock photo.Photo:kkshepel / Getty Images

kkshepel / Getty Images

A woman is taking to the Internet to share her frustrations after her sister asked her to be a bridesmaid, then “charged her” — though many are noting that the costs are simply par for the course when in a wedding party.

In a post shared toReddit, the woman writes that her sister, Lily, recently asked her to be a bridesmaid in her upcoming wedding.

“I’ve always supported her, and I thought this would be a special moment,” she writes.

But shortly after, Lily gave the woman a list of “requirements” for the bridesmaids.

“The dress was over $300, and she said we needed to pay for our own hair, makeup, and even accessories. I wasn’t thrilled about the price but thought it was part of the deal, and I’d find a way to make it work,” she writes.

But a few weeks later, Lily called again — this time, telling her she needed to pay a “bridesmaid fee” of $150, “to cover her costs for the bachelorette party, decorations, and ‘just to help out.’ "

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“I was shocked,” she writes. “I asked if that was really a thing, and she said, ‘Well, everyone else is chipping in.’ "

The woman then told her sister she couldn’t afford it, and that “it felt wrong to charge me to be a part of her wedding.”

“She got angry, saying I was being ‘selfish’ and ‘ruining her special day,’ " the woman adds.

Bride and bridesmaid in stock photo.Docinets Vasil/Getty

Docinets Vasil/Getty

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Ultimately, she told her sister she wouldn’t be attending the wedding, leading to a fallout with the rest of her family members, who are now calling the woman “petty” and telling her to “suck it up.”

Some commenters argued that the bride shouldn’t be planning a wedding if she’s strapped for cash. “Yeah, you shouldn’t be getting married if you can’t afford to get married,” wrote one.

But many others chimed in with their own bridesmaid stories, arguing that it’s become standard practice for bridesmaids to spend hundreds — even thousands — of dollars to participate in a wedding.

“I mean, I hate to say it because i think weddings and expenses are out of control but chipping in for the bachelorette party is standard bridesmaid duty,” wrote one commenter. “And $150 is extremely cheap compared to these thousand dollar bachelorette travel weekends everyone is posting about.”

source: people.com