‘A week before the wedding, a friend asked if I could help out financially’

Tessa (46, married, mother of a son and a daughter).

“In short, it went like this: My friend Wendy got divorced, found another almost immediately and while the divorce lawyer’s bills had not yet been paid, another wedding had to be planned. I found it quickly, but oh well, I gave it to her and of course it was none of my business. The wedding was allowed to cost € 6000. They would keep it small. When she showed up with the names of live bands and showed me the brochure of a castle, the budget seemed on the tight side. Well, that wasn’t my problem. I thought.

Difficult to cancel wedding

Until Wendy showed up at my door in the evening a week before the wedding. She had a problem. Because she had some bills she couldn’t pay and if she didn’t, she had no wedding venue, no band, and the bar stayed closed. Only the necessary five thousand euros with which the budget had been exceeded, she did not have. I do. So I lent it to her. Because I still granted her her new love, she asked me. In retrospect, I think that was quite low: that they equated awarding and paying. And also that she confronted me with a fait accompli. I couldn’t get her to cancel the wedding. But yes, five thousand euros is a lot of money, especially if, like me, you have just started your own business.

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Jump in one more time

I actually thought I would have it back within a month, although that was naive of course because where would they get so much money so quickly? The wedding has now been eight months and I have been refunded three hundred euros. I now have to be frugal and that irritates me. Wendy called last week. She and her husband wanted so badly to honeymoon, but they had no money. If I could jump in one more time. Then I almost tossed the receiver.”

This article was previously published in Kek Mama.

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