Who can siblings be at your wedding? The most obvious answers are best men or maids of honor—they can take on all the organizational issues and, in certain cases, for example, walk the bride down the aisle. But siblings can also ruin literally everything for you.
A good example of this is the story from user u/Sufficient-Sun2460, whose brother first volunteered to be involved in his sister’s upcoming wedding—and then, out of the blue, announced that he was going to schedule his own ceremony just a week or two later. How is that even possible? Well, as it turns out, it does happen.
More info: Reddit
The author of the post plans to get married soon—and everything is just ready for the event
Image credits: marymarkevich / Freepik (not the actual photo)
The spouses-to-be even have a plan for their honeymoon in Europe and are close to booking their tickets
Image credits: Sufficient-Sun2460
Image credits: gpointstudio / Freepik (not the actual photo)
Recently, the author's brother called her and claimed he plans to hold his own wedding a week or two after hers
Image credits: Sufficient-Sun2460
Image credits: Timur Weber / Pexels (not the actual photo)
The guy reasons that his lease is up in May, and he doesn't want to pay for another month before moving in with his GF
Image credits: Sufficient-Sun2460
The author tried to appeal to his common sense, but he was adamant, claiming that they all had to change their plans
The Original poster (OP) is getting married to his fiance soon, and they have everything ready for the upcoming ceremony. The venue is booked, invitations have been sent out, the festive table menu is approved—and the spouses-to-be have almost booked their tickets for a two-week honeymoon in Europe. But then the author got an unexpected call from her bro with news of his upcoming wedding!
The brother and his girlfriend had volunteered to be involved in the author’s wedding in advance, and the OP and her husband-to-be had also planned to be similarly involved in his own event—which, by the way, was set to take place in another state. But imagine our heroine’s surprise when the brother said that the ceremony was planned for a week or two after her own!
The thing is, the brother’s lease is up at the end of May, and he just doesn’t want to have to pay for an extra month before moving in with the wife-to-be. Ain’t it splendid reasoning?
The guy is not at all embarrassed by the fact that many relatives and friends will inevitably have to choose between two weddings close in time, that this would be an additional expense for all, and that his sister and her husband will thus have to postpone their honeymoon...
All attempts by our heroine to somehow reason with her bro, appealing to his common sense, actually bounced off like a tennis ball from a brick wall. The guy simply stated that it didn’t matter and that they all just had to change their plans. And interestingly, the parents, according to the author, are on his side. So the OP decided to find the support of netizens at least.
Image credits: Liza Summer / Pexels (not the actual photo)
Many people in the comments immediately noted that the author’s brother's behavior resembles a classic “golden child,” and our heroine mostly agreed with this. At the same time, experts do say that parents’ favoritism doesn’t usually bring anything good to “golden children” in terms of their mental health.
"It is not uncommon for a golden [child] to have a narcissistic parent who is controlling and authoritative,” Women’s Health Mag quotes Terri Cole, a licensed psychotherapist and author of ‘Boundary Boss: The Essential Guide to Talk True, Be Seen, and (Finally) Live Free.’ “The golden child becomes an extension of the narcissistic parent, which means never truly being known or loved for who you might be.”
While the so-called “golden child syndrome” is not a mental illness by modern scientific classification, experts agree that it exists anyway and affects the self-esteem of many people. For example, this dedicated article on Thriveworks reasonably notes that parental favoritism can cause unhealthy sibling competition even in adulthood.
However, regarding this particular situation, the opinion of the responders here is almost unanimous: the original poster just needs to move on, not paying attention to people who are trying to change her already-approved plans—even if they are her close relatives.
So, what do you, our dear readers, think about this story? Please feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments below.
People in the comments claimed that the brother behaves like a "golden child" and simply urged the author not to change anything about her plans
