Said It Here

Fiancé and family booking wedding vendors behind my back

When a partner goes behind your back to make wedding decisions and deposits contrary to what you explicitly agreed on, it completely undermines your trust and role as the bride. Being lied to and having your preferences overridden by family choices leaves you heartbroken and powerless over your own celebration.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Talking privately without the father involved
  2. 2
    Putting one's foot down on principle
  3. 3
    Demanding additional premarital counseling
  4. 4
    Letting people know it is a wedding celebration upfront and still having a casual dinner party vibe
  5. 5
    Eloping privately first and then hosting a separate dinner party

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/weddingplanning3 people · September 2026

So like the title says, my fiance and my father in law booked a band behind my back.source ↗

I would’ve never paid the deposit if I had known.source ↗

Now I’m heartbroken because I feel like my fiancé chose to pick his dad’s choices over the literal bride’s.source ↗

AnyKey3013 · r/weddingplanning · 15 upvotes

He told me we would go another route. He lied to me and told me they booked something totally different than that.source ↗

AnyKey3013 · r/weddingplanning · 1 upvotes

People will make more of an effort to attend a wedding celebration versus an engagement party, because the idea is that the engagement party leads up to the wedding.source ↗

cosmogenique · r/weddingplanning · 1 upvotes

People don't prioritize or travel to engagement parties if they are not standard in their community.source ↗

If people know you're getting married they will set time aside to attend but don't want to be given trick information for a surprise party.source ↗

TinyLawfulness3710 · r/weddingplanning · 1 upvotes

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised