'My son wants a £60k contribution to his wedding - he's living in a dream world'

A dad was left gobsmacked when his son asked him for an eyewatering amount of money as a contribution to his wedding - and states he's trying to stop his son 'making a huge mistake'

Weddings are known to be eye-wateringly expensive, so when you are offered help from family members it can ease a lot of the financial strain. But one dad was seething after he had offered to contribute towards his son's wedding - only for him to turn around and ask for a humongous sum of cash.

Promising that he and his wife would foot half of the wedding costs overall, the generous dad was left gobsmacked when his son requested £60,000 from his parents. This means his wedding was set to cost £130,000 - and his angry dad said he "didn't know who he was trying to impress".

Admitting he didn't think the wedding would cost more than £40,000 overall, he was shocked to find out that was less than half of what his son wanted. "We are not willing to cash out $80K (£60,000) for a wedding, I think it is ridiculous to even spend that much on a wedding," the dad explained as he took to Reddit to vent his frustration.

"My wife and I are on the same page. We would have to pull out money from our home and savings to afford for his wedding. We were only willing to give him $30K (£23,000) max. Him asking for $80K (£60,000) while her family pays $40K (£31,000) is insane. He also took a big chunk out of his savings to pay for their engagement ring (20K)(£16,000). My wife and I were against him spending that much on an engagement ring because we thought it would be better to save for the wedding. I guess it backfired anyways. He is not in the position to pay for everything on his own, we would love to help him just not 80K."

He said it has caused a lot of arguments, as he had to "completely shut the conversation down" when he realised it was getting bad. After a few days, the dad took to the same post to include an update. He detailed that he was giving his son $25,000 (£19,000) as his final offer. "There will be no arguing. He can either take it or leave it. We will no longer be adding to our account for him. We are not taking any funds out of our retirement plans or home," he wrote.

The dad later admitted to "spoiling" his children, but as he and his wife have "always lived frugally" they felt guilty for losing their children's childhoods they wanted to splurge on them a little more. Although now they want to stop their son making a huge financial mistake. "We are not helicopter parents. I am not prying into my son's life. He is disclosing this information to me and I was astounded. This isn't a 'mind your own business'. My son is making a financial mistake and I would do anything to inform him that," the dad penned.

"This is not a simple mistake and deal with the consequences. This will be a life long consequence, not to mention fiancée has debt of her own. It's not a good decision and it's something that I will not stand to let happen. At least then, if they do decide to have that wedding my wife and I would know we gave him as much knowledge as possible to see the outcome of this wedding." The dad also revealed that his son is "reconsidering" spending that much money, and he and his fiancée are "going to find another wedding planner and try to reduce the amount of guests" as they think their wedding planner is overcharging them.

Other Redditors were horrified at the costs, although praising the kindness of the parents, have stated they shouldn't give any more money. One person wrote: "You're a great dad and having the ability to even pay $25k for a single day for your son is beyond what a lot of people can imagine and is a PRIVILEGE. That's what some people make in a whole year. Your son needs to understand that you paying anything towards his wedding is not a right, it's a privilege," as another added: "Your son honestly needs to give his head a shake. I would never in a million years even think to ask my parents for such a large sum of money, knowing it's their retirement fund."

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