Chicago couple invoices ‘no call, no show’ wedding guests: ‘A teachable moment’
The couple paid for a tropical wedding in Jamaica in advance for the 109 confirmed guests
Chicago newlyweds Douglas and Dedra Simmons were left hurt and frustrated after eight people who RSVP’d for their wedding in Jamaica failed to show up. So the couple hit up Facebook to post a fake invoice of the costs.
The couple paid for the tropical wedding in advance for the 109 guests confirmed as attending their August wedding at the Royalton Resort in Negril, Jamaica.
“We asked four times from November to August if they would be in attendance and every time they said yes. If at any time they were unable to attend, we would have truly understood, but to no call no show was a bit disappointing,” Douglas told TMRW.
“No one told me or texted me, ‘Hey, we can’t make it,’ ” he said. “That’s all I was asking. If you tell me you can’t make it, I would be understanding — but to tell me nothing, but then let me pay for you and your plus ones? Four people became eight people. I took that personally.”
When eight people did not show up, Douglas posted the viral photo of a $240 invoice on his Facebook page last week.
“We were all on WhatsApp and neither one of us got a text or call from any of them letting us know they wouldn’t be able to make it. When we got home from Jamaica, there was still no call or text,” Douglas said.
Most of the no-show guests did not offer an explanation to the couple until they saw the Facebook post.
“Even when we got back to the states they still didn’t respond or say anything,” Douglas said.
“Until they saw this invoice,” Dedra added.
“And I feel like that was a real issue because we would’ve understood if they had told us that they could not make it. It wouldn’t have been a problem. But to no-call, no-show — that was an issue,” Douglas told Insider.
“Some people didn’t really have an explanation, they were just like, ‘it is what it is,” Dedra told FOX 5 NY morning program, Good Day New York. “One of the couples, they were extremely apologetic. They are on the same level of petty as my husband here. They said, ’we’re sorry.’ They did offer to give us the money but of course, we declined. That wasn’t the purpose of the invoice. It was to be sarcastic but also to make a point.”
In the Aug. 23 Facebook post, Douglas wrote, “Don’t be offended when I send this invoice to you. It’s gonna look something like this. I’ll be sending it via email and certified mail…just in case you ain’t get the email #PettyPost.”
The couple never sent the invoice to guests who decided not to attend the wedding. They hope instead that it serves as a “teachable moment.”
“It was me just being a bit petty and just having a teachable moment at the same time. I’ve never had to send it out because just them seeing it alone on Facebook brought about guilt,” said Douglas. “You don’t have to always do stuff for people, but the fact that you put it out there and they saw it, that’s when they came running and say, ‘Hey, you know, I apologize.'”
The Simmons admit they felt disrespected by the no-shows.
“We said: ‘Hey, it’s OK. Let this be a lesson to you. Please don’t do this to anybody else because we understand that things happen, but it’s just not OK at the end of the day to do someone like that, especially someone that you call a friend or you call family.'”
The viral invoice sparked a heated debate online.
Many online users agree with the way the couple handled the MIA wedding guests.
“The past three or four days, I’ve gotten hundreds and hundreds of comments and inbox messages thanking us,” Douglas said. “A lot of people have been stiffed when it has come to their wedding and their birthday parties. People RSVP, and they do not show. It’s very inconsiderate and it’s not OK.”
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