Reddit Stories - Distant Father DECLINES Wedding INVITATION_ A Rejected OPPORTUNITY_

Episode Date: September 13, 2025

#redditstories #askreddit #aita #weddingdrama #familyissues #rejectedinvitation #fatherdaughterconflict #missedopportunitySummary:A heartfelt post on Reddit's AITA thread shares the emotional turmoil of a distant father declining his daughter's wedding invitation. The rejection symbolizes a missed opportunity for reconciliation, sparking a conversation on family dynamics and forgiveness.Tags:redditstories, askreddit, reddit, aita, tifu, weddingdrama, familyissues, rejectedinvitation, fatherdaughterconflict, missedopportunityBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/reddit-stories--6237355/support.

I hope you enjoy this story. I offered an opportunity to my distant father and asked him to attend my wedding. However, he declined to accompany me down the walkway due to the influence of his spouse and favored child. Only for them. I, 30F, am getting married in about a month to my best friend, 35m. I did not grow up knowing my dad, 55M, very well as him and my mom divorced when I was an infant. He remarried and had several kids with his new wife, who hates my very existence. There was a lot of hurtful things done when I was growing up, like not being allowed in her house

when I visited that led me to be estranged from my father. He never really made much of an effort, but after I was 18 I completely cut him off from my mental health and stopped answering the few calls he attempted. He tried to get into contact every once in a while over the years, but I honestly just ignored him. I was hurt and angry. About a year ago I got back into contact with some extended family on his side and have been forging a good bond with all of them. I invited them all to our wedding and they have been amazing.

Eventually I started speaking with my dad as well back around Christmas and it was tense at first but I decided to just give him a chance. We have slowly been getting a semblance of a relationship back and I saw him in person with my fiancé a couple months ago. His wife is not pleased at all and apparently their kids, my half-siblings, all adults, are also upset about it. I think there were threats of divorce, but my dad still decided to go to my wedding. After a ton of thought, I asked my dad if he wanted to walk me down the aisle as I have been hopeful for a better relationship, but he turned me down. I wouldn't be as upset if he gave a generic excuse, but he told me his wife and other daughter requested he does not walk me down the aisle as that is resumed.

reserved for his, other, daughter and not me. I am super hurt and not even sure what to reply to that with. He offered to stand at the front and give me away instead, but that isn't what I want. My fiancé thinks we should un-invite him and move on, but I'm not sure if that is the best course of action. He is coming from out of state with the rest of his family so he already bought a plane ticket and hotel room. Part of me thinks to just politely turn him down, have him as a regular guest, and then just stop talking to him again after the wedding. My mom isn't coming to my wedding because she lives really far away, so I don't really have any other immediate family coming. I'm not sure what the best course of action is and the wedding

is getting super close so I have to make a decision soon. Edd wow this post has blown up, thank you all so much for the advice and comforting words. To answer some common questions I am seeing, know his wife and my half-siblings are not attending a wedding. I invited them but they won't even meet me, let alone go to the wedding. He has two sons and a daughter with this new wife, all in their twenties. I am not sure if my dad cheated on my mom with my stepmom, my mom through all her faults never actually said a bad word about him. He did marry my stepmom by the time I was two years old though so there wasn't much time in between marriages. They are also very Christian in the worst way, as in they don't really follow

what they claim to believe. My mom cannot fly as she has panic attacks. She also is actually a worse parent than my dad in a lot of ways believe it or not. I have no male relatives to walk me down the aisle. I also never wanted him to give me away as I think that is dumb, I just wanted my dad to act like my dad for one moment. My fiancé and I have decided to walk down the aisle together as one of you suggested, so that part is settled. I'll update every day. I'll update every everyone once I decide what to do and if there is any response. Comments Stellis Delamaris, do you want this rude, mean, stranger at your wedding or do you not?

He isn't going to suddenly turn into a nice person or good father to you. If you let him come I would absolutely not involve him in the ceremony in any way. Like, he doesn't get a seat at the front, he doesn't get to speak or stand or do anything. Perhaps you and your fiancé would consider walking down the eye. together, or on your own. It does not have to be with a father figure, especially not this one, who doesn't see you as a daughter. Do what is right for you. Your wedding doesn't exist to fix your family. One sweet submarine, yes, all of this. Op, I'd hate for you to look at wedding photos ten years down the road and be sad because this pouse is in photos with you. You're a gem for

wanting to try and make things work and he's a dick and an idiot for making little to know I'm sorry less than three, Op, that is a great point about the pictures, that is my most important thing for the wedding so having him in a ton of the pictures will just make me sad when I look back. Jealous Bed 1807 Hey, Op, I don't have any great words of wisdom for you other than to say that sucks and to send you a big dad hug, it's what your dad should be giving you as he walks you down the aisle, but, in its absence, please accept a hug from a random internet dad who is proud of you and wishes you a wonderful wedding day. Also, it's not your responsibility that your dad has bought a plane ticket and hotel room. Kids of emotionally unavailable parents spend all their time trying to look after their parents' emotional needs in the hopes that their parents might eventually see them and love them.

You don't need to look after your dad anymore. He made his choice. Listen to your fiancé. It's not now and has never been okay for your dad to hurt you. He made his choice to appease his wife rather than being fully with you. on your big day. It's okay for you to make your choice to have your wedding without him. It might feel like it would be nice to have immediate family at your wedding but really having him there would most likely just be a reminder of the love and support you needed and deserved as a

child and that you never received. Ah, thank you so much internet dad, I needed to hear this. My mom isn't much better but I gave up any hope with her a long time ago. Seems like I need to give up hope with my dad as well. On the bright side my aunt and her family are amazing people so they will be great at the wedding regardless. Update, hello everyone, just wanted to start by saying, thank you so much for your kind words and advice to my original post. It made me feel so much better. We had an amazing wedding and honeymoon. Everything went really well. My husband wants to thank everyone who said some form of listen to your fiancé, huh? I'll start with what happened right after my 30F last post, I did un-invite my dad, 50M, from my wedding,

the whole interaction was too hurtful to let go of. Before telling him I was uninviting him, I spoke with my aunt slash his sister Sandy, 50SF, who was furious at her brother for what he said to me. She has been such a great support of me and my husband which has been amazing honestly. After I sent my dad an email detailing how hurtful. he had been and that he was uninvited, Sandy called him and yelled at him for being an ass. He replied to my email with a bunch of nonsense deflection about how he has to make sure both sides are happy, but apparently told Sandy, not me, he was sorry and that it was a miscommunication.

He claims to Sandy that he was only trying to negotiate with me and that he would have walked me down the aisle if that was what I really wanted. I highly doubt that. My mill, who is extremely conservative and religious, actually said my dad needed to grow some balls, which shocked literally everyone, ha-ha. I replied to him that I stood firm in my decision to uninvite and to not contact me again until after the wedding, but that if he did contact me at all it better be with the understanding that he needs to be present in my life the same way he is his other kids, otherwise to not reach out again. Around this time, right before the wedding, I called my mom and asked her about what really happened with her and my dad when I was a baby, because she never talked about it with me growing up. Unlike my dad and stepmom, my mom never once said anything bad about my dad to me. She was always neutral slash positive about him, which I have since thanked her for as it let me

come to my own conclusions about what a dead beat he is. My mom and I had a good cry about everything and she let me know how abusive and awful my dad was to her when I was a baby after they split up. I also found out that he married his new wife when I was less than a year old, which is insane considering my parents were still 100% together the day I was born. Sandy swears up and down that she introduced my dad and stepmom to each other after my parents split as they, stepmom and Sandy, were classmates in college. I don't really care either way at this point, it is just interesting to see how no one has a clear idea of what happened. My thought is that they were cheating and then used Sandy to introduce them to cover up their behavior. Keep in mind they are all very Christian, even though they clearly don't follow any of their religious teachings. I didn't hear anything from my dad during the wedding and Sandy and her family still came.

We all had a blast and everyone was so happy for us. The pictures turned out great and there isn't anyone in them that I wish I could Photoshop out, so I definitely knew uninviting my dad ended up being the best decision we could make. I talked to Sandy about my dad over the holidays and she said that him and his wife slash kids were refusing to go to any family dinners or parties because they are upset that everyone else talks to me. I have been in regular contact with Sandy, my uncle Jerry, and all of their kids which makes my stepmom feel betrayed. Sandy is pissed at her. because they used to be friends but never understood what her issue was with me.

I found out my stepmom treated me like crap the second she had her first kid when I was still a toddler, which probably doesn't surprise anyone. I didn't hear from my dad all through December, but finally in late January I got a random email from him. He sent a long email blaming me for him not being in my life, telling me his wife and kids are more important, but that we need to still be in each other's lives. It was the most BS email. he had sent me so far and completely disregarded my wishes back in October when I told him to not contact me unless he was going to treat me like his actual child. I ended up not responding and just blocking his email. I also told Sandy to not share any of the pictures or videos from

the wedding with him and to not talk about me with him. I think this will be the end of the relationship with him, since he clearly is incapable of being a parent to me. I feel a lot more at peace with everything that happened and I am completely okay with how it all turned out. One commenter on my original post said something along the lines of not knowing if my dad would have been a bad parent since he wasn't around and that really has stuck with me. Thinking about it now, he probably would have been even worse had he actually been in my life. Unfortunately both my parents are emotionally stunted, but I made a good use of the life that was handed to me and will hopefully break the cycle with my own kids one day.

I didn't mention in my last post that my husband and I are going to be moving to the same state as my family in the next year. I was worried at first being closer to my dad, but honestly he and his bitter wife and kids can do whatever they want, I'm just going to live my life how I want to. We were planning on moving to this state before I ever got back in contact with my family, so we will continue to do what is best for us. Anyways, thank you again, kind Redditors, you really helped me not feel sad or upset for you. for my wedding day. Lady O'C's I'm so glad that you had a wonderful wedding.

I wish you and your hubby the best in the future. Live the best of your life with hope, faith, and love. Best revenge you can have. P.S. Something to think about. Stepmom may have told your step-siblings that Daddy had an affair, and that may be why they hate you. Now on to the next story. Story 2.

Peret exposed my wife's affair with her. her in turn after anger management fixed our toxic marriage. I caught them on hidden camera and got her fired. I, 32M, was married to my ex-wife, 29F, for three years. We were madly in love, but unfortunately, our marriage couldn't work because of her infidelity. The first time my ex-wife and I met was on a dating site. As of that time, I was desperately looking for someone to settle down with because I was tired of being lonely, and she came around at the right time. So, after meeting each other physically for the first time, we had more dates, and as we got to know ourselves better, we fell deeply in love. Our relationship started as a very beautiful one.

We used to hang out every weekend, spend quality time with each other and do fun stuff together. But after about a year of dating my wife, I noticed she had anger issues. At first, her anger issue shoes started as nagging and making mountains out of molehills. Then it got so bad that she would break stuff whenever she was angry. Then once she became calm again, she would apologize and cry for forgiveness. When I noticed this bad attribute, I wanted to break up with her, but each time she begged me, I would forgive her, only for the same thing to repeat itself. There was even a time I was so close to breaking up with her because she had an altercation with my mom one time. She came to visit me, but because she had enrolled for anger management classes and I saw a bit of improvement, I forgave her.

All this while, I didn't know I was shooting myself in the leg, and marrying her was one of my mistakes. When most people tell stories of how they enjoyed the first years of their marriage, I can't relate to that because the first two years of my marriage were filled with fights and arguments. My wife had multiple personalities. One day, she would be all loving and lovely. The next day, she would be so angry over little things she shouldn't be angry about. Aside from the anger issues my wife had, she was a sweet and hardworking wife. She took care of me and my needs in the house too. She also worked for a big organization in the town we lived in, so in terms of finances,

she was earning more. Despite earning more, we split the bills equally, and we both took care of our responsibilities. I think I kept holding on to my wife and believed she would change because she was putting in a lot of effort to be a better person, and I wanted to support her.

I also knew she grew up in a toxic and abusive environment, and how she was raised contributed greatly to her anger issues. Whenever she did something terrible or broke something, I wanted to leave her, but I couldn't. We had a lot of beautiful memories together, and I didn't want to judge her based on her bad side alone. She also kept telling me that I was the only guy who had stuck with her in both the good and bad times. None of her relationships worked in the past because all the men she dated kept leaving her.

I wanted to be the good husband who would stick to his marital vows of her better, for worse, and fortunately, the relationship between my wife and I started getting better in the third year of our marriage. months after our second anniversary, I noticed that the relationship between my wife and I had improved so much. She no longer argued and fought over everything, which was a big step up for us. Initially, I thought that she was getting better at controlling her anger because of the new therapy she was getting. Also, it didn't just stop with the improvement in our communication. My wife began to act like a totally different person. For example, she often complained about work when she returned from the office, but that changed. Instead, she would come home and tell me how she was finally getting along with her colleagues in her organization.

Aside from that, she became more cheerful, and everything seemed to change about her. Honestly speaking, all the changes I noticed for months were because of her anger management therapy sessions, and I even went as far as dropping a great review and a five-star on her therapist's website. It felt so good to have peace in my marriage and hold a conversation for a whole day without ditching plates. Out of happiness, I even told my friends about her improvement, and they were so happy for me. On the other hand, when my wife's anger issues improved, she became so engrossed with work around the same time, which did not allow us to get as close as I wanted. Despite her busy work schedule, I never complained because it was better for her to be calm and engrossed with work than constantly fighting and complaining. about work. While I was innocently and wholeheartedly happy for my wife, I didn't know she was

doing the unthinkable behind me. The day I found out, I returned home, and my parrot started saying a name I didn't know. Our parrot was good with picking new names or anything that sounded like a name. So, when I heard that name, I suspected that someone had visited our house and he must have heard someone call the name. When I asked my wife about it, she insisted that he must have gotten the name from the television, and that did not sit well with me. Mainly because when I tried to argue that my parrot couldn't pick the name from a movie, she flipped for the first time in a long while and walked out of me. The moment she walked out of me in anger, I suspected that something was going on. I thought someone must have visited our home, and my wife didn't want me to know about it,

so I decided to find out. In the following days, I bought a small-sized camera and hid it in my parrot's cage to confirm my suspicion. Then the next day, I told my wife I was traveling to the nearby estate to visit my mom, but I was crashing at a friend's house. That same evening, as I stayed in my friend's house to watch my house, I saw something that shattered my heart and destroyed our marriage. I watched as my wife came in with one of her organization's new interns, and they did it on our couch, right in front of the bird and in the camera. Before I found out my wife was cheating on me, I told my friends about my parrot and the strange male name it kept saying, but they said I was paranoid. And my parrot might have heard the name from a movie, and my wife

flipped and walked out of me because I was annoyed. It would be an understatement to say I was disappointed, shattered, and devastated. I could not believe that the same woman I tolerated her anger issues, and stood by her on the days I should have been out there breathing fresh air, was cheating on me with an intern. It felt like a bad, dream I needed to wake up from, but sadly, it was my harsh reality. About two days after I learned about my wife's infidelity, my broken state turned to anger, and I thought of ways to pay her back. Finally, I had something, and I knew destroying all her years of hard work and commitment to her organization would be a major hit for her, so I sent the video footage to her company, and I was sure

they would take action. I returned home a week later because I wanted to cool off and put myself together. When I eventually got home, I met my wife at home. She had been fired by this time, and the intern had been dismissed. When I asked my wife why she wasn't at work, she said her company was downsizing, so they had to let her go. Immediately she said that, I started laughing and told her I knew why she was fired. She was confused and didn't understand what I meant. Before I went home, I had already contacted a divorce lawyer to start processing our divorce. So, I told my wife I was behind the video sent to her organization, and at the snap of a finger, she flipped and started yelling at the top of her voice.

She said she was glad she cheated on me because I was a weak man, and I didn't satisfy her in bed, so she had to make herself happy. What an excuse. When she said that, my anger level skyrocketed, and before, before she had the opportunity to start throwing things at me as usual, I pulled her with strength and threw her out of my house. She made a scene outside, and after she was tired of yelling, she took the few things I had thrown out and left.

A few days later, she started calling my phone non-stop, and she sent multiple messages saying that she was a changed person and would never cheat on me again. I'd be stupid if I gave her another opportunity. We eventually divorced, and I've been living my best life since then. I never thought I'd say this, but I feel more at peace without my wife. It's almost like I've been let out of an invincible cage, and I feel so relieved. I do not miss my ex-wife, and I'm so glad things turned out that way, or else I might still be stuck in our marriage, hoping that she would evolve into the kind of woman I wanted. One thing I've learned the hard way is to never

try and save people like my wife because you will drown in the process of saving them. As for my precious parrot, I'm glad he helped me get out of that terrible marriage. Now, none of my friends doubt my parrot anymore.