Many engaged couples will believe in any superstition to make sure they have a successful marriage. One of the superstitions that brides follow is the wedding proverb, “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue…”, which is said to bring luck in marriage.
There’s certainly no harm in incorporating something old and something blue into your wedding celebration, but one must never forget that the operative word is borrowed, which is not synonymous with stolen. In one case, a man who’s about to get married “borrowed” something from his ex-wife, resulting in a chain of events that turned the wedding into something catastrophic.
A wedding unlike any other
According to a recent report, as many as 2.6 million nuptials are expected to take place in 2022, nearly 400,000 more than in 2019, before the pandemic. It’s also anticipated that weddings this year will be bigger and more extravagant because people had waited so long to dance to wedding staples like “At Last” and “I Wanna Dance With Somebody” because the coronavirus notoriously postponed many parties in the last two years.
Some couples will splurge, but others will not. A couple, Adam and Chelsea, belong to the latter category, and that may be the reason why they were both arrested on what should have been the happiest day of their lives.
On their wedding day, Chelsea wore Adam’s ex-wife’s wedding dress, perhaps to save some money. Not only that, but she also wore some of the ex-wife’s family heirlooms. It turned out that Adam failed to return (read: stole) these to his ex-wife. Perhaps Adam thought the dress and heirlooms could be their “something borrowed.” The police were immediately alerted to the couple’s thievery.
Blame this wedding guest for the arrest
Adam and Chelsea’s disastrous wedding was detailed on a Reddit post by user Throwawaywedding4869, who was a guest at the wedding. The event was posted on the AITA subreddit, and the post has gained thousands of upvotes and comments as of this writing. It has also been widely shared, discussed, and dissected on the internet. The wedding guest (let’s call her “Throw”) felt responsible for the arrest and had to ask her fellow Redditors whether she was the a-hole in the scenario.
Here’s what happened:
Adam and his ex-wife Mary used to be Throw’s coworkers, and the couple were already married at the time. Throw worked with Mary in the same department, but the latter had to leave to pursue other opportunities while Adam stayed in the company.
According to Throw, Mary was kind and basically an angel. Adam, on the other hand, was not. Throw eventually learned that the two had divorced because Adam cheated on Mary. She then reached out to Mary and they became good friends. And because they were besties, Mary confided in Throw about how she lost some of her family’s heirlooms and wedding dress after she moved out of her and Adam’s former apartment.
Years later, Throw and Adam became teammates in the same department. Although they weren’t friends, Adam would invite Throw to his wedding — to Chelsea, the woman with whom he cheated on Mary.
On the big day, Throw noticed that Chelsea’s dress was very similar to what Mary wore at her and Adam’s wedding, remembering the photos that Mary had shown her. Throw took a photo of the bride and sent it to Mary, noting how the bride’s dress looked strikingly similar to Mary’s.
Mary didn’t waste any time and reported the theft to the police, with Adam and his new wife as suspects. Adam and Chelsea most certainly did not thank Throw for this wedding gift.
Who was to blame?
Redditors on the thread had different takes, but a vast majority agreed that Adam was the a-hole. He simply should not have stolen his ex’s heirlooms and wedding dress.
As attorneys, we have to agree. Stealing is wrong. But lying about not having your ex-wife’s missing wedding dress and family heirlooms and then making your new wife wear them at your wedding is just wicked.
Chelsea, Adam’s new wife, probably forgave this trespass, but one could hope she got him to sign a prenup. A wedding with such a shaky start could end in Splitsville. Do not quote us on this.
Want more tips? Read our article: How not to get sued on your wedding day tip #1: Do not serve weed-laced food
If you are going through a divorce in Washington with an ex-spouse who feels entitled to everything you own, tell them about a little thing called division of matrimonial assets.
Family law attorneys Buckingham, LaGrandeur, & Williams are the legal representation you need if you do not want your marital asset division case to end up in any Reddit threads. Call our law offices in Renton, Seattle today.