21 January 2024 , 15:00
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When you get married, the least you can expect from your pals is a gentle ribbing, if not full-blown ridicule - but a groom was branded as "humourless" when he failed to see the funny side of a card from his wife's friend.
The couple had been together for seven years, but both lived far away from their hometowns, so hadn't had an opportunity to bond with each other's besties before their big day. He had met one of his wife's friends, who he refers to as 'F', once before in a crowded bar on Halloween, but he explained that he "otherwise did not know this person."
His new wife considers F a childhood friend but he doesn't think the pair are in regular contact. Following their wedding, the couple celebrated in his wife's hometown, which F attended and handed over a gift along with a card.
In the gifts, his wife's friend, who works as a divorce attorney, slipped in her business card with a cheeky line about her availability if his wife ever needed her. "My wife chuckled and thought it was clever," he said. "I thought it was incredibly tasteless and offensive. I get they're old friends with an existing relationship, but I have essentially no relationship with this person, and she had to know I would see it (it was in a card for both of us, that we opened together in front of everyone at the shower). My wife thinks I'm just stodgy and humourless."
After asking if he had overreacted, the situation divided opinion among others on Reddit at the time in 2020. One wrote: "Chill out and take the cue from your wife on this one. She knows this person well and has known her since childhood, and she considers the card to be a lighthearted joke. You admittedly don’t know this person at all and are actively choosing to interpret the card in the worst way possible."
'I don't want children staying up late at weekends - I really need adult time'
Another argued: "If it was a quiet joke shared between wife and friend, that would have been fine. Making it public like that was tasteless."