Chapter 15 - The money from the wedding
The canceled wedding cost money.
Approximately $47,000 had been paid or committed.
Venue deposit.
Catering.
Photographer.
Florist.
Band.
Attire.
Planner.
Some refundable.
Some partially.
Some lost.
I had paid around $31,000.
Vanessa around $12,000.
Her parents approximately $4,000 toward flowers.
There was no $500,000 revenge wedding.
No mansion transfer.
Just painful deposits.
We mediated.
Vanessa initially demanded reimbursement of everything she had paid because:
“You canceled.”
My lawyer replied:
“Both parties contributed to circumstances ending the engagement.”
We could litigate.
Waste another twenty thousand proving who ruined romance harder.
Instead:
Refundable money returned to original payer where traceable.
Nonrefundable losses borne proportionally according to contribution.
Engagement ring returned to me under settlement without litigating state conditional-gift law.
Vanessa kept personal wedding accessories she purchased.
I kept nothing as trophy.
The invitations went into recycling.
Except one.
The torn one from the birthday.
Police had photographed it.
After my case closed, I found it in a file.
Two halves.
Names.
Date.
I almost kept it.
Then asked myself why.
Evidence of decisiveness?
Evidence of failure?
Paper.
May you like
I threw it away.
No ceremony.
