Woman praised for telling guests not to eat the food at her sister’s wedding

A woman has been praised for the reason why she told guests to avoid eating the food at her sister’s wedding.

In a recent post shared to the popular Reddit forum, “Am I The A**hole?”, a user who goes by the name u/Tasty-Watercress-190, started off by discussing her wedding to her husband, which took place eight months ago. She noted that since there was a lot of leftover food, she had initially planned on donating it, until her mother stepped in.

“We had a BIG wedding with lots of food and drinks and people. I knew we would likely have leftovers, so had arranged for them to be donated to the soup kitchen we sometimes work with,” she wrote. “However, my mom went behind my back and took most of it with her. I didn’t really know what happened to the food. Until now.”

As the woman described her sister’s recent wedding, she said that the “whole thing” was planned by her mother. She claimed that she and her sister had little involvement in the event, so all they “had to do was show up where [they] were told and party”.

While she described the ceremony as “beautiful,” the original poster went on to confess that she did notice something “odd” about the buffet.

“The food looked eerily familiar,” she wrote. “Like, identical to what I had for my wedding except for a little more dried out and sad.” She noted that when she asked her mom about the food, the parent revealed that the food was from her earlier wedding.

“She happily told me she ‘saved a fortune’ by unfreezing the food from my wedding to serve to the guests now,” the woman wrote. “I was horrified and immediately voiced my concerns about safety. She got upset and said I was acting like a snob and should be happy the food wasn’t going to waste. I argued that it was never going to be wasted, but she wouldn’t hear it.”

The woman noted that when she told her sister the news, she was “horribly embarrassed”. According to the Reddit user, her sister said that while her mother mentioned something about “saving money” when planning, she didn’t “question it because she didn’t want to foot the bill”.

The original poster said that after her sister thanked her for the warning, they both opted not to eat the food at the wedding. From there, she noted that she and her husband went on to “discreetly” tell some of the guests to “be wary of the food”. Although she acknowledged that “rest of the night was fine,” she said that she has since been criticised by her relatives for speaking to the guests about the food.

“My mom caught some flak for being cheap, but I’ve also been catching heat. Some of our relatives have been saying that I intentionally made my family look bad and that the food was fine as it was frozen and then defrosted for the wedding,” she wrote. “They say no one would have known if I didn’t make a stink over it.”

The woman concluded: “I don’t know if I did anything wrong, I could use some help and would like to know if I should apologise.”

She later shared an edit of her post, in which she clarified her sister initially wanted to do a courthouse wedding with her husband, who she’s been with for 10 years. However, she explained that her mother then “begged” her to do some kind of event.

“So, she had a small wedding with only 50 people,” she explained. “My sister HATES planning and people, so she let my mom do everything.”

As of 6 June, the Reddit post has more than 10,800 upvotes, with multiple people in the comments praising the woman for warning guests about the food. They also went on to describe the dangers of serving leftovers, as they were first served at a wedding months ago.

“It’s not that it was stored frozen for eight months; it’s that it sat on a buffet table for god knows how long at your wedding, then in your mother’s car, before it was frozen. This is not only tacky but super dangerous,” one wrote.

​​ “Has nothing to do with it being frozen but HOW it was frozen, stored and then thawed out. Unless mom has food handler training, I’m sure that food has ‘extras,’” another agreed.

“Yeah, that’s a no from me and I’m not a germaphobe. I’ve pushed the limits a few times, but just for myself and never anyone else,” a third wrote. “Even frozen things have a shelf life.”

Other people went on to criticise for taking the leftovers in the first place, with one writing: “Let’s focus on the fact that your mom went behind your back and stole that food from you. You had plans for it. Good plans. She stole it.”

The Independent has contacted the Reddit user for comment.

As noted by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), cooked food or leftovers that have been in the refrigerator for three to four days are safe to eat. Leftovers in the freezer usually taste the best when eaten within three to four months.

“Although safe indefinitely, frozen leftovers can lose moisture and flavour when stored for longer times in the freezer,” the government agency states.

The Mayo Clinic also notes frozen leftovers “should be thawed before cooking”. This can be done in three ways, microwaving them, moving it to a refrigerator to thaw overnight, or putting them in a leakproof container in cold water.