"AITA for not paying for a wedding gift?"

So I (22f) married my husband (25m) about a month ago. It was a small private wedding about 25 people. One of my family members let’s call them C was not invited. C knew that they were not invited. C wanted to send a wedding gift. It was a paid honeymoon as the gift. We were grateful to have the gift (we didn’t ask people to bring gifts).

The day before the wedding they were asking if the gift was good enough for them to come. I told them the we appreciated the gift but we didn’t have any room for them. I told them that next year since we are going to do a reception for the ones that we wanted there but didn’t have room for.

C responded with if I can’t come then why did I send you a gift. The only reason why I gave you a gift is so I could be there. I told them with having a small wedding means that we can only invite so many guests. I didn’t hear from them until two weeks after the wedding. C started to send me messages asking for the money for the gift. I told C that if it was that big of a deal they could have it back.

C said that they only wants the money back we can keep the gift. I told them that we don’t have the money to pay for the gift. C wanted the full amount back ($4000) in one day. I told C that we can’t do that. They said that if we invite them they wouldn’t be asking for the money. The same bs has been going on since then.

Last night I hit my breaking point with them. They came over to my house and started to bang on the door until I had to threaten to call the cops. Before they left they left me a note. The note was long but to some it up it said that if I don’t pay by Friday they will take me to court. I sent them the gift back through a family member. They got it back and now they are going crazy.

Saying that I should just give them the money for the gift instead of making them sell it to get some of their money back. C is still planning on taking me to court over all of this. So aita for not paying for the gift?

What do you think? AITA? This is what top commenters had to say:

Certain_Tear3736 said:

No you were clear from the beginning, why would someone spend that amount on a gift even if they were invited. It's really over the top. It seems more like they won it or something and want money for it so are bullying you into it. They won't have a leg to stand on in court so don't worry about it for that reason.

tube-city said:

Nah you handled it well, they tried to weaponized a gift to manipulate an invite out of you. Now that it didn't work they are threatening to sue even though you didn't accept the gift - sounds like you chose correctly by not inviting them to your wedding if that's how they show their support. NTA

TaylorMade2566 said:

LOL @ taking you to court over a gift. Seems C doesn't understand how the law works. You did the right thing returning the gift and have nothing to worry about, but sounds like you need to at least mute C but don't block them. You may need their off the rails texts/voice mails to use for a restraining order if they keep this up

And Last_Friend_6350 said:

Imagine blackmailing your way into a wedding…

She later shared this truly wild update:

OMG this is crazy for what I found out. So last night I was about to go to bed when I got a call from C boyfriend. He asked me why is C mad. I told him everything that C said and did. Bf was pissed. He said that the trip that C gave us was for his parent’s anniversary gift.

Bf and his siblings put their money together for this gift. Bf sister was asking about it because they are planning on giving it to them next week. He couldn’t believe on what she did. He asked if they could come over and talk this all out.

When they got there C was a mess. Telling Bf that the only way she got to go to the wedding was because of the gift. And she couldn’t take it back because it would make us upset. Which is a lie. So we keep on asking her questions on everything. C came out clear to us.

C was cheating on she Bf. She thought the gift was for someone else so she thought she could get rid of it. And not get in trouble for giving it away. So that all happened last night.

She is dumped by her bf and the guy she cheated on him with. She is also in jail for stealing it because she thought if she would return if she wouldn’t get in trouble. Now C is out of my life and the rest of my family. So the trip was all inclusive trip to Paris with two first class tickets. For a week.

Edit: the only reason why I accepted the gift was because it said in the card that it was from the whole family. I was under the assumption that all of my family chipped in. When I started to thank people for it they were all confused. They said they didn’t do it. So I thought it was family that couldn’t come.