Man plans to surprise wife with footage of a concert she couldn't go to. WIBTA? 'She missed out.'

"WIBTA if I played a concert for my wife that she couldn’t go to?"

So I (33M) have a wife (32F) who is a big fan of Coldplay. It’s literally on her bucket list to go to a concert of theirs. Well, her birthday is coming up and her brother offered to take her to an upcoming concert in Miami that Coldplay is putting on with their current tour.

He said all we had to do was buy her plane ticket and he would handle the rest. Concert ticket, hotel stay and most of the food (she would buy anything extra she wanted which we were both fine with). However, as time went on and we tried to find out when to buy the plane ticket, he kept coming up with more and more excuses as to why he couldn’t get everything handled and planned.

Eventually, we realized he was just too proud to admit he couldn’t actually afford the trip which not only bummed my wife out because she was lied to but also, and more importantly, because she wasn’t going to see the show she wanted to see.

I even helped participate in surprising her with the trip by giving her an early birthday gift that was a T-Shirt I ordered that had lyrics from her favorite Coldplay song on it. Here’s where I may be the ahole...

I found a VOD of a livestream of the full show from this same tour that happened about a month ago and I was going to surprise her on her birthday by not only having the house deep cleaned for her birthday but also taking the kids and basically making sure she didn’t have to do anything at all for the entire day.

Then, once I got the kids in bed, I would present her with a pair of (admittedly homemade) tickets to a “concert” in our living room where I would play her the concert she didn’t get to see. I ran it by a friend of mine and he told me that may make her more bummed because it’s a reminder of what she missed out on. So WIBTA if I did this?

Here's what people had to say to OP:

Jolly_Telephone2954 said:

To me this sounds like a super thoughtful gift that shows you care about your wife’s interests and making the magic happen for her, even if it is homemade. The deep cleaning the house is also a nice touch!

AnyBioMedGeek said:

NTA, but if you can then go BIGGER! Do you have a yard? Get a huge sheet and rent a projector so you can run the concert on a big screen for her, just the 2 of you with "front row tickets". It would be a ridiculously sweet date night!

MissionYam3 said:

Ummm… NO!? Your friend is stupid. Do it. DOOO ITTT. Omfg. That’s so thoughtful, she’s going to feel so appreciated that she won’t even care she’s not there in person.

Odd_Refrigerator18 said:

YWNBTA that’s really sweet! make sure the tickets are clearly homemade haha. I think just be prepared for the chance she might be bummed and not want to watch it and have a backup movie or something planned just in case! but my guess is she’ll love it!

Consistent_Bug_4157 said:

Absolutely NTA. This is sweet and loving, and very creative! This would make my month if my SO did this. AND I recognize that every woman is different. She’s your wife. You know her best. If you think she’ll love it, do it!

RaleighTS said:

NO WAY! This sounds very thoughtful and wonderful. Your friends don’t seem to have any emotional intelligence.

After reading some of the comments, OP edited the post to include:

At the suggestion of someone here (I forgot your username and I apologize for that), I presented my wife with the tickets as a surprise ahead of time and she MELTED at the gesture. Thank everyone who told me to go through with my idea. Also, my friend’s advice came from a good place even if he was wrong. I told him her reaction and he was happy to say he was wrong.