EXCLUSIVE Woman forks over THOUSANDS to attend friend's destination wedding... only to discover she wasn't invited
Yasemin Sarli, 31, from Berlin, Germany, was excited to jet off to Buenos Aires, Argentina, in October 2023 with her then-boyfriend for one of his old college pal's nuptials.
While they hadn't received a formal invite in the mail, they had been sent a save-the-date text and her boyfriend had discussed the wedding with the groom on numerous occasions, so they believed they were invited.
They heard from other friends that guests were staying at the lavish Park Hyatt hotel so they had booked a room for just over $3,000 for five nights, and spent another $1,500 on round-trip flights.
But days before they were set to leave, the couple had the shocking realization that they did not have a place on the wedding guest list.
'The wedding came up casually in conversations between my boyfriend and the groom,' Yasemin explained exclusively to the Daily Mail.
'It was described as a "small wedding with close family and friends," and that somehow got interpreted (or misinterpreted?) as "you're totally invited."
'There was a casual save-the-date [text] months earlier and the tone of [my boyfriend and the groom's] conversations felt very "see you there!"
'My boyfriend was so confident that I never even questioned it. [But] no formal invite ever arrived in the mail.'
In the days leading up to the trip, Yasemin said she started to get a bad feeling when they didn't receive any details on scheduling.
'The red flags started waving a few days before we left,' she recalled. 'There were no follow-up messages, no schedule, no "can't wait to see you!" vibes.'
Soon, Yasemin pieced it together - her boyfriend had wrongly assumed that they were invited.
At first, she said she felt 'panicked,' but eventually, she and her partner decided to make the most of the situation.
They had already forked over roughly $4,500 on the trip and it wasn't refundable this close to takeoff, so they opted to still go to Argentina and enjoy the stunning city and resort.
But out of fear that they would run into some of their friends and have to admit to the embarrassing mishap, they had to take some extra measures to stay hidden.
'[My reaction was] mild panic… followed by delusional optimism… and then full acceptance,' Yasemin dished.
'Once we realized we were essentially wedding-adjacent, we just pivoted. We were like, "okay, secret vacation it is."
'The trip was already booked - so we boarded that plane with equal parts hope and denial. I was just happy to have uninterrupted time together.'
The couple didn't post about their vacation on social media at all and had to work their plans around the wedding party's schedules to avoid being seen.
They even wore disguises at one point, as Yasemin recalled, 'We basically went undercover.
'If we knew the wedding group was by the pool, we were at the spa. We adjusted our entire schedule to avoid accidental eye contact.
'It was not the trip we expected, but we leaned into the weirdness of it. It turned into a little private escape… with light espionage vibes and costumes.'
Looking back now, Yasemin, who ended up splitting from her boyfriend after the trip, said she's able to laugh about the whole thing.
They had already forked over roughly $4,500 on the trip and it wasn't refundable, so they opted to still go to and enjoy the stunning resort. Seen are pictures she took during the trip
'It was chaotic, awkward, kind of tragic - and hilarious,' she shared.
'Especially because at the end of the trip, my boyfriend had to fly home early for work, and I ended up making the 13-hour flight home to Germany alone, reflecting on the wildest almost-wedding ever.'
In the end, she hopes that sharing her story will stop others from making the same mistake.
'Never assume you're invited just because the vibe is good. Wait for the actual invite - ideally one with your name printed and a QR code attached,' she concluded.
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