What would you do if the love of your life up and left you days before your wedding? Well, you could sue his butt off.
Dominique Buttitta, a lawyer in Chicago, is taking her ice-footed former fiancé to court for bailing on their big day just four days before the ceremony was supposed to go down. The jilted bride claims that by calling it quits, the groom "intentionally inflicted emotional distress" on her. She's reportedly seeking more than $95,000 from her ex -- money, she says, that she'd already spent on the wedding.
I think she may have a case, and not just because people sue for less than this every day. I've had neighbors sue other neighbors when their dog crapped on the lawn. Buttitta's fiance crapped on her life. Not only is she now being portrayed as a bitter, spurned woman, she's in the hole for a whole lot of zeros.
Planning a wedding is a big, long, intricate process. I know; I'm in the middle of planning mine. Pick up any issue of "The Knot" and they'll tell you: planning a wedding takes about nine months to a year. And those are a packed nine to 12 months of making lists, touring venues, tasting cakes and spending thousands of dollars in nonrefundable deposits. There's the dress, the rings, flowers -- Buttitta says she spent over $12,500 on those -- invitations, escort cards and a ton of other things that take up a whole lot of time and even more of your money. It's ridiculous.
Now let's get one thing straight. Is this guy allowed to break off the engagement? Absolutely. Acceptance of an engagement ring is not a binding contract to marry, because in America, we don't allow contracts for selling people (see the 13th Amendment). Also, in retrospect, Buttitta ended up SUING HIM FOR $100 GRAND. I don't think I would want to marry anyone who would sue me for anything, let alone 10 times my net worth. So yeah, bro, you have the right to change your mind. Granted.
But during all that planning, all the list-making, cake-tasting and tuxedo-renting,