My Sister Owes Me Money...she Needs To Pay Up!

"My sister got engaged 18 months ago & asked me to be one of her bridesmaids. I agreed & we started choosing dresses & accessories & planning showers & hens parties. The wedding is to be held on Decmeber 19th of this year)...

Anyway, two weeks ago I was out to lunch with the girls for our annual pre-Christmas get-together & I caught her fiance in a compromising position with another woman (turned out to be his receptionist, how cliched!)...they were having lunch, complete with expensive champagne & he was feeding her his dessert & she was rubbing his leg with her bare foot & when he got up to leave they kissed passionately. I chose to observe (rather than confront) & managed to capture the goodbye kiss on my mobile phone as evidence.

It took me a day & a half to work up the courage to show my sister but I thought that she should know just what sort of man she was planning on marrying. Needless to say, this was a big mistake as she screamed at me & ordered me out of their house. I then get an email from her stating that I am no longer her bridesmaid & I need to return my dress (& accessories) so she can have it altered to fit one of her friends who has agreed to take my place. She also said that I must have taken their meeting out of context & I did it because I am jealous that her fiance makes a LOT of money (he buys cheap crap from poor villagers in 3rd world countries, imports it into Australia & sells it to rich people who don't mind exploiting poeple) & my husband is just a dumb grease-monkey (he is a heavy vehicle & transport mechanic for Integra coal).

She then went on to say that I am not welcome at her wedding. I am not welcome at her kitchen tea. I am not welcome at her hens weekend away. I am not welcome at the pre-wedding spa day.

Anyway, I returned the dress & the shoes & the handbag & the hair accessory to her so that they could be used by this other friend & with it I included an invoice for a little over $2000.00

Dress: $850.00
Alterations: $150.00
Shoes: $120.00
Handbag: $50.00
Hair Clip: $40.00
Hair & Make-up Trial: $85.00
Catering for kitchen tea: $200.00 (this was going to be my kitchen tea gift to her but if I am not allowed to go then she can forget about a gift!)
Deposit for my pace at spa day: $50.00 (non-refundable but I assume that my place will be taken by the new bridesmaid)
Deposit for Hens weekend away: $500.00 (everyone's deposit went on my Visa card & I was to be reimbursed in cash when we all met up at the airport)

I have not included their wedding gift on the invoice (2x 1000 thread count egyptian cotton sheets sets) which I will still send to her before the wedding because if you are invited to a wedding & cannot attend it is still polite to send a gift.

So, I figure that as her husband does SOOO Much better than mine financially he can AFFORD to reimburse me for my out-of-pocket expenses in the lead up to the wedding.

She has refused to pay & is now telling other family members that I made up lies about her fiance because I am trying to destroy their relationship out of jealousy. Our nanna even called me to ask me why I am so jealous of my sister's happiness!!!!!!!!!

I am now considering taking this to the small claims court to recover my expenses.

New Side Updates
"I am confident that I COULD recover my costs through the small claims courts (SCC) & you might want to check your facts because you don't have lawyers for SCC as it is basically mediation.

The reason I am confident is because when you asked me to be your bridesmaid & I accepted what we entered into was a VERBAL CONTRACT...I agreed to help you prepare for your wedding & spend a bundle of cash on things I would not normally have bought & help you go to the toilet in your big white dress...in exchange, you allow me to be your BM & attend all these other ancilliary events.

The problem with verbal contracts is that they are usually pretty hard to prove as there are usually no witnesses to the agreement however in this case there are literally hundreds of people who KNOW you asked me to be your BM & because of your own stupidity there are also hundreds of people who know that YOU kicked me out of the job (not the other way around) so I think I have a pretty good chance through SCC...maybe you SHOULDN'T have called all our family & all MY friends to tell them that you have banned me from the wedding......view more"