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A wedding guest in Taiwan who paid roughly 3,600 New Taiwan dollars (about $118) as a cash gift says the reception meal turned out to be cold fast-food hamburgers — a story that has stirred controversy online.
According to foreign media including Hong Kong outlet HK01, a post describing the experience appeared on the social media platform Threads.
The guest, identified only as A, said she attended a friend's wedding and paid 3,600 New Taiwan dollars as a gift, only to find that the meal consisted of cold McDonald's combo sets and a few slices of pizza.
Photos shared with the post showed McDonald's drink cups on every guest table alongside disposable plates and chopsticks. The emcee had introduced the spread as a "buffet the bride and groom prepared with care," but A said the food was in fact cold fast food.
A went on to say that if the couple had planned from the outset to serve fast food, they should have at least mentioned it in the wedding invitation.
"A wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event, but it felt like a money-making scheme," A wrote, adding that she had expected at least traditional wedding fare such as glutinous rice and soup dishes. She said she was so taken aback that she felt like walking back to the gift table and pulling 3,000 New Taiwan dollars out of her envelope.
After the post gained traction, other guests who said they attended the same wedding shared their own accounts. One wrote that no one had told them in advance what format the reception would take, and that the experience was deeply embarrassing even though they were not particularly close to the couple. Another commenter said they were shocked to see McDonald's and had assumed guests would have been notified beforehand.
Reactions from local users ranged from "Is this a new 2026 cash-gift scam?" to "Are french fries the party favor?" to "No matter how much you want to save money, this is just bad manners."
choigo@heraldcorp.com
