A man has sparked a fierce debate online after claiming he kicked out every female member of his family—after they all turned up at his wedding wearing white dresses.

Pretty much the only rule of any wedding is don’t wear white, unless you’re the bride, but it seems a group of relatives threw the rulebook out the window for a “prank.”

The groom posted his dilemma on Reddit’s Am I The A****** forum, under username More-Concern3267, explaining he has a large family, mostly made up of “aunts and female cousins aside from mom, stepmom, stepsister and grandmother.”

The 33-year-old claimed they were fans of “teasing and joking,” and would often devise initiation-style tests for any new woman entering the family. He wrote: “They’ve formed a unit (which I admit is kind of toxic) and they’d tease and roast every new woman that enters the family by marriage by setting up ‘tests’ to see if they deserve to be part of the family.

“Then after a few months of teasing they’d announce that they’ve finally welcomed them into the family.”

Despite his pleas not to behave this way towards his then-girlfriend, now wife, they did anyway which caused friction in the family, as the groom demanded an apology.

But he claims things were taken too far at his wedding, which took place a fortnight ago, after expressly telling his female relatives not to pull any shenanigans.

He’d heard rumors they were planning a stunt, as he wrote: “There was talk about the women in the family wanting to pull a prank on my wife by wearing white and called it the ‘ultimate test’ to see how my wife react. My brother warned me so I announced that if anyone of them showed up in white I’d have them kicked out, including mom.”His ultimatum fell on deaf ears, as all the women in his family arrived at the venue in white frocks, which looked just like wedding dresses.

“But they showed up to my wedding one by one wearing white dresses and each and every one of them was told to leave after they tried giving excuses by either making scenes or getting the men involved.”The senior women of the unit who are Mom and aunts also showed up in white but refused to leave. I threatened to take harsher action and mom was pissed telling me to step aside but I didn’t let her in,” he wrote.

In the post, he clarified the frocks were: “Simple white dresses nothing over the top but still were white dresses.”

He says the men in the family look on, stunned, although his dad supported him, as he confirmed, referring to his mom: “I had her leave.”

The stunt has seen him fall out with family, and they haven’t spoken for a fortnight, he added. He revealed: “My wife was hurt beyond measure but the women in the family were pissed.”Mom said I took it too far by kicking them out because they were trying to get [a] reaction from my wife to see if she was one of those ‘bridezillas’ and were going to change soon as [the] prank was over but I ruined my own and entire wedding by reacting so aggressively. I stopped talking after she said I had to bring my wife and apologize.”

His post, shared on Saturday, has since amassed more than 20,000 upvotes, as people overwhelmingly sided with the groom over his decision.

Flooperdooper4 asked: “Can you imagine how the wife’s family thought about all of this? If I were the mother of OP’s wife, I would be really worried about my daughter being around those women. Good on OP for breaking the cycle. NTA.”

Throwawayact75 commented: “I would have pulled my daughter aside and asked her if she was 100% sure about marrying into this family and told her that it is not too late to back out. OP—you sound like a good guy but your family is completely toxic. What your family pulled is sick.”JanuarySoCold said: “If I were the bride’s family and saw this level of bullying I’d be persuading the bride that she can do a lot better.”

Theresbeans reckoned: “Seriously. So they wanted to get the bride all upset and hurt on her wedding day for ‘jokes’? These people are gross and nasty.”

Happyvirus98 thought: “I am shuddering at the thought of any woman having to marry into a family like that, but having OP for a husband is definitely a silver lining.”

While SerJaimeRegrets added: “On the bright side, OP’s wife doesn’t have to put up with his female family members’ shenanigans anymore, so that’s a win.”Wedding website The Knot stressed that unless instructed to, guests should avoid wearing white at all costs.

They quoted Ranu Coleman, CMO of wedding fashion brand Azazie, who stressed: “While it’s probably obvious to most guests, it’s important not to wear any shade of white to a wedding unless it’s specifically stated in the invitation.”