The lives of rich people are clouded in mystery, as many of them value privacy and try to avoid unwanted attention. But this only makes the rest of us more curious to know how differently they live from us and what kind of luxuries complete financial freedom can buy. So when, once in a while, we get a peek inside, we can’t just keep it to ourselves.
That’s exactly what was happening under this thread, where people who found themselves in events hosted by the wealthy enthusiastically shared the craziest things they witnessed there. Scroll down to check them out for yourself, and don’t forget to upvote those that surprised you the most!
#1
I don’t think it qualifies as a “rich people event” but my wife works for bank, and unless you are management at a bank, you don’t make s**t. At her company holiday party a few years ago, the president of the bank comes out on stage and starts shooting dollar bills out of an air cannon. The site of a reasonable wealthy head of a bank shooting dollars at his underpaid (~$17/hour) employees, that they then have to scramble on the floor in their eveningwear to pick up turned my stomach. I don’t know how a supposedly smart and successful person could be so tone deaf. It was gross.
Image source: Mr-Young, Pixabay
#2
I was a server at a really nice restaurant and ended up working a dinner in our private room for the president of a major movie production studio’s birthday. One of the guests at the dinner was apparently a major producer and insanely rich.
I heard them discussing how he had decided to collect EVERY BOTTLE of a very nice wine maker’s specific vintage (to put into context this bottle would probably go for about $2000 per in a restaurant, not sure what retail would be) and had a full time employee tracking down private collections and restaurant wine cellars that might have bottles. At that point he had over 4000 bottles of the one wine, organized by serial number in a custom-made cellar.
He told a story about how Martin Scorsese had badmouthed a franchise he funded and when he later called looking for funding for The Irishman he told him to “go f**k himself”.
At one point in the dinner his assistant (one of three assistants sitting at the end of the long dinner table) informed him that the first truffles of the season had been delivered to some chef in Tokyo. So producer guy goes “Great! Anyone want to go to Tokyo this weekend for a truffle tasting?” A couple of people said yes so he instructed the assistant to “make sure one of the jets is available” for the trip.
They stayed 3 hours after we closed. Bought every bottle of the same brand of wine (different vintage) we had in our cellar “for the road”, let me taste a 1989 Chateau Haut-Brion and tipped $3600 for the lateness of their departure.
Wild night.
Edit: It wasn’t Kevin Feige for those trying to guess. He wasn’t American.
Image source: ammonite13, Getty Images
#3
My friend had a friend who is one of those “crazy rich asian” type of dude. Watch the movie and you will know what i mean.
One day, this rich dude was driving his Ferrari in the toll road, my friend was in another car following him for a car meetup event. This dude crashed his Ferrari to another car, and then stopped in the side of the road. He went out, called someone and waited while smoking with my friend. He acted like normal nothing happened, my friend said.
In 10 minutes, suddenly there was a yellow Lamborghini came up. The Lambo driver went out, took the Ferrari key from the rich dude hands, and then sit inside the crashed Ferrari.
The rich dude drove the Lambo and continue the journey. Apparently the new driver will take the fall for every single crash related problem.
Oh yeah, Police was there the whole time, and they did not bother to talk or approaching the rich dude before the lambo driver came up.
Image source: jembutbrodol, Zhuo Cheng you
#4
I was at a political fundraising dinner around 20 years ago. There were many affluent rich people there but only one billionaire. At one point I naively asked him why he didn’t run for office. He laughed and looked me directly in they eyes and said, “ son, why would I be a politician when I can own one?” F****d me up then. Nothing has changed.
Image source: mrmastomas, Andres Molina
#5
When I was in school I got paid $20 to work silent auctions for fundraising events in NYC. Most of them were for private schools in Manhattan. I swiped a credit card for a woman who bid $25,000 for her 5 year old to be principal for a day.
Image source: krobs42, Anita Jankovic
#6
Eating sushi off super hot naked girls
I was tending bar at a party at a 50 million dollar mansion in East Hampton. If I named the owner/host you’d all know who it was. There were movie stars and musicians there. There was a lot of crazy s**t there. What made the sushi thing so weird is nobody really paid any attention to the woman. It actually creeped me out and reinforced how different really rich people are.
Image source: jeffweet, Curated Lifestyle
#7
Having to chase someone down because they paid a power bill for a family in need at a charity event, It was $2200 they wrote the check for $22000 said they just heard wrong.
Image source: cantpanick86, Rawpixel
#8
I was in the Peace Corps in Zambia. We used to hang out at the casino in Lusaka cause they gave you free food, drinks, and cigarettes while you played. We would play like $2 hands of blackjack just to get fed.
But I went to the roulette table and some guy put down $10,000 in USD all over the table. Lost his spin, and just shrugged his shoulders and walked away.
Coming from the village where we sh*t in holes and pumped our own water, I was floored by the amount of wealth that existed right around from us.
Image source: Sure-Scarcity-2436, Ben Iwara
#9
“There’s not a huge difference in lifestyle between 10 and 30 million.”
I literally had nothing to relate to. He’s one of my best friends and the kindest guy you’d meet. He drives an older truck from the early 2000s and likes t-shirts and shorts.
Image source: hobbes8889, freepik
#10
Learned about the yacht life. I once had super wealthy bosses and they they were talking about their friend who owned several buildings. And who had a big yacht.
So the yacht was always ready to go. Which meant that it had a full complement of personnel, paid full time, down to chefs and servers. It was basically a hotel at sea.
The thing is, the guy rarely used it. So you had a boatload of bored people who had nothing much to do. If the guy goes to Europe, he would rather fly there — and have the yacht head there ahead, *just in case* he felt like using it. Which wasn’t all the time.
Image source: KarmicPotato, Viktor Ritsvall
#11
Through some odd connections I found myself at a private dinner that included the then-current Treasurer of a US state (this was decades ago).
His wife was young and gorgeous and everyone (not me) was drinking steadily. As the night wore on the State Treasurer demonstrated his ability to touch the tip of his nose with his tongue and my connection (the one who got me invited) said, “that’s why he always has a beautiful blond in his arm!”
Raucous laughter all around. Later I said something to my connection about the Treasurer’s wife and they laughed, rolled their eyes and said, *THAT’S* not his wife, that’s his girlfriend – well, one of ’em.
After further discussion it was revealed that every woman there was either a side piece or casual/open thing and most of the men (all VIPs/rich) had wives at home.
Meanwhile I was from a small, coastal (Gulf of Mexico) fishing village and this was the kind of thing I only saw watching *Dallas*. Tame by current “standards”, but back then it was scandalous.
Image source: EngineerBoy00, https://unsplash.com/photos/a-group-of-people-sitting-around-a-table-with-food-and-drinks-jlXtAvGx_hg
#12
They had a ‘poor people’ themed costume party. I wish I was joking!
Image source: theblondestar, timmi
#13
I worked a private event as a waiter, it was a rehearsal dinner. The father of the bride was telling everyone he chartered a private jet for his daughter and son in law to fly to Bali for their 6 week honeymoon, which he has also paid for. The jet was to stay there for their use for the duration of the trip in case they wanted to visit other places if they got bored. The rehearsal dinner for 20 people was about 20k. Working that event was probably the most I ever made in one night at that job, certainly the easiest.
Image source: pleasantly-dumb, Uzairdesign956
#14
I was hired to be a photographer at a wedding. They had rented the venue at a very expensive vineyard. There was a mansion there and as part of the deal the bridal party got to stay at the mansion. The owner is almost never actually there. He lives in a big White House, if you know what I mean.
I show up early the morning of the wedding and I’m greeted by the butler. Who’s more or less exactly like what you’d think, but younger and not English. Throughout the day I was all over the mansion taking pictures. During a lull I was chatting up the butler.
The weird thing was that he said it’s shift work, that there are basically three of them (maybe another guy for filling in, I’m not sure) and it’s 8 hour shifts. So I was asking, since wedding stuff is kinda seasonal and it gets cold here, like if I showed up at 2am in January one of you would be here, all alone in the mansion, just knocking around on the odd chance the big guy shows up? And he was like yeah, someone’s always here.
That just kinda blew my mind. Can you imagine just being the dude who sits alone in someone else’s mansion polishing the silver waiting to see if they show up? 85% chance I’d let my guard down and they’d catch me running around in my boxers dry h*****g the statues while blasting AC/DC or something.
Image source: Metalhed69, freepik
#15
My buddy took me on a cruise with our local Ferrari club. The house we went to was owned by a member who had 8 Ferrari’s in his garage, at this house, he also had a real Michael Schumacher F1 car and a Ford GT. While we were there he unveiled his new car a custom built Daytona SP3 that was all completely custom. The base price of the car is around $2.2 million so with the customizations it was closer to $3 million the way he had it.
The crazy part was the story he told about it, this was supposed to be an early build number car but it was delayed. He had to ask Ferrari about why his $3 million dollar car was taking so long while he was putting in another order for a completely custom Ferrari that is probably worth even more than that.
Spending more money on 2 cars than I’ll probably make in my whole life was a pretty wild story to hear while in a garage with cars that collectively are worth more than my family has made all together for a couple of generations really puts the wealth gap into perspective.
Image source: sirbobbinhood, Modified Pov
#16
Hot tip for anyone that likes art, the best place to see art in places like New York? Auction houses. They change their art every month, most of it will go into private collections and never be seen again, and they are free to visit.
I’ve stood in a room at Sotheby’s in NYC by myself with 5 or 6 Monets….probably $70-80 million worth.
But the two crazy things I’ve seen is you won’t even find rich collectors there. They send their assistants.
And one time I was at Sotheby’s and they were auctioning off a bunch of Tiffany Vases. Some assistant was checking them out, flipping them over, bare hands, just almost tossing them around like soho cups. I was shocked.
Image source: RudyRusso, Anita Jankovic
#17
My dad cooked a small dinner at a very privately wealthy families house, in which D**k Cheney was a guest and they flew in Elton John to play piano for the night.
That same family put on a birthday party for their 4 year old granddaughter, who wanted “a carnival” for her birthday, so they invited all of the country clubs staffs families to “make the place look alive”. Free carnival rides and food all day and night. In their backyard.
#18
Good friend of mine catered Zuckerberg’s birthday party a while back, and the dude had an entire “McDonalds”—with all the food, packaging, and such—flown in to his f*****g backyard. None of the cooks were McDonalds employees, but *fine-dining* line chefs making Big Macs and other s**t while the rest of them made all the “real” food for the sober adults….
Image source: rawwwse, Hrant Khachatryan
#19
“So anyway, I had to buy the maid a 1M dollar house so she could live closer to me to do my cleaning everyday. And now she’s not my maid anymore”
Gee I wonder why…
How I wish I was joking 😑.
Image source: jenlou289, drobotdean
#20
I worked at the montage resort in laguna Beach,ca. A centi-millionaire threw a birthday party for himself. He hired John legend and Don Henley to put on a show for him. Henley cost 750k for a couple songs and John Legend was 250k.
Image source: Eattherich187, freepik
#21
Private jet sent from Las Vegas back to the Bay Area to pick up leftover brisket from a party hosted by someone in the VC world.
Image source: jammastergeneral, Wesley Tingey
#22
I was invited once to a party with very rich people here in México City, nothing too crazy but a guy was casually talking about his new island near Cancún like It was nothing.
Image source: Spascucci, John Arano
#23
I once celebrated New Year’s eve at the big house of a rich family.
He was the boyfriend of my girl’s college roommate, met the guy before and he was really friendly.
When outside for a smoke with his best friend he told me the guy was gifted a small castle with 12 permanent staff for his 21st bday.
Image source: JackFourj4, wirestock
#24
An investor of my company bought a new Bentley SUV because his Cadillac’s battery died.
Image source: JJGBM, senivpetro
#25
My dad new a guy who ended up working at one of Freddie Mercury’s parties as a caterer and according to him there were Dwarfs painted gold going around handing out food and drinks.
Image source: YeeHawTheApe, Kateryna Hliznitsova
#26
When we were poor our daughter went to a private preschool that was great for her disability and they accepted us at hardly any tuition in exchange for speaking at fundraising events for them on our daughters benefit from being at the school.
At their big fancy yearly ball dinner we were speakers and they sat us at a donor table. We were literally stealing dinner rolls to make our Carl buddig sandwich meat better. At the auction portion one of the ladies explained that last year she bid on and won the African safari but she didn’t have anyone to go with her so she donated it back to this years event. As that vacation came up for bid she goes “wait my niece loves animals and travel, I’ll take her” and she went and bought it for he second year in a row.
Image source: bzzltyr, freepic.diller
#27
Special service. It was a ritzy wedding and someone there was a congressman. So we had secret service throughout the wedding pretending like they were guests while also not engaging with anyone to be distracted. They were like real life NPCs.
Image source: bilbobaggginz, Nguyễn Xuân Trung
#28
Not at an event, but at my then 9yr old sons friends house. They were VERY wealthy, and it was the Dads birthday dinner. They were having fillet steak, seafood etc.
Their two sons were disgusted that hey were having fillet steak-AGAIN. And one threw his away, and the other huffed off to his room and demanded his Dad (whose birthday it was) take him to get a pizza.
Dad actually DID! And my macaroni eating kid sat there scoffing his steak and witnessing the majesty of life.
Image source: Vegetable_Waltz4374, Curated Lifestyle
#29
Worked for a guy who said he shouldn’t have to pay taxes because he doesn’t use the welfare programs it pays for… I get where he comes from but taxes pay for so much more, than just welfare… same guy also said that he lies on his taxes because if he gets audited then he’ll just pay what he owes, but if he doesn’t then it’s free money….
Image source: Consistent-Golf-1048, August de Richelieu
#30
I work at a high end country club. It was raining so we closed the tennis/pickleball/basketball courts. A group of teens came in and asked if they could play basketball. When I told them the court was wet and slippery and they weren’t allowed to play one kid said, there are towels in the locker room, grab some and go dry it off!” It was pouring rain when he said this.
Image source: SpazSpazBoBaz
#31
Not as out there as some of these others.
Went to a New Year’s Eve party with a lady I was seeing who runs in pretty high international political circles (she works for one of the larger defence contractors). So it was pretty ritzy. Definitely a lot of cash splashing around (I think my date was wearing a solid 15k in dress and jewels), definitely hijinks in the boots and bathrooms. I may be bred from illiterate cannon fodder stock, but I’ve drank from the golden cup, eaten from the silver spoon etc etc before so I can fit in for a New Year’s party.
But when one of my dates friends admonished the party for having **the same ice sculpture fountain from last year for the aperol spritz**… I didn’t know how to respond because I know a guillotine joke wouldn’t stick the landing with those bourgeoisie f***s.
Image source: Roganvarth
#32
Not me but my friend worked catering at this fancy charity auction and said people were casually bidding $50k on a weekend trip like it was pocket change.
The wildest part was when someone bid $20k on a bottle of wine just to immediately gift it to someone else at the table.
Meanwhile my friend was making minimum wage serving them and stressing about rent that month”…”.
Image source: nakedrocks
#33
I was once at an all you can eat lobster dinner put on by a company as a reward for high performing employees and a drunk millionaire started yelling at his bosses who were worth hundreds times more than him, because the wine selection was sub par.
I was once told to get my pilot license after complaining about being in a long distance relationship.
Image source: ProfessorofChelm
#34
Worked as an subcontractor on a job in CA. Owner invited me and other guys to the opening party. The owner had a TRex skull in the basement, it was super cool, lit up like a futuristic Jurassic park movie.
Party gets going and the guy invites us to do some blow. Before we get in the room he takes a nail file and shaves off some of a main tooth (on the inside of the skull so you couldn’t see the damage).
I look at him like he’s insane. He looks back and just goes, “dude, Dino bumps”. Not gonna lie, it was kind of awesome.
Image source: schrodster
#35
I seen a old man dressed like a cowboy with pop guns chasing around girls in nighties.
Image source: ToeTagDad
#36
Apparently there’s underground sk**t shooting events where people bet $100k+ per round. I heard about this at an energy industry sk**t shooting event.
Image source: Osr0
#37
I worked in catering while in law school. Worked a super rich family’s daughter’s wedding where the dessert course was a whole show. A giant ice sculpture of a dove was carted out. Probably 10 ft high. In the middle there was a giant gold ball. Once it got set they pushed two racks of glasses up next to the sculpture on opposing sides. Then, two guys with chrom bore drills drilled into the sides of the sculpture and desert wine came pouring out of the internal globe into the waiting glasses. According to the wedding planner the sculpture was 15k. The wine in the sculpture was close to 50k.
Image source: Poorly-Timed-Gimly
#38
I was at a wedding with loads of rich Americans once. First one I spoke to said they fly to Rome 3 times a year for shopping and that this time they bought their 3 year old daughter 4 designer bags. Second one I spoke to was stood with his 8 year old son who told me they’d just been to Africa and spend 200k shooting lions. 8year old kid with videos on his phone proudly showing me. Was a wild wedding.
Image source: feetpolice911, v.ivash
#39
I worked one of the top 10 billionaires weddings. It was a 3 day event, he flew his private wine collection out on his private jet that cost around 30k just for the wine. The flowers alone were a million dollars. They had a live band till 11pm and then a pretty famous DJ rose up from the floor and played till 3am. The wedding total cost easily over 3 million.
Worked a bar mitzvah and he flew every one out in his private jet. Had a professional cowboy hat maker there to make hats for everyone. Had a live band and had at 10pm the kids all left and he brought in a weed dispensary with any and everything for anyone to partake. That cost over 2 million dollars.
Both tipped like s**t and both are s****y humans.
Image source: MissSarahKay84
#40
I hate being late to the party, but I was invited to a sports booster alumni fundraiser for a college (they get their friends to give $10,000+ to the college football team in exchange for club seats and booze that acts as a bonus business tax expense writeoff).
That’s the backstory. Here’s the f****d up part:
One of the night activities was a dinner and an entrepreneur brainstorming session for the club where they would take all of these rich a******s in one room, get them all drunk and then see what business ideas they could come up with to make the club even more money. *Over the course of an hour or so, these business owners came up with ideas for absolutely diabolical scams.*
One scheme included sending fake bills that the recipient would just pay because it would be too much work to question it.
I remember there were employees for a catering company who were in the room working late at 10pm at night and the look of f*****g disgust on their faces is something I’ll never forget.
Image source: DontWreckYosef
#41
I used to wash boats and rich folk cars. One client bought his 13 yr old son a plane so he could race him home in the mclaren. As you do.
Image source: 404notfound420
#42
I went on a punk cruise earlier this year. It was a week long and my cheap a*s room for 2 people cost about $3800. I got into a conversation with a person who had a super expensive suite and when they asked me about the accomodations I mentioned I had an interior room but it was all I could afford. They said “$38,000 isn’t that much.” I corrected them and said $3800. They said they didn’t even know rooms were that cheap and asked if there were rats.
Image source: acheron53
#43
“There should be a line at the DMV for people like us, then another line for everyone else…”
For context, he’s a super rich lawyer that thinks laws and mores don’t apply to him and others of his status.
Image source: Amplith
#44
At my former employer we had a client book one of the largest aircraft in the fleet to fly her son to private school in Europe and she accompanied him. She then stopped at a smaller city in Italy for her to visit a restaurant she liked and then returned to the west coast of the US. The bill for this was well over 100k…to drop her kid off at school for the year.
Image source: browsing1995
#45
I attended a rich person dinner in Bel Air. My girlfriend and I hardly knew anyone there but slowly got the sense everyone there was “wealthy.” The house where the dinner was held was listed for $80MM on my Zillow app. At the actual dinner, I began to make small talk with the guy seated next to me. We started talking about traveling, and he said his friend recently “raced with the Porsches in Germany.” I looked at him, and said “oh, you mean he raced Porsches in Germany, that’s great.”
He looked at me confused and said “no, he raced with the Porsche *family*” and rattled off a couple names of the Porsche heirs that apparently they were friendly with.
Image source: woot0
#46
I was invited to a corporate party in NYC. The party was at the Museum of Modern Art. They rented the museum for the evening. There was a caviar table you could go to and get as much caviar as you wanted. I was told that the caviar cost $5,000. This was in the early 90s.
Image source: paleoakoc20
#47
I went to a famous person’s birthday party in Beverly Hills. I won’t say who it was, just in case. But when my girlfriend and I got there, we were escorted up his driveway in a golf cart. Security brought us into his front room where there was a gold piano and then they escorted us to the backyard. First thing I saw was a woman in lingerie in one of those big inflatable spheres floating in the pool. But that was just the side pool. We kept going to the main backyard where there were trapeze artists, more lingerie girls in the bigger pool, a cigar wrapping station, Topher Grace sitting by himself (didn’t seem like he knew anyone there), and a big jazz band playing.
It was the most Los Angeles thing I’ve ever done and honestly didn’t enjoy my time there. We left early because of how self important everyone seemed.
Image source: b2thec
#48
I used to work for an eye doctor, and he sent me to a charity event in town. There was a silent auction, the kind where you write your bids down, and someone would come behind you and bid a little more. The doctor asked me to bid on this ski package and gave me a blank check and a maximum price. As dinner finished and the auction began, I knew that I was in the wrong room. I decided that instead of hanging around the ski package, I would just write down the maximum and hit up the open bar. It wasn’t my money. As I was backing away from the table, the guy behind me was a local developer. Big real-estate, big money. He looked at what I wrote down, looked at me, and said, “There is no way you have that kind of money, and I bet that you don’t even ski.” He then turned around, wrote $10K as a bid and looked at me, and said, “You ruined my fun. I think I will ruin everyone else’s fun.” He walked around the room and bid $5k to $10K on all of the luxury items. The charity broke a fundraising record, but people were pissed. I could care less. When I told the doctor the story, he thought it was funny.
Image source: Heftydog1
#49
Years and years ago, assisted a photographer at a fundraising event at the country club for a very, very, VERY private gated community in the NC mountains. The turn INTO the entire community was all but disguised as a junky old “mountain hollar” driveway. No signage, missed it the first two times. Absolutely GRILLED at the guard house before they let me through and then about 30 years into driving up: holy s**t, the Garden of Eden. It was WILD how well hidden everything was.
The event was at the country club and there were some very famous names in attendance. It was my job to stand beside the photographer and write down the names of those in attendance as they lined up for their photo op with the famous names. During the dinner, was upstairs inserting photos and polishing already-immaculate solid sterling picture frames that had to have weighed a couple of pounds each. And then passing them off to a handful of staff with thousand-yard stares, to be arranged on tables by the doors upon exit (after the event ended).
Then standing downstairs beside that table, checking names off a list as the donors/attendees left (and were supposed to pick up their parting gift). Except it never really got that far, because….
The SHEER VOLUME of people who saw their photos in those frames just *tried to f*****g steal them.* Nevermind that they were clearly intended as a donor GIFT— that part didn’t even matter. I was hired help, I had nothing to do with anything except the expectation that I’d hand them off and check a name off a list, **assuming** that the event organizers had shared that information with the attendees/donors. I guess they didn’t? People were literally swiping them and shoving them into their jackets, pockets, down pants and/or purses and hauling a*s for the door while I stood there desperately trying to explain “It’s a gift! If you don’t mind, what’s your name so I may check it off that you received yours?”
That went down like a lead balloon. Apparently being told that something was intended as a gift **after you already f*****g stole it** was considered rude. Maybe you should have asked before you tried to shove it down your pants???
I’ve witnessed wealth, I don’t possess it but I’ve been in the company of more than plenty and sometimes to the point of excess. But this was on a level of its own: these people collectively possessed more f**k-you money than some small countries, but behaved no better than a flash-mob on an Apple Store in San Francisco. I’ve just never seen anything like it, before or since.
Image source: NotAPandaEither
#50
This is pretty subtle, but I was visiting someone and the conversation of “middle class tax cuts” came up.
Someone said, “… yes, I agree, I think that’s exactly what **THEY** need.”
I’ve always heard absolutely everyone in my life identify as some form of middle or working class. I **never** heard someone use “they” as a pronoun with discussing the middle class because they recognized that they were way above it.
Image source: VeiledShift
#51
Not a gala or event, a friend’s wife worked at an HOA in a rich area where some celebs and pro athletes lived. One resident asked her if the airplane paths overhead could be changed to avoid the area. They weren’t even close to the airport, maybe 20 miles.
Image source: jtho78
#52
I went to school with a lot of crazy rich kids, the richest of whom were normally Russian. A few stick out to me:
It was a boarding school so we had all our stuff there all term. At the end of term one kid piled his stuff on the side of the road, and got into an all-white Rolls Royce as it pulled up. As it left a second all-white Rolls Royce pulled up and collected all his things.
One of the nicest kids you’ll ever meet decided he wasn’t going to go into student accommodation at uni, so he decided to buy a house. I asked him out of interest how much money he had access to. His dad had given him £3.2 million in ‘spending money’ to last him 5 years.
We also had a designated helicopter landing pitch for anyone who flew in.
Image source: bitchyturtlewhispers
#53
At a very rich people wedding. The grooms father talking about what a sound financial investment it was for this other rich girl to marry his son. To top it all off the groom was 200% gay.
Image source: starrpamph
#54
Went to a wedding in San Francisco 30 years ago. My wife was good friends with the groom. Lots of nice people that I’d never met. Casual conversation with anonymous attendee, he asks me what I do professionally. I tell him that I’m a public employee Union advocate. He tells me I’m the problem with the world and turns his back to me. Similar thing happened to me when a mutual friend introduced me to Reince Preibus. In both instances, “tell me you’re a class warrior on the wrong side of the battle without telling me”. The rich don’t care about being polite or getting along. They drive the steamrollers.
Image source: traveler64
#55
Very pricey political fundraiser in NYC.
The former Police Commissioner of NYC said from the podium that the then-recent graffiti on the Christopher Columbus statue was proof that discrimination against Italian-Americans was alive and well in the US. This got applause.
To this day, this is the most WTF thing I’ve ever heard someone say with a straight face.
Image source: maxim38
#56
Not exactly an event, but I’m working on a side television gig right now. When the owner who hired me came into town to meet me, I found out that he had flown into the private airport. Meaning he spent between 30-70k (according to google) on his flight. He f****d up by telling me this because we hadn’t fully agreed to pricing on everything yet. I’d later get him to pay me 5 grand to cut a trailer that took me one day. Also getting 5 grand per episode, but the money I made from that little trailer was sweet.
Image source: earic23
#57
Roomate/sports teammate in college got married. They flew me in to be a groomsmen. I knew he had money but not “whatever the f**k I want money”. Dad came up to me bragging about hiring a 30 person black choir to sing with him at the dinner after wedding. He really did and f*****g danced and sang his a*s off. Then he caught me in the walk in portable semi truck size fridge. I found the Dom Perignon and had never had any but always heard about it. He hands me three cases one at a time and said get out there and start a Dom fight. So I did.
Then he introduced me to the two state senators and the owner of the Chicago Bears.
I drunkenly got to talking with the wedding planner and asked how much. 1.5 million. I was the quirky white trash friend who stopped people from bothering him or fought while he left the bar cause of some a*****e losing money on him in college.
I woke up hung over in their f*****g palatial mansion to a maid putting breakfast on my bed and asking if I “Mr. Southernjeb” needing anything further.
Orders of magnitude greater wealth than anything I could have imagined.
Go gators.
Image source: SouthernJeb
#58
My uncle is a concierge at the Pitkin County Airport in Colorado. He found a briefcase someone left on a plane with $20,000 CASH, knew the person and called them to come back & pick it up. Who forgets $20,000 cash?!?! My uncle also gets dibs on lost & found items so I make requests for “gifts”: so far I’ve gotten a pair of Ray-Ban aviator sunglasses and Sony Bose noise canceling sport earbuds.
Image source: Sconniegrrrl68
#59
I work for a company that provides a platform to host auctions, so I’ve been to a lot of these type of events here in the North East. I’ll never forget what happened at this one event for a ritzy private school. During the live auction for a yacht trip around France/Paris or something of the sorts, this one woman, who I guess helped secure the package or had friends who donated it, WAS NOT happy with the bid price that was going to win, basically saw it as an insult. She got up on stage, b**ched everyone out, then said fine, if you all won’t spend the right amount I’ll do it. Lady spent $60K on the trip out of spite. Walked off stage, grabbed her purse and just walked out.
Image source: andersmb
#60
I was at a party in New Orleans, and I saw a shiny object out of the corner of my eye.
Upon speaking to the person who possessed the shiny object, I found out it was one of the biggest yellow diamonds in existence, or an expensive diamond beyond compare.
Yeah. Whatever…
It was her next statement that drew my undivided attention.
She said, “I shot my husband dead one night after I found out he was having an affair with another man. The judge gave me 6 years in a psych ward, but let me keep the ring.”
That was the moment I realized I was chatting with a m******r.
Image source: cajunrn18
#61
Perhaps not heard but experienced.
I am a regular guy who has been clean and sober for 26 years.
I live in a very high cost of living area about 90 miles up the 101 from LA.
A fellow friend of Bill happened to be (and still is) rather a big deal in the entertainment industry. He would (no longer) have very large very opulent Christmas parties peppered with mostly entertainment folks. Some in front of the camera and others behind. Others like myself are regular people who happen to have a friend who exists in an extraordinary situation.
In any event, at one of the Christmas parties, I and my date got up from the table to go to the dessert station. It took a few minutes before we went back to our seats. As soon as we got near the table I was furious. Some lady had taken my seat. (I didn’t leave a jacket, but thought my clearly full beverage and gift bag were sufficient notice). I approached the table 100% ready to talk some s**t. As I neared the lady looked familiar. I scanned my mind as to where I knew her from. About 2 seconds later she spoke and I knew it was Nicole Kidman.
I am not one to get star struck in general. However I suggested to my date that we find another table while she whispered “was that Nicole Kidman and her new guy in our seats?” Into my ear.
I am not wealthy and will not likely ever be famous. I have learned in knowing a small handful of either rich, famous, or rich and famous people that beyond the basics being covered it doesn’t make anyone happy or fulfilled. One friend said, I have been depressed and rich and depressed and poor. Between the two I would choose depressed and rich.
Image source: Calabriafundings
#62
Car dealership owner celebrated his wife’s birthday with a 20 person dinner. The entertainment was Joan Osborne “what if god was one of us”. Weirdest event I have ever done sound for.
Image source: TONER_SD
#63
Worked with a company where I got “in” with the rich exes and high level directors working there even though I was an IC and was poor (making under six figures). I hung out with them after hours regularly and I saw all kinds of crazy stuff. At one point we got a new office including a state of the art audio space (control room, hang out space and session rooms). The space was massive (easily able to comfortably accomodate 12 people) completely soundproofed with the top end best of the best equipment for voice actor recording, sound mixing and even playing and recording several instruments and it was all “floating.” Essentially meaning that it was a “room within a room.” One of the people I worked with had a “hobby for sound mixing” and started asking the audio team a lot of questions about how the room was set up, what brands the equipment costs, etc. I remember some of the hardware was worth something like $450,000 each. About six weeks later the person asking all the questions casually told me that they had “their people” expedite the process of expanding their mansion so that he could have the same setup (floating room, with the same hardware), costing him well over a million dollars. Just to play with as a hobbiest in his spare time.
Image source: No_Channel_1925
#64
Worked with a guy who used to be a deckhand on yachts for hire by rich dudes. The yacht got hired out by some rich Saudis (he didn’t say who), and one evening the yacht docked somewhere in Italy so they could go off and have dinner.
A few hours later, one of them comes back and asks this guy to summon the captain. Gets the captain out of bed and is told “One of the gentlemen has purchased a Zonda. [very very expensive hypercar for those who don’t know] Please arrange for it to be delivered back home”
So the captain had to arrange delivery of this extremely expensive hypercar back to wherever he was from, and that came from whatever the hire fees were for the yacht that week.
Then a few days later, they stopped somewhere else and a bunch of ladies were brought onto the yacht; he implied that they were probably s*x workers but didn’t say it out loud. He was legally forbidden from disclosing what happened next.
Image source: AH2112
#65
I was stuck in traffic leaving said event and one of the peeps was flipping out and yelling to fly in a helicopter to take them back to the city.
Image source: d_zeen
#66
My husband went from roofing to fast food store management (hospitality) to working in a corporate business development role at a private equity firm.
He overheard his OFFICE MANAGERS at work talking about how “disgusting hospitality workers” are a few weeks ago.
He left that experience off his resume, but it was absolutely disgusting to hear people talking like that.
He said another time his (same) office manager refused to get on the elevator with the maintenence people and stood there to wait for the elevator to come back, looked right at him, and said “UGH. I’m not riding the ELEVATOR with DIRTY people!”
Some people are soooo c**ty and out of touch. 🙄
One of their attorneys was talking about casually dating a state senator, and on another occasion he overheard him talking about how his buddy brags about his new private jet but “literally everyone has one, he’s not THAT special”.
Image source: lil_pelirrroja_x
#67
I get to help plan these parties sometimes. I get a kick out of the a******s that try to one up each other based on which helicopter they arrive in.
Image source: Marypoppins566
#68
My fiancé’s family are rich. Like, if you live in the local area you’ve likely heard their names rich. If you know what industry they made most of their money in, you’d probably know of them. Not billionaires, but rich enough that multiple generations of her family would never have to work again if they just stopped tomorrow. We’re in the UK.
It’s important for the story to mention that she is white and I am not.
Her family are actually really nice, lovely people, but the rich people events I get invited to are full of literal stupidly evil people. Like if they had the capability, these c***s would be supervillains. They casually discuss how great fox hunting is, refer to normal people as, “the help”, make jokes about peasants etc.
The weirdest thing however is they sometimes literally have these conversations like the ones you’d see in Get Out.
Image source: TheGreekScorpion
#69
I was bartending and this mid to late 60 year old lady was telling me that her and her husband just built a house for themselves that is 38,000 square feet.
Image source: lafolieisgood
#70
They were drunk and lost their kid then joked to her friends that it was okay if she ran off and died because they are replaceable 💀.
Image source: Due-Shallot1951
#71
I was once dealing blackjack in the high stakes area of a large casino. Two guys betting between $5k and $15k per hand. One guy lost all his money and says to his buddy, “Hey, loan me $50k dollars.” Second guy hands him $50k in chips and says, “Remember, you owe me $150k.” This happened a few times in the half hour I dealt that table.
Image source: Gallahd
#72
I heard one time at a charity gala, a billionaire literally argued with the staff about the temperature of his water. Like, how out of touch can you be?
Image source: lovememoredosii
#73
Person freaking out at the wynn after finally arriving because his private plane had to taxi for 1 hour after landing.
vegas airport wasn’t prepared for the influx of private planes at its first F1 event 2 yrs ago.
Image source: Melodic-Comb9076
#74
I was once a babysitter for a rich dudes kid.
A lot of sad stuff happened and the kid and the mother died, but the guy married again.
At his wedding, there was a show with jets making marks on the sky, a a nationally known musician made music and there was a huge firework.
It was the driest summer ever and fire in any form was strictly forbidden.
The fireworks started a fire and half his company burned down. The only reason it didn’t ended up way worse was because the size of the fire was so huge, firefighters from nearby counties came by because they saw fire and smoke on the horizon.
This, and there was already firefighters present who quickly called for help. The fire escalated so quickly, before they could properly start to extinguish, the fire engine started to melt.
Image source: azionka
#75
Slum tourism
My boss is quite wealthy. When we have business partners over, he likes to invite some of the staff he personally likes to dinner.
Two years ago, some of our business partners present talked about how they loved vacations to South America, East Asia, and Africa and how they hired personal guards to visit local slums.
They talked about how fascinating it is that the locals live with 10 people on 2m² without water or electricity. Talked about how threatened they felt by all the poor people and how glad they were to find cheap armed guards for their excursions.
I was shocked at first, and then the shock turned into disgust. TBH, I didn’t say anything back then because I didn’t want to offend my boss. He seemed disgusted as well, though, since he sees traveling around the globe as a privilege that should be used to learn about the local culture.
Image source: AkaAtarion
#76
Truckloads of real snow brought in for a Christmas party in Texas, along with a team of real reindeer & real Santa, a dessert mountain (exactly what it sounds like) a wax sculptor, Elvis impersonator, caricature artist, a whole roasted pig complete w/apple in its mouth, and so much more- all at the same party. And the family did this every year.
Image source: MPD1987
#77
Birthday party where they hired Maroon 5 (at full price) to play for an hour.
Image source: DoctorRobert420
#78
At the Auction to support the Boarding School, the puppy went for $75,000.
2 people just gave cash of $500,000. Each one then other large gifts.
Image source: TeacherRecovering
#79
Them speaking casually of high authority people as if they are friends. It was expected that they knew each other but the casuality got me unprepared.
Image source: Redcast31
#80
I watched a half naked Al Jourgensen yelling random phrases in Spanish at a Wax Trax records staff party.
Image source: Level-Camera2134
#81
Gonna be cryptic because…reasons. Ended up at a small dinner with some real estate developers. Big time guys – international big time. They were talking about their employees and one mentioned a guy whose dad wanted him to take on the family business but he offered the guy six figures to find himself and then come work for him. Another mentioned a guy that left them to run a massive, massive project in the Middle East. My take away was 1. Most of it sounded like a game to them. They wanted to win but didn’t really seem to take stuff personally. 2. Anything they were discussing was a dream the average person would cut their arm off to possess.
Image source: MrFunktasticc
#82
I worked at a summer camp for really rich foreign teens (I’ll probably make an AMA about it soon). There was a group of Muslim kids from one of the -stan countries that were probably the highest average net worth out of all of the nationalities there. One claimed to be the grandson of one of their presidents and another said his dad owned their top oil companies.
Anyway, the second kid said that he was big into ladyboys and that his dad was too. He said something along the lines of his dad had taken him to gentlemen’s clubs when he was younger. That was just insane and showed me that these rich foreign kids are into some crazy s**t, even despite their superficial religious background.
Image source: yeahweallgothurt
#83
My brother worked major fireworks shows for a company. One year he asked me to help him run a private show for a billionaire. We drive out to the property and can only talk to the ranch manager. It was 1 of 4 properties the family owned, all 10-40,000 acres. I was joking with the ranch manager about how big the properties are and he tells me the one near the boarder they find dead bodies during the summer. People crossing the boarder and dying on their ranch.
Image source: LusciousHam
#84
Not me but my parents. They were on their honeymoon in the Bahamas. They met an Argentina couple who was on month 3 of their 6 month honeymoon. She spoke fluent English, he spoke broken English. At one point he asked my dad “how do you say, i play windsurfing on my private pond?”.
Image source: ImReverse_Giraffe
#85
Owner of a HUGE “micro brewery” (that’s an oxymoron, I know), only drank bottled Budweiser, and claimed it was his favorite beer. Everyone else sampled from the 10 or so of his brewery’s beers (and drank liquors from his distillery) he had on tap, in his home bar.
Image source: TheOGRedline
#86
Went to a multi-million dollar mansion in texas to shoot video at a birthday party. They had an open bar and so the many rich guests got very drunk. One guy so drunk was bragging in a booming voice about how much money he launders. He said something like “ya, my boss launders so much money that he let’s me take some off the top. I make some good money from how much my boss launders let me tell you.”
He was so willing to go on and on bragging and I was just shocked.
Image source: nib13
#87
I am a teacher at a public school in a VERY wealthy area. At the parent social (fund raiser gala), the PTA auctioned off a parking spot for $30,000 for one year.
Image source: Charming_Marsupial17
#88
Not an event, but I once worked at a big music store. Mostly sell stuff online/over the phone but they also have a huge main location. Probably once or twice a week some band/musician will come in for a tour or to do media stuff which leads to some stories being spread around by employees.
I guess there was a time that Joe Walsh came into the store area with all the guitars on the wall and basically just walked around the room pointing at different guitars going “that one, that one, that one…” like he was picking out candy bars. No idea how many he actually left with though.
For additional context, most of the guitars in that room were over $1000 with some in the 5 figures.
Image source: landon10smmns
#89
I went to a Gala for a rich private school, and they got Jim Caviezel (played jesus in the passion of the christ) to talk and I wish to god I still had the (illegally recorded) recording of his talk. He started by asking everyone to turn off their phones and NOT record, because what he was going to say here today had never been said anywhere else, and was going to change the world. So of course I immediately started recording.
Long story short he literally thinks he’s jesus. He got struck by lightning multiple times while filming and I honestly can remember the rest of the manic ramblings but he straight up thinks he’s jesus.
Image source: whaletacochamp
#90
So I got hired to serve drinks at this fancy-a*s rich people party.
I show up thinking it’s gonna be chill…
Spoiler: it was NOT chill.
Everyone looked like they just stepped out of a Gucci commercial. And then there’s me, holding a tray, trying not to trip in heels I bought second-hand 💀
This one silver fox keeps looking at me. Like full eye contact while sipping champagne. I thought maybe I had something on my face.
Then he comes up and says:
“You’re too pretty to be working tonight.”
Bro. I’m just trying to not drop the wine glasses 😭
Later I find a napkin with a note:
“Meet me after. I want dessert.”
I thought he meant cake.
Turns out I was the dessert 😳
Long story short:
I went in poor and single.
Left with $500, a room key I didn’t use, and a Birkin bag I still think is fake 💀
Rich people parties are wild.
Image source: vikkkvolk
#91
About 15 years ago, I worked an event for a couple of Olympic figure skaters outside Detroit. They got married on an ice rink, and the whole place was completely decked out, with silk hanging from the rafters. It was very nice. We were just the post-ceremony coffee and light pastry stop before they loaded onto buses for the next venue. They were with us for maybe 30 minutes and dropped $15,000.
Image source: SteveOInColorado
#92
At a pie auction my old boss paid 2 k for a regular pie.
Image source: HistorysWitness
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