My (F26) friend (F24) and her BF(M28) were caught 'red-handed' breaking a shelf at my wedding. She denies it and I'm not sure how to move on.

This past weekend I got married in a historical venue, and as most venues I was required to pay the fee of renting + a security deposit withheld for damages. The wedding went great, and at the end of the night we cleaned up everything quickly and made our way out.

After asking about a missing item Monday, Tuesday I received an email back saying that there had been some damage done to the original mantelpiece above a vanity mirror, and attached images. Unfortunately, since it was part of the original house, the director of the venue and the events coordinator decided to take the entire sum of the security deposit to cover it. They didn't want to inform us (or anyone) at the wedding, to not ruin the mood. This piece of furniture was in the bridal suite, which was located on a separate floor of the venue, not accessible to other guests.

According to the venue coordinator, she saw two people wandering on the floor, and told them there weren't any bathrooms there. She then went back to the office, heard a crash bang, and came back to the bridal suite to see them holding the broken shelf. This room was well-lit. My husband then called her asking for a description, because we did not hear back from any guests that this happened. She described them, then we sent photos of the guests and she positively identified two on a photo circling and emailing us back. There were only 50 guests, there is no way that she would have confused them for anyone else.

We confronted these guests and they vehemently deny this. Although they said they went upstairs to fix makeup, both say they absolutely did not break the shelf. It is very out of character for them to be destructive like this and continue lying. I talked to my friend and she has maintained her story, though some parts are a little hazy with her adding details. With the coordinator so sure, I'm at a loss of what to do, the situation is obviously very black/white, with one party definitely lying. At this point, I'm willing to swallow the cost, and move on as the shelf is broken. However I'm not quite sure how to maintain our relationship, as I don't want to cut her out of my life but I can't see why the coordinator would make such a blatant lie (but also why couldn't they flag this for us at the end of the night, after the wedding?) We also have a lot of mutual friends that were there that night, which will raise questions. Is there a delicate way to maintain my relationship with asking her why/if she lied? What is the best way to cope with a loss of a friendship if other mutual friends asked what happened?

TL;DR - My friend and her bf were supposedly caught 'red-handed' with the broken shelf at a venue. The venue reached out 3 days later to let us know that we would not receive our security deposit back, and after prying, identified the two people who broke it. They completely deny breaking it and I'm not quite sure what to do, whether it is worth to pry a confession or best to let it go.

EDIT: To clarify question.

Submitted August 28, 2019 at 11:22AM by meropes https://ift.tt/2PjCOQ4