‘My mum sabotaged my $13,000 gender reveal party.'

The venue's booked. The invitations have gone out. The cake's been been ordered, the ballons had been picked up.

Everything is set for the perfect gender reveal party.

And then, you hear... sirens.

For one married couple in the US, this is exactly the scenario that played out when their lavish gender reveal party turned into a disaster, after it was allegedly ruined by a family member.

Candace and Wesley are TikTok influencers with a huge following of almost a million fans, thanks to their candid and open posts about family life. The Oklahoma couple are parents to twins and are expecting another child later this year.

While they have become known for posting cute videos of their home life, they've recently gained a lot of attention for... another reason. Around a week ago, Wesley went on TikTok to share the story of how his mother apparently ruined their gender reveal party, or which they paid $9k USD — or around $13,600 AUD.

It all began when Wesley's wife Candace reached out to his mum, Michelle, to let her know the invite details for their party, set for February 22. Michelle responded by confirming her attendance and asked if they needed any help planning the event.

Candace let her mother-in-law know that she and her sister were planning it — a roundabout way of saying that they didn't need any help in organising.

"That's not what I asked..." Michelle replied via text.

The blunt response prompted Candace to be more specific, writing back, "Oh, um, no we are good." But sensing that her mother-in-law was keen to be involved she added, "But we might need help setting up on the day of if you can get there at 2:30!"

Fab! Great! Delightful. 

Michelle's response shocked Candace to her core: "Am I getting paid?"

Confused, Candace as her MIL why she thought she'd be paying to help with the party Michelle... seemed to just offer help out with.

"Because I'm not your f**king maid," wrote Michelle.

And wow. 

Candace burst into tears and ran into the other room where her husband was, showing him the text exchange, which prompted him to take action.

"There is a grand total of zero people that is ever going to cuss out my wife," Wesley recalled in the TikTok video.

He then proceeded to have a 10-second phone call with his mother, telling her not to speak like that to his wife again and revoking her invitation to the gender reveal, before hanging up and blocking her number.

Watch: 'My mum ruined our gender reveal party'. Story continues below.

Blocking Michelle was just a temporary measure, said Wesley, taken to set their boundaries on what is (and... is not) an appropriate way to speak to them. He said he had every intention of sitting down and talking it out with his mother once they had moved passed the gender reveal party.

Michelle messaged and called her son, apologising profusely, and asking to attend the party, as she did not want to miss out on celebrating her grandchild. But the couple stood firm.

"We appreciate your apologies but you crossed the line and you're not coming," Wesley recalled saying to his mother.

When the big day finally arrived, Michelle made one last attempt at getting back in their good graces. But staying true to his word, Wesley refused to let her come, telling her, "I'm not going to feel bad, because you talked to my wife in a way you shouldn't have."

"Okay," she replied. "I have no choice then."

Wesley, Candace, and their friends and family launched into party mode, enjoying the big day they'd waited so long for. Around 30 minutes before the actual reveal part of the event, Candace felt an urge to extend an olive branch to Michelle. She told Wesley to message his mum and invite her along so she could be there to find out the gender of the baby.

"Okay, I'll be there," Michelle replied to her son. But as they approached the countdown to the gender reveal, Michelle was nowhere to be seen.

Deciding they couldn't wait any longer, the couple proceeded without her and began a 60-second countdown before they would pull the confetti canon to reveal the gender of their baby.

"I will never forget second 13," Wesley said. "Because at second 13, the fire alarm goes off."

The lights in the venue shut off, emergency lights flared into action, and water from the sprinkler system started to rain down. Everyone fled outside as the fire department arrived to investigate the alarm.

And as they made their way outdoors, there, sitting on the curb smoking a cigarette, was Michelle.

Immediately, Candace asked Wesley if he thought maybe his mum triggered the alarm, and marched over — Wesley in tow — to try to get answers.

Michelle denied any involvement in the situation but Candace wasn't buying it. And as for Wesley? He put the question to his followers: did they think his mum had a sinister motivation to ruin their gender reveal or was it simply an unfortunate coincidence?

A large number of people in the comments were undeniably in support of Candace, and agree that the whole situation looks pretty suss, and believe her mother-in-law tried to ruin their big day.

"Cut her off. She can enjoy grandkids in pictures," wrote Regina.

"She absolutely did it. And I commend you hugely for how you take care of your wife & her mental health," wrote Kate.

"Good for you! She had no right to do that to Candace. I'm proud of you," said another commenter.

There were a few who thought the couple should have invited her after she apologised.

"My thing is, if she apologised and you guys accepted the apology… you're being petty at that point for holding that grudge and dangling the reveal in her face," wrote one user.

"Omg life to [sic] short and when your mother no longer here you will feel awful believe I know I went through this with my mom just put it behind you," said another.

But whether you're on team Michelle or team Candace, the one thing commenters could agree on was how the heck you can spend more than $13,000 on a gender reveal party?!

"Truthfully I cannot get past [that amount] for a gender reveal," wrote one follower.

"Gender reveal parties are ridiculous to begin with but spending [$13k] on it is insane," wrote another.

"I'm sorry I had to pause the video when you said [$13,000] gender reveal."

But anyone worrying about Candace and Wesley's bank account needn't fret: given the influencer couple's video has racked up 3.4 million views, it's more than plausible they've made back the money they spent on the gender reveal party three times over.

Feature Image: TikTok/@candacenysm