Bride Describes Wedding Dress Shopping with Her Fiancé's Conservative Family: 'It Was a Sh--show'
"His mom insists that I get a modest wedding dress … This is not what I wanted," the bride wrote on Reddit
A bride is recounting her experience going wedding dress shopping with her fiancé's conservative family members — describing it as a "sh--show."
In a post on Reddit's "Am I the A------?" forum, the 25-year-old bride began by explaining that her fiancé is "from a religious family" and his mom insists that she wears "a modest dress" on her wedding day. The couple also must get married at the family's church.
The bride recently went wedding dress shopping, accompanied by her mom, maid of honor, future mother-in-law and future sister-in-law. Trying to appease her fiancé's family, she tried on several modest dresses — but "hated them" all.
"I don’t like puffy sleeves. I hate looking covered up. I look like Princess Leia if she were from Alabama, not Alderaan. This is not what I wanted," she wrote.
Seeing her disappointment, the group attempted to "cheer up" the bride, but she said she "wasn't having it."
"My sister-in-law Peggy was the worst. She loves shows like Bridgerton. Anyone who knows me knows I can’t stand that show. She kept hyping up how my dress make me look like someone from the show," the bride wrote.
She said she "wanted to call it quits" on the shopping outing, but Peggy pushed her to try on one more dress. At that point, the bride recalled, "I snapped at her. I told her to shut up about Bridgerton and I don’t want to hear about that show again for the rest of the day."
The group ended up leaving the store after that, and the bride said that not only were Peggy and her future mother-in-law upset but her own mother was "pissed" and told her what she did "was not acceptable."
The bride concluded her post — fittingly made under the Bridgerton-inspired username "LadyWhistleDont": "I don’t even have a say about what I want. It’s like this wedding is more about what Peggy and my MIL want," she wrote.
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The post garnered nearly 1,000 comments, with many people urging the bride to take a step back and consider what kind of life she may be stepping into when she marries her fiancé.
"This is a preview of your life going forward, with your in-laws running the show. House? Gotta be close enough that they can visit. Kids? MIL knows how they need to be raised," one Redditor wrote. "Is that what you want?"
"Sounds like you are marrying into a controlling family — is that what you really want?" another person chimed in.
Yet another commenter wrote that while the bride "could have delivered the message more kindly" to Peggy, "it's not the issue here."
They elaborated: "This is just the tip of the iceberg for your life after marriage. I would sit your fiancé down and work on a compromise that actually WORKS for you both. You’re okay with a church wedding, but you won’t wear a modest dress that you hate. It’s his job to communicate that and stand up for you re his family. If they won’t agree, then this isn’t the marriage for you."
Others, however, came to the defense of Peggy, telling the bride she treated her future sister-in-law unfairly in the situation. "She was just trying to be positive and hype you up. You directed your anger at her for things that are not her fault," one person commented.
"You should apologize to her directly for that," they continued. "You could have told her calmly that you're not a fan of Bridgerton styles so it's not the vibe you want to see after the first one or two times so she would stop."
Someone else added, "You took your anger out on the wrong person because you have no control over your wedding (and maybe relationship). If you don’t want a church wedding or to wear an ugly dress then woman up and say so. If you are in a relationship where you constantly have to compromise or ignore your wants and needs then have that conversation with your fiancé and decide if this marriage will work long term."
Another person offered some advice to the bride. "You need to boss up and be honest about your desires rather than settling for something you obviously don’t really want," they wrote. "Take control of your wedding. If you do not, you will regret it forever."