Weddings are as individual as the people getting married. Not everyone does the traditional western wedding attire of fancy white dresses.
But for those who do, it’s universally accepted to be bad etiquette for anyone but the bride to wear a white dress.
So what do you do if someone ignored that unwritten rule?
A bride found herself on the wrong side of her mother-in-law for how she tackled the issue. So the newlywed turned to the “Am I The A**hole” (AITA) subReddit for perspective.
The Redditor asked:
“AITA for making my mother-in-law (MIL) cover her white dress with a sweater at my wedding?”
The Original Poster (OP) explained:
“I got married Saturday and MIL showed up in a white dress for some reasons beyond her control.”
“She is currently eight and a half months pregnant, so it isn’t like she had a bunch of options, and her foot got put in a boot for an ankle injury a few days before the wedding and said she couldn’t walk right in the floor length dress.”
“I tried not to be a bridezilla because obviously I don’t want her to trip when she is heavily pregnant, but she showed up and immediately started screaming at me that this is the only dress she has and if I don’t like it she will leave, because she is sick of ‘our sh*t’ which she didn’t elaborate on.”
“I said that was fine, but I asked her to wear a sweater that my mom had to offset the white dress. MIL started to cry and said that I was being mean to her and she doesn’t want to look like a ‘sunday school teacher’.”
“We bickered over it, and she ended up putting the sweater on while she cried, but she came up to me during the reception and threw the sweater at me, and said that her husband told her to take it off, and he is furious with me.”
“My husband told her to just leave, so MIL left and her husband posted something snarky on social media, about imagine being so insecure that you let some petty sh*t ruin your wedding and he predicts a divorce.”
“Now no one is talking.”
“I don’t know if I overreacted because she wasn’t wearing anything crazy like a wedding gown.”
Redditors weighed in by declaring:
- NTA – Not The A**hole
- YTA – You’re The A**hole
- NAH – No A**holes Here
- ESH – Everyone Sucks Here
Redditors decided the OP was not the a**hole.
“NTA – You did not overreact. Your MIL did – possibly because she’s pregnant or possibly not.”
“While she may have had limited dress options at 8.5 months pregnant, she should know better and should have brought her own sweater or a wrap.”
“Her husband is an a**. It would have been better if your husband had handled the situation from the beginning and in the future should handle any issues with his family, and you with yours.” ~ ilp456
“I’m a little confused too how that was the ONLY dress that MIL could find.”
“There’s entire stores dedicated to maternity wear. She seriously couldn’t find anything else appropriate to wear???” ~ monkey_trumpets
“I could imagine a scenario in which she broke her foot shortly before the wedding, so close to the wedding date that she wasn’t able to buy a different dress and was forced to wear the only thing in her closet that fit.”
“But then you’d get a wrap or something, as others have noted. Borrow one from a friend if necessary.” ~ flea1400
“Or when presented with a cardigan you would accept it gratefully?”
“The way she reacted to being asked to do that shows this wasn’t about it being ‘her only option’ but was her wanting to be an a**.” ~ No_Stairway_Denied
“A dress will fit over a boot. You can put the dress on over your head, or take your boot off and step into the dress and put the boot back on.”
“She wasn’t wearing a pantsuit. I’ve worn a big ski looking boot.”
