Bride's MIL wanted to cause drama, so they hid her real dress and let her face the consequences.
"Making mother of the groom wear the white dress she brought."
I was in a wedding 6 months ago where the groom's mom was a piece of work. She would cause problems before or at every wedding event and ruin it for the bride, but act like nothing was wrong. For example, when it came to wedding dress shopping, the bride wanted a dress from this very specific designer who had a boutique in her home town.
We made an appointment where MIL was invited but in the beginning while we were all wondering around the store looking at dresses for the bride, MIL pulled a bunch of bridesmaids dresses and just began trying them on in the dressing room reserved for the bride. She kept coming out like she was the bride, asking us all for our opinions on the mother of the groom dresses she picked.
I don’t know why the staff let it happen and the rest of us were so blindsided by her behavior we did not check her. She acted like it was no big deal that she hijacked the appointment, including insisting that the consultant help her and not the bride, and after she choose her dress she told the bride “you can have your turn now.”
We ended up abandoning that appointment but since the bride loved that designer, one of the bridesmaids called the owner of the shop and designer and complained about how the situation was handled. We got a new appointment with the owner/designer present and without MIL that went much better.
After that incident, the wedding party got much better at handling MIL, but since the groom was useless in managing his mom, there were still incidents at almost every stage. When the bride went to go pick up her dress, they also handed her the MIL’s dress, saying that both were charged to her credit card.
Turns out, the groom called and told the store that they would pay for both. At that point, the bride was at the point where she was ok spending a couple hundred extra if that meant she knew what MIL was planning on wearing and didn’t fight it.
MIL never picked up her dress and told us to just take it to the venue. We did, but on the day of the wedding, MIL goes to change after getting hair and make up done and ignores the garment bag with her dress and changes into a white wedding dress she brought with her. It was not as fancy as the bride's but it was a wedding dress. Since the bride's dress was ivory, MIL’s white dress looked even brighter.
At this point, we were used to MIL’s antics. Before every event she would do something insane, get checked, play the victim, adjust her behavior, enjoy the event like nothing is wrong, happy just knowing she ruined it for someone else.
So we told the bride to let MIL wear the dress. It was obvious she wanted to cause drama and ruin the morning so just don’t play. Instead, we should lean in and make sure she wears that dress the rest of the day.
We hid the “spare” dress she had us bring. I even offered the dress to one of the older aunties at the event. We had arranged for a limo service to take the elderly guests home after dinner.
I took the spare dress and delivered it to the auntie to take home. Made sure to mention that this was supposed to be MIL’s dress but clearly she didn’t need it. Just to make it clear to everyone on the bus that the bride did not give MIL permission to wear white.
MIL refused to pay for her own room. Her room was in the name of one of the bridesmaid who booked it for her. Bridesmaid claimed she lost her key card and asked for a new one and asked that the hotel not provide a new one unless the person had her ID. So MIL couldn’t access her room till the end of the night when bridesmaid gave her the working key card.
And we couldn't quite arrange for a bridesmaid to spill red wine on MIL, but we did hand her a toddler with a red fruit pouch that he did manage to squeeze over both himself and her. So she had to wear a stained white dress for the rest of the night. In front of everyone and in all the pictures.
She did call the groom later about how everyone (mainly the older members of their family) scolded her for her behavior and the dress. She tried to blame the bride for letting it happen, but even this groom is not quite so blinded that he can blame his wife for letting his mom wear the dress she chose to wear.
Here is what readers had to say in response to the OP’s post:
I love how you handled this! Perfect 👌🏻
The bride really should have told the groom to handle his mother or the wedding was off. This is going to be her life for years.
"the groom was useless in managing his mom... .... the groom called and told the store that they would pay for both."
---The bride's marriage is going to be hellacious. Why did she even agree to marry this guy? No bridesmaids or anyone is going to be there to help her. God help this newlywed if she has any children with him.
It’s sad because she was never actually planning to wear the dress. She just wanted to cause drama and upset her DIL (on her wedding day) before she would eventually change into the other dress. It was some weird cruel power play.
This is why little kids should be allowed at weddings & receptions. They can get away with accidentally getting red juice on someone else’s unapproved white dress!
How do people get like this? I just don’t understand.
Unchecked ego and narcissistic tendencies, and the ability to surround themselves with people who allow their behavior to continue without consequences.
I feel sorry for the bride. Although you guys were wonderful, she has to deal with this witch and a pansy ass mama’s boy forever.
Poor bride married a man who will never stand up to his mother and allowed her to hurt his new wife during their wedding. He didn’t kick his mother out of the wedding for wearing a white dress? He let all the bridesmaids handle the issue. Hope the bride notice how little she means to her new husband.
Damn, that MIL sounds like an absolute nightmare, but y'all dealt with her like absolute champs. Love the improvised revenge plot she wanted to stand out, well she damn well stood out lol! The toddler with the red pouch - pure genius.
Icing on the cake has to be everybody scolding her afterwards. Kudos to you and your friends for not letting her ruin the bride's big day. Here's hoping she learned a valuable lesson about trying to upstage people on their own wedding day!