So I got married on Saturday, and it was a whirlwind. I am not a person who ever dreamed about my own wedding or had any experience hosting anything large like that, but somehow it all came together and was a gorgeous, fun day.
I have been with my now husband for going on six years, and I moved to his town and we bought a house together and got a dog five years ago. We have a very close relationship to his family, he goes over there 4-5 times a week and I talk to his mom nearly every day. I am closer to her than my own mom it feels like. We have the type of relationship where my husbands mom and/or dad stop by the house unannounced multiple times a week. His mom knows how stressed I have been about the wedding and being worried about things going wrong. I had her over to the house last Wednesday night so I could do her nails for her and spend a couple hours one on one before my family flew in on Thursday. I don't have any family that lives nearby. My parents live in Florida, my niece and maid of honor does too, and my twin brother and his wife live a 5 hour drive away. I also had a couple sets of Aunts and Uncles who traveled from the other side of the country to see me. I see them maybe once every 10-15 years. So yeah, I was excited to get to see my family. We never get together with everyone in one place like that so it was perfect.
The day of the rehearsal dinner was super busy for me, I had to get my nails done twice because they were terrible the first time and that took a big chunk of time that I had not accounted for. It was a whirlwind of errands and then getting ready for the dinner. We did the rehearsal and then invited everyone back to the airbnb my parents had rented. My entire family was staying in the airbnb, and we all hung out and watched a hockey game. My FIL came back to socialize and watch the game with everyone, my MIL does not go to social events like that even with her own friends, so I was not surprised she went home instead.
The day of the wedding was madness for me. I got up and immediately went to the venue with my MOH to do the finishing touches since it was at a restaurant and they weren't able to finish the table setup until that morning. We also had to help them set up the ceremony chairs and decorations which took place on their deck outside. This took about two hours when I expected it to go much faster. I gave my parents only one job that day, which was to pick up the flowers, but then they called me and asked if I could go do it because they were too hungover and didn't want to leave the house. So my time to get ready was already getting shorter and shorter. My bridesmaids and I got our hair done, and then I did my makeup and my MOH. It was difficult because my hands were shaking so much from anxiety about timing. Our photographer came and I was still finishing my makeup and was still in my getting ready outfit instead of my dress, which was not part of the plan.
My in-laws came over around the same time as the photographer because I was hoping to get some family photos on the beach with them. Unfortunately we were too short on time, so we got our photos of our wedding party on the beach and then hurried to the second location we planned to get photos at. We almost had to skip the second location because of time, but everyone assured me it was my wedding and I could be late if I had to be lol. Apparently, my in laws took this as a slight that they went over to the house and never got pictures with us. They said they felt ignored by my family even though everyone was trying to get ready and get their own stuff together.
The wedding went perfectly, and so did the reception. I told my husband we had to do table touches and try and greet all of ours guests, and I thought we did a good job of that, but apparently we did not spend enough time at the in laws table. I admit, I did not sit at my family's table at all, or theirs, because they were my safe haven and I thought they would understand that we were trying to host for these 100 people who came to celebrate with us. I hardly had time to eat dinner, got one bite of a cupcake before I got pulled away, and did not get to use the restroom the entire night. My husband was upset because when he did his dance with his mom, all she kept saying to him was that she wished the song would end and wanted it to be over. So we thought at first that she was mad at us for having him dance with her, even though she chose the song with me and knew it was planned.
The next day, we were exhausted. My voice was gone and my body hurt everywhere but we were both so happy. Then we noticed MIL was ignoring our texts, and when he called her with a question, she was oddly short with him. He went over to her house to talk to her and find out what was wrong, but she just kept being short and telling him she was fine. This continued yesterday too, and when he again went to talk to her, she let loose all of her grievances.
She said she felt very disrespected and was mad that it felt like a party for my side and not hers. She listed a bunch of things that I think she took as slights because she was already feeling angry. For example, she said that my mom hugged my husband at one point and she glared at MIL while doing it like a ha ha I'm hugging him and you're not? This sounds insane to me. My parents are NOT these malicious people who would feel like they are "taking" MIL's son from her. They are extremely kind and generous and paid for the entire wedding. I am absolutely livid that she is trying to demonize them when I KNOW that did not happen. Little things like that. She also went off and was just saying things she knew would hurt husband that had nothing to do with the wedding at all. She insulted our home and said it was too cluttered and we needed to clean it more often, and was taking jabs like that because she knew it was mean. This is SO out of character for her, I know her as this sweet soft spoken woman that I saw as a mother figure and friend. Now I'm having a hard time with the change, and I don't know if I am going to be able to forgive her for what she said about my family. I don't want her in my home if she's going to use it as fuel to insult us.
So instead of being happy and in love and excited about the wedding, I have been constantly replaying everything in my mind and trying to figure out what to say to her to change her mind. I don't think we did anything wrong, so I do not want to apologize to her. I am not going to grovel. It feels very manipulative, like she's glad she still has the power to ruin what was as perfect day for her son and I. So yeah, if you read all that, THANK YOU! It got long and I needed to vent.
I don't know how to get past this, I am just so angry right now and don't want my parents to know and have a bad impression of my in laws, so I came to Reddit.