Planning a wedding can be very stressful, even more so when your mother-in-law is breathing down your neck, trying to make all the most important decisions for you.
The internet has slammed a woman who forced her daughter-in-law to get a dress that “doesn’t show too much skin,” and is now trying to have a say on her makeup, imposing her own personal taste on the bride’s most-beautiful day of her life.
Stock image of a frustrated bride, fingers on her temples. The internet has slammed a woman who tried to impose her conservative views on her daughter-in-law’s wedding.
Getty Images
According to a survey by The Knot, wedding gowns are still the go-to option for brides, with more than 99 percent of respondents who identify as a female wearing a dress for their nuptials. In 2021, about 93 percent of brides purchased a new design, and the average price was $1,800.
In a post shared on Reddit earlier in January, under the username u/Lth35467, the soon-to-be bride, 24, wrote that her mother-in-law also wants to pick her makeup for her, something very simple, with no lipstick or glowy eyeshadow, but the Redditor won’t let it happen.
The bride-to-be said that her fiancé comes from a very conservative family, and while this wedding was nowhere in sight, his family insisted on it happening as soon as they learned the couple was expecting a baby.
The bride-to-be wrote: “I refused to choose from any of her suggestions and we had an argument. My fiancé came home and argued about how I’m planning on humiliating him and his family at the wedding by wanting to look like a…’clown’ and make a joke out of BOTH of us.”
According to the post, the bride snapped and called her fiancé delusional for thinking she’ll let his mom get a say in what makeup she should wear since it’s her face. He said that “there’s no such thing as ‘mine’ and ‘yours’ in a marriage and she is clearly too ‘immature’ for it.”
Board-certified Beverly Hills psychiatrist Carole Lieberman told Newsweek that big red flags are waving all around here.
She said: “If the bride gives into letting her mother-in-law control her whole wedding, from dress to makeup to whatever else she has her sights on, the bride is committing herself to a life of wedded ‘amiss,’ not wedded ‘bliss.’
“The mother-in-law will never stop trying to control everything once the bride surrenders to giving her control of her most-important day,” she added.
According to Lieberman, there are also big red flags waving above the head of the fiancé for siding with his mother, instead of his bride, and he will continue doing this once they are wed.
“He apparently loves, or feels more respect for his mother, rather than his bride, and is a momma’s boy, not a man. The bride needs to realize that this is about much more than what makeup or dress she gets to wear. Her whole married life is at stake,” Lieberman added.
“She needs to talk to her fiancé about the underlying issue. Explain to him that she is not marrying his mother and that she needs to know if he is going to stand up for her once they are married. If he says, ‘yes,’ then let him prove it by standing up for her now.
“Also, where is the bride’s mother in this? If the bride’s mother is alive, she could, and should, help to make the bride’s point.”
The post quickly went viral, receiving more than 14,300 upvotes and 5,000 comments.
One Reddit user, Terytha, commented: “Do not marry this person. Do not marry this person. Do NOT marry this person. Unless you really wanna marry his mom, because that’s whose calling all the shots here.”
Midnight_Crocodile wrote: “BIG RED FLAG!” And EntrepreneurAmazing3 added: “Do.Not.Marry.This.Clown. Ever, under any circumstances. Love yourself enough to recognize abuse. This is 100 percent the start of a very bad story. You will regret the ending.”
Newsweek reached out to u/Lth35467 for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.
If you have a similar family dilemma, let us know via life@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.
