Bride’s demands alienate loved ones
DEAR ABBY: I am a bridesmaid for my brother’s upcoming wedding. However, his fiancee is throwing out some crazy mandates for the big day.
1. All family members must wear contact lenses. Glasses will not be allowed because they look ugly in pictures. (Both her mom and my parents wear glasses.)
2. She made my father get dental work to “improve his smile.”
3. I recently tore my ACL, and she says I can’t bring crutches to the ceremony because she doesn’t want them in the pictures. How much more of this should our family put up with? Would it be better to tell them I won’t be a bridesmaid? I am afraid to speak up. — AFRAID OF BRIDEZILLA
DEAR AFRAID: Your brother’s fiancee appears to have gone off the deep end. Weddings are supposed to be about love, commitment and the joining together of two families, not the photo album.
While I sympathize with her desire for a “perfect” wedding, the idea that your parents and her mother must invest in contact lenses or miss seeing the ceremony and reception because glasses aren’t “allowed” is ludicrous. And the suggestion that you leave your crutches and risk further damaging your ACL is off the charts.
Talk to your brother. Perhaps he can make his ladylove see the light. If not, I wouldn’t blame you — and your parents and her mother, by the way — if you decided to skip the “show.”