What better way to wrap up our week than with another edition of Crazy Brides? Writes Save the Date reader Priscilla: My best friend of... Read More
What better way to wrap up our week than with another edition of Crazy Brides?
Writes Save the Date reader Priscilla:
My best friend of six years lives out of state, but we’ve maintained our friendship, so when she got engaged and asked me to be her maid of honor, I happily said yes. Soon after, I wished I hadn’t. Our phone calls quickly turned into hours-long conversations about nothing but her wedding. At first, it was fun when she wanted my opinions about flowers, photographers, and cakes, and I gave them happily.
But then she began asking me to call vendors on her behalf, since she lives out of state. I ended up pricing out chairs, salons, wedding dresses, cupcakes, photographers, florists, and wedding DJs. All this planning had me overwhelmed—and it wasn’t even my wedding. It was especially frustrating when I’d call her with my findings and she’d dismiss them with, “No, that’s too expensive.” or “I don’t want to do anything the traditional way.” After hearing the florists’ prices, in fact, she declared she was going to have each bridesmaid carry $5.99 Walmart bouquet.
During one of our many conversations, she asked me to grow out my hair so I’d “be pretty, like before!”
And then she dropped this bomb: She wanted me to tell the rest of the bridesmaids to give her money as a wedding gift—and to give it before the wedding, because she was “too broke” to afford her wedding flowers. She also expected her bridesmaids to buy personalized garters to match hers—and attend a cruise for her honeymoon. (Yes, honeymoon.)
I actually agreed to all of this and still managed to get myself kicked out of the wedding party when the bride called a week later with more wedding woes. She had hired a friend of a friend to make her wedding cupcakes and a former coworker (a college student) to be here DJ. She was pissed of at both of them (the DJ, for one, wasn’t returning her calls) and needed to vent. I simply said, “You cannot expect professional services when you hired rookies to do the job.” That was the end of that conversation, and I didn’t hear from her for two weeks, when she called to say not only was I not her maid of honor anymore, I was kicked out the wedding party entirely. In fact, I wasn’t even invited to the wedding anymore. But she still wanted to be friends. I asked if she wanted to talk about why she was upset, and she said no. And that was the last I heard from her.
Here are my thoughts:
Um, good riddance? I guess I’ll give the bride points for her DIY spirit, in regard to the bridesmaid bouquets. But other than that, she get’s a no (making friends call vendors) and a no (asking for money—ahead of the wedding) and a “Oh, HELL no” (telling your friends they have to join you on your honeymoon).
Thoughts on today’s badly behaved bride?
Just no. No, no, no, honey.
By Kim Fusaro