Bride's Mother-in-Law Bought an Actual Wedding Dress to Wear to Her Son's Wedding

The first rule of being a wedding guest is, "Don't wear white to the wedding!" It's a universal creed that we all live by, so when someone violates it, you know that they're doing it on purpose. And when your mother-in-law violates it, well, that opens up a whole other can of worms.

This post in Reddit's "Am I the A-hole?" is from the perspective of a poor bride-to-be whose mother-in-law went off the rails when it came to what she was going to wear to the wedding. (She was going to wear a wedding dress.)

The bride writes that both she and her husband's families were very excited about the wedding. She talked to her mother-in-law about their color schemes and their plans, and her MIL got really excited about finding a dress that complemented their palette. 

Her bridesmaids were wearing navy blue and the groomsmen, gray suits. According to the bride, "My MIL said she was going to let my mom pick her dress first and then go off of that."

But then, a few weeks later, the bride writes, "Out of the blue I got a text from her saying she picked her dress. I was surprised since she said she'd let my mom go first. I didn't even know she was going shopping. But then she sent a picture of her dress."

Reader, it was a wedding dress. "It was an ivory color, lots of beading, and it even had a small train," the bride writes. "She kept saying it was 'cream champagne' colored, but it was basically a wedding dress. My own dress was ivory and they looked like the same color."

I would have lost it. Maybe the tradition is a little silly, but it's just such a selfish and disrespectful gesture, and it seems extra spiteful coming from a MIL. The bride was so annoyed that she didn't respond to the text and told her fiancé to deal with it. 

"I told her she needed to return it and she wouldn't be wearing it to the wedding. She needed to get something else." The store she bought it from wouldn't allow her MIL to return it, so she ended up buying another dress and eating the cost, which upset her. 

Some people think the MIL was in the wrong, and others believe OP was being a bridezilla. I think you can tell by now where I stand, but let's see what the commenters had to say. 

"NTA," one person wrote. "You know what dress places have no return policies? Bridal dress shops. Your MIL bought a wedding dress. She's got no room to complain if she wasn't allowed to wear it."

"This is quintessential monster-in-law behavior," another person wrote, pointing out that Jane Fonda does the exact same thing in Monster-in-Law. "And yet,"  this person continued, "why bother confronting her? If MIL wants to show the world her true colors (ugly off-white, egg shell, ivory, champagne, and whatnot) while lacking all possible self-awareness, I say let her. 

"EVERYONE will know and READ HER TO FILTH for it. It's like letting her walk around with toilet paper stuck to the sole of her shoe or spinach wrapped around her front teeth." That would definitely be something. But I also understand not wanting her MIL standing next to her husband in a wedding dress in all the photos.

"Everyone knows you should avoid wearing anything that could be perceived as 'bridal' at a wedding," another commenter wrote. "Almost white with a train? That at least required consulting with you before purchasing it if she didn't want to risk losing the money, and tbh she should have seen your reaction coming."

It's so true. She knew exactly what she was doing, and she was just mad she didn't get away with it. Why she'd want to show her petty self at her son's wedding like that is beyond me. I'm so curious about the dress she ended up wearing and how she behaved at the actual wedding. I have a feeling there is more to this story.