How Can She Avoid Wearing Her Mother-in-Law’s Wedding Dress at Her Own Wedding?

Regardless of what type of wedding you have, you will always do well to avoid some level of interference from the parents. However, how extreme this interference is can play a huge part in shaping stress levels ahead of the big day.

For example, having the inlaws suggest table decorations is something you can probably live with. However, having the mother-in-law pressure you to wear her wedding dress…that’s another thing altogether. For one Reddit user, this nightmare situation is her reality. 

How to Get Out of an Awkward Spot as Big as This?

The original poster (OP) explains that she is getting married next year, and the wedding planning is starting to ramp up. When she and her fiance announced their engagement, his mother suggested to OP that she could wear her wedding dress. 

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Assuming she was either joking or just being polite, OP brushed it off. However, recently she has brought it up again and has been firmer about it. She told OP that it would save her a fortune, be more traditional, and save her the trouble of looking for other dresses. 

While OP doesn’t mind the dress, she says it isn’t something she would go for. It’s lace with puffy shoulders, and the white has faded, so it now looks yellow. Also, OP is a lot shorter than her mother-in-law, so the dress wouldn’t even fit properly. 

OP listed these reasons to her MIL, which made her noticeably sad. However, she ended up brushing off OP’s concerns and just said that they could get the dress tailored and shortened to fit her size requirements!

After a private discussion with her fiance, he fully understands why OP doesn’t want to wear the dress, and the pair were hoping that the situation would just fizzle out. However, the MIL has now booked a tailoring appointment for the dress. 

With time running out to put her foot down, OP has asked Reddit for advice on how to let her MIL down gently without offending her. She knows she shouldn’t have let it get to this point, but she is now in a real pickle. 

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Honesty is the Best Policy 

The most popular suggestion in the comments came from someone who suggested that her Fiance could talk to his mother about the situation and let her down gently. As he is closer to her than OP, the news would probably be received better coming from him. This user also added:

“You could consider asking MIL if she has a piece of jewelry you could wear for the wedding. That would be much less of a commitment than wearing the dress itself.”

Other people, however, believed that it was down to OP to tell her MIL straight. One user suggested the following:

“Firmly but politely thank her for the sweet offer but tell her that you want to choose your own dress, just like she did. Let her know it’s nothing personal (you’re not wearing your own mom’s dress either) and you prefer a different style.”

Is it up to her fiance to tell his mom to drop the issue, or should OP speak to her MIL instead to let her know that she won’t be wearing her dress? Let us know in the comments what you would do in this position.

We hope you enjoyed this post inspired by this Reddit thread. This article is inspired by the internet and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Motherhood Life Balance.

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