Claire just wants to be the glamorous mother-of-the-groom\u2014but when she realizes that her daughter-in-law has her own plans for the wedding, she steps back to focus on her own outfit, only for there to be a fight between her and Alice on the big day. Alice claims that Claire has destroyed the wedding by stealing her dream dress, while Claire sees nothing wrong in her actions. Who is wrong?<\/p>\n
All I wanted was to be the mother-of-the-groom. That\u2019s it. I just wanted to be the doting mother who loved her son more than anything\u2014but this is the story of how my attempt to make my son\u2019s wedding perfect turned into a day we\u2019d all rather forget.<\/p>\n
When Mark introduced Alice to us, she was unlike anyone I expected him to fall for. Mark, my son, is a lawyer at a top firm\u2014a position that he secured straight after his graduation from Stanford.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to be a lawyer, Mom,\u201d he told me once when he was still in high school and doing an essay on the career he wanted to get into.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could easily see that,\u201d I told him, making him breakfast as he worked away.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s to help fight injustices. For children, specifically,\u201d he said, drinking his orange juice.<\/p>\n
Mark had big dreams, and I knew that my son was always going to reach for the stars.<\/p>\n
Alice, on the other hand, was completely different from my son. Her entire personality was light and carefree,<\/p>\n
whereas Mark was serious and brooding. Alice was a self-taught coder, who freelanced from their cozy apartment. Their worlds, their politics, their interests didn\u2019t align.<\/p>\n
But they made it work\u2014and they were a sweet couple for the most part. But love, as they say, is blind.
\nWhen Mark proposed to Alice, we were all invited to the scene to help surprise her.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease, Mom,\u201d Mark said on the phone. \u201cAlice isn\u2019t close to her family, so to see you and Dad there will be good for her. She\u2019ll know that she\u2019s welcomed and supported.\u201d
\n\u201cOf course, honey,\u201d I told him, already envisioning their wedding in my head.
\nI swallowed my reservations and offered to pay for the wedding. James and I had put money away for Mark\u2019s studies, but he had always gotten bursaries which paid for it all.
\n\u201cWe can just use that money for the wedding, Claire,\u201d my husband said over lunch the day after the proposal.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s the best thing we could do for them,\u201d I agreed. \u201cThis way they can save up to move out of that small apartment. I know Mark\u2019s been talking about a house with a garden because he really wants a dog.\u201d
\nWhen we told Mark and Alice, I thought that the gesture would bring us closer. I didn\u2019t have any daughters, so I thought that this would be my chance.
\nI could get to know Alice better\u2014and that would be good for Mark, to know that his wife and his mother got along well. Instead, the wedding planning only highlighted our differences.
\nAfter a few months into the wedding planning, I met Alice at a coffee shop so that we could go over the details. But we clashed on everything.
\n\u201cI think roses are timeless,\u201d I said, helping myself to a slice of cake.
\n\u201cThey are, but they\u2019re also overdone in a sense,\u201d Alice said, sipping her tea. \u201cMark and I want peonies.\u201d
\nOur meeting went back and forth a few times\u2014and we were stuck in a space where we just couldn\u2019t agree on anything.
\n\u201cOkay, how about this?\u201d I asked her. \u201cYou go ahead with everything else, and just tell me what color your bridesmaids are wearing, so that there won\u2019t be any clashes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Claire just wants to be the glamorous mother-of-the-groom\u2014but when she realizes that her daughter-in-law has her own plans for the wedding, she steps back to focus on… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n