BRIDE WITH SEVERE ANXIETY LEAVES HER OWN WEDDING RECEPTION AFTER FAMILY MEMBER'S TANTRUM

Fox News

 

Bride with 'severe anxiety' leaves her own wedding reception after family member's 'tantrum'

Unusual family drama has elicited some 3,500 reactions on social media to date

By Maureen Mackey Fox News

Published February 11, 2024 7:12pm EST

 

An unusual wedding drama shared on Reddit has elicited more than 3,500 reactions, with a bride asking others on the platform if she was wrong for leaving her own wedding reception in reaction to a "tantrum" thrown by her new sister-in-law — who apparently didn't want the couple to leave the venue when they did.

 

Fox News Digital reached out to a psychologist for comment as the story has continued to gain traction. "This is a couples issue," said Erica Komisar, a New York-based psychoanalyst and author. 

 

The woman, going by the username "unaliveplant," shared some "short background" with others by saying that she's 27 and "from the U.K."

 

Her husband, she wrote on the subreddit known as "AITA" ("Am I the a--hole"), is 38 and from the U.S.

 

She said the couple had a "long-distance" romance for two years before their marriage. She also has a young son from a previous relationship, she said.

 

Prior to the wedding, she wrote, she'd "met my in-laws over video calls, but not in person until a week before my [actual] wedding."

 

By comparison, she said her husband had visited her many times in the U.K. and stayed with her for weeks at a time, meeting others within her circle.

 

"When I got to America and … finally met the family, it was hard because they claimed they wanted to get to know me so many times, but none of them actually tried to make conversation with me," the woman wrote.

 

"They didn't ask questions, and they were all talking about things I had no idea [about], as it was sports or something i couldn't even try to engage in, like reliving memories i couldn't really comment on, other than [saying], ‘That sounds awesome’ or 'That's great,'" she went on.

 

She said her husband's family "kept claiming they wanted to get to know me."

 

Meanwhile, she said, she would step "outside every now and then to get a breather from awkward social situations (having severe anxiety)" — and she added that since the family seemed "unable to get to know me — I felt ignored and invisible."

 

Her wedding day itself, she wrote, "went great."

 

After the ceremony, she wrote, people "started partying."

 

And then, she said, "kind of" the same situation occurred again as happened earlier.

 

"No one spoke to me," the woman wrote. "The only people who actually had conversations with me were my friends."

 

She said that she and her new husband "spent most of our time together," and at around 8 p.m., a good friend of hers left, a person she'd been spending time with at the after-wedding party.

 

At that point, she wrote, "no one [else] was speaking to me and my husband much at that point."

 

She said that when 9 p.m. rolled around, she changed out of her wedding dress "and start[ed] trying to pack things up. So then there wasn't much that needed to be done at the end of the night."

 

That's when, she added, her sister-in-law, age 48, "realize[d] we were leaving."

 

Her new husband, the woman on Reddit wrote, had been "playing with my son (who is 5 years old)." Her husband's sister, she also wrote, began to "scream at me, asking if we're leaving, like she was in severe shock."

 

The bride added that the sister-in-law "screamed at me three times until she then stormed out and — well, threw a tantrum."

 

The bride went on, "My husband tried to go and calm her, but that didn't work and she continued" to cry.

 

"When I let my husband know that the uber [was there]" for them and that it was time for them to leave the venue, "I was exhausted and extremely annoyed at this point, after being screamed at … I just wanted to leave."

 

So, she added, "I shouted to my husband that I was leaving with or without him."

 

Added the woman, "I know [it] wasn't my brightest moment, but I was tired, especially with my body clock not changing either."

 

The couple finally left and "now his sister [was] mad. [Plus] her husband [was] mad," too.

 

As a result, wrote the bride, the husband of the sister-in-law decided that the couple couldn't have the "wedding video he took of us" because he considered the bride to be "immature for not staying a little longer" after seeing an upset sister-in-law.

 

Added the bride in her social media post, "I do understand her being upset, but at the same time, she [could have] pulled us aside and had a civil conversation with us rather than screaming at me and throwing a tantrum like a child."

 

In an edit to her post and in response to a question from others, she wrote that her sister-in-law was upset because she "wanted to spend more time with her brother," apparently.

 

"I did say that we [had] all the week after to spend time with her and stuff, but she just said she [was] too busy."

 

Meanwhile, the bride said, her new husband has not "moved to the U.K. yet. He leaves again soon to sort out stuff at home and apply for a visa to move here, which will take a minimum of three months."

 

The woman was deemed "not the a--hole" by others after her post.

 

Psychoanalyst Komisar of New York told Fox News Digital of the situation, "It is up to her husband to speak with his family about their bad behavior. Although it is important for her to have a relationship with her sister-in-law and her in-laws, the wedding would probably not be the best time for a confrontation."

 

She added, "After the reception, she could have sat down with her husband and explained how she was feeling — and then decide together what to do about his family."

 

Among the comments from others online that have come in on the drama: "This is your husband's problem. Just ignore her," wrote a user on the platform, receiving over 6,500 "upvotes."

 

Some commenters expressed confusion over aspects of the woman's story, with one writing, "I really don't understand why [the husband's] sister was upset … You were already leaving [the venue]. You didn't leave because of the sister. You left because the reception was over."

 

Said another commenter directly to the original poster, "How much effort were you putting in to get to know his family?"

 

Wrote another person, "It sounds like his family knows something that you don’t know. Their behavior is extremely strange." 

AH: All things  considered, I do not have the brightest hopes for the future of this marriage.