Skip to main content

Post content has been hidden

To unblock this content, please click here

A
Just Said Yes August 2024

Sister in law and my bridesmaid didn’t show up for me or her brother, and I’m trying not to be upset about it. Just need outside perspectives!

Alison, on August 19, 2024 at 7:29 AM Posted in Family and Relationships 0 5
Hi everyone! My wedding was this past Saturday August 17, 2024. It was beautiful and other than some small hiccups, it was a perfect day! However, I can’t help but be hurt by my new sister-in-law and her husband’s actions. It was mostly child-free, but my husband’s only sister has two children under the age of 3 (one is 9 mo, and the other is 2.5 yrs) and he insisted on having them as part of the wedding. We had one other little girl in our wedding close to us, but otherwise the youngest kid there was 16. My new sister in law is a helicopter parent, and her husband doesn’t appear to be much help. However, they have a full time live-in nanny they brought with them, and my feeling is that a professional nanny should be able to handle two children for a couple hours while they take one night off. She has been with them for over 2 years. The husband was also a groomsman after he was upset that he wasn’t originally invited to be in the wedding party. Both kids are pretty under-socialized and predictably had meltdowns in the cocktail hour, so all of them left, and they didn’t come back for the entire remainder of the reception. They missed dinner, toasts (my dad had a whole heartfelt speech prepared to their family), our first dance (which was a choreographed salsa dance we have been preparing for for months), my husbands’ dance with their mother, and everything else aside from the ceremony itself and part of the photos. I didn’t get pictures with my entire bridal party because she left photos early as well. My mother in law needed her daughter with her too. They were also over 30 min late to the rehearsal because they couldn’t gather themselves. I’m struggling with trying not to be angry with them for taking care of their children in the way they see fit, but I just can’t accept that the nanny alone or at least the nanny and father could not handle the two children for another 1.5 hours while she should have been there for her brother. This whole process has had an immense amount of effort put into it, and I just feel like their actions indicate they didn’t really care about it. She didn’t even tap me on the shoulder to say “I’m so sorry but I have to go, congratulations” or even text to apologize afterwards. You have to put your kids first, but sometimes you also have to make sure you don’t miss life because of them. Just wondering what people would feel about this situation, and if you would bother speaking up about it. I told my husband I was hurt by their actions, but he would never tell his sister that. A quarter of our wedding party was absent because of them.

5 Comments

Latest activity by Janelle, on August 20, 2024 at 8:44 PM
  • LM
    Super December 2022
    LM ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    I think you should call it for what it is-- obligatory Wedding Party invites for your SIL and her husband. You don't mention that you're close to either, just that they missed your pictures. If you were close, you wouldn't insult them by calling them helicopter parents and their use of a nanny. Certainly, if you're not a parent, you wouldn't understand each family is different so don't assume you know what's best for them. Just cut your losses, and be happy for the pictures you do have and the good time you had with other guests.

    • Reply
  • Michael
    Rockstar October 2023
    Michael ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    With children that young, she can hardly know what her schedule will be like. Try to have a more lenient opinion of your SIL and evaluate her only after a longer history. It is best as much as possible to make it a good relationship that does not depend on one day.

    Congratulations on your marriage. Hoping the best for you all.

    • Reply
  • V
    Champion July 2019
    Veronica ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    Based on your post I'm going to assume you aren't a parent yourself nor does it sound like you are overly close to your sister-in-law. I am a mom of two and sometimes things happen that you have to remove yourself from a situation. There could be a number of reasons why they might have left but it sounds like you are so quick to judge her for being a helicopter parent. It's possible the children were sick, one got hurt, the nanny was struggling with one or both kids, if she's breastfeeding maybe the nanny couldn't get the baby to take a bottle for whatever so your sister-in-law needed to feed her, etc. Nothing in this post indicates that you know what happened to cause them to leave. I also don't understand why you feel the your mother-in-law needed your sister-in-law to be there. Your mother-in-law was there for her son. Whether her daughter was present should have no bearing. Your mother-in-law is a grown woman. She doesn't need your sister-in-law to babysit her. I think you really need to take a step back and consider that because you aren't currently a parent that you've never been in a situation where you might have to miss events or leave early because your children need you. I had to leave a wedding early because our daughter was getting restless and didn't want to be there any longer. I've also had to skip a wedding because I had just given birth three weeks prior and was recovering from a C-section. I also think you need to focus on the positive. Your sister-in-law and her husband were present for the most important part (the ceremony) and they were in some photos. As for being late for the rehearsal, yes it's possible they needed to have better time management skills or it's possible something unexpected happened to cause them to be late. Please try to be more understanding of people with children in the future and realize things with children (especially as young as the children mentioned) rarely go as planned.
    • Reply
  • Jacks
    Rockstar November 2054
    Jacks ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content

    Feels like you're really really focused on the one thing that didn't make you happy. They did show up for you and were there for the ceremony. I don't think you should really be looking for reasons to judge now. Let it go.

    • Reply
  • Janelle
    Beginner October 2025
    Janelle ·
    • Flag
    • Hide content
    Well that’s upsetting that happened however if your husband doesn’t have anything to say to them about it then I’d leave it alone. Let him handle it.
    • Reply

You voted for . Add a comment 👇

×

Related articles

WeddingWire celebrates love ...and so does everyone on our site! Learn more

Groups

WeddingWire article topics