Groom 'Furious' With Wife for Ignoring His Mom's Wedding Speech Blasted

The traditional wedding in its entirety is almost a thing of the past these days, with many couples opting for alternative formats and individual touches. One Reddit user decided to eliminate speeches from her wedding, but her mother-in-law had other ideas, and now her new husband isn't talking to the poster.

"So I hate speeches," user Character-Cow2577 began her Reddit post, "I never understood the appeal. I think they are boring, exhausting and very very forced but having said that, this is just my opinion and I never forced it on anyone."

When it came to their recent wedding, the bride did, however, request no speeches. She explained: "We wrote that we loved everyone and that we knew they loved us so if you want to say anything say it to us directly, in private."

"Wedding speeches are a contentious topic for many couples," Rima Barakeh, wedding expert and deputy editor of Hitched.co.uk, told Newsweek, "In a recent poll we took of 538 Instagram users, 42 percent of people were nervous to give a speech at their own wedding, while a whopping 72 percent are worried about what will be said in a speech by someone else! So, it's no surprise that this couple wanted to rule out speeches altogether, by removing one level of stress that was seemingly in their control."

The poster wrote: "MIL [My mother in law] loves making speeches, sometimes 15min long and not unusually mean speeches (disguised as humor that often isn't appreciated at all by the speakeé."

The poster wrote that, at dinner, the husband's mother-in-law stood up and "started by saying, 'I know we are forbidden to make speeches by the bride but this is my only son getting married so I will say what I want to...', I didn't hear the rest because I was seeing red." The bride, her bridesmaids, and sisters were shocked, and continued their conversation, talking over her mother-in-law.

The poster wrote that her husband's family were "furious", and her husband refused to look at her "the rest of the night was really awkward." The bride explained that afterwards her husband told her that she was in the wrong and that "I shouldn't have disrespected and humiliated her [mother-in-law] like this. our marriage started on the wrong foot it seems."

Barakeh said of the post: "This situation is a tricky one, as while the bride was well within her right to be angry that someone had blatantly disregarded one of their wedding requests. I can also see where the mother-in-law is coming from, in wanting to say a few words at her only son's wedding. However, a wedding day is all about the couple, and, really, what they say goes.

"What's interesting about speeches is that almost 33 percent of people we asked said that they thought wedding speeches needed modernizing from their traditional roots," Barakeh added, "while others said they were switching up the line-up of who would be giving a speech at their wedding to include not just the bride, but also the mother of the bride too.

"It's 2023 now, and the rule book for weddings has well and truly been ripped up and sent out with the recycling," Barakeh said. "We're seeing the exclusion of so many 'traditional' elements of a wedding day, from booze-free weddings to couples not having a first dance, and also many not even having a cake-cutting ceremony anymore, so, if a couple doesn't want speeches at their wedding, that's totally their choice!"

Users on Reddit voted that the original poster was not in the wrong. "Well that's unfortunate that the day you got married you found out your husbands always gonna pick his mom over you. Such disrespect from MIL," wrote one user.

Another added: "Tell her to stop being a snowflake. She knew you didn't want speeches and decided to go against it anyways, then got upset that you didn't pay attention... She refused to follow the rules. That's her problem."

Some users believed the bride was at fault. "You may hate speeches, but your love for your husband should trump that feeling. If my spouse was rude like that, I'd be very cold to them, too. Figure out what matters and move on," posted one user.

Newsweek has reached out to Character-Cow2577 via Reddit for comment.

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