45. The new best friend
The bride had been my best friend since Kindergarten, and we had talked about being at each other’s weddings for over a decade. I had moved to another state by that point but she still asked me to be her maid of honor. Obviously, I said yes.
She kept things pretty chill until I arrived one week before the wedding. I had flown down six months earlier to pick dresses (which we ended up having to buy ourselves, no subs allowed, and they were over $1K each…) then took one week off work to come down and help with pre-wedding prep.
I worked full-time in healthcare where it was pretty difficult to get time off, and I honestly thought she would be appreciative. Oops. I get there and her “new best friend” is HORRIBLE and is completely feeding the bridezilla behavior. I felt like I didn’t recognize my friend at all.
Suddenly I was being bossed around like a peasant girl, and was regulated to sleeping on the floor (I have medical issues that make that hard and my friend knew this, so I had been promised a pull-out couch to avoid a hotel room, but all that went out the window when the new girl showed up), and was uninvited from the bachelorette party. I ended up staying at home with her little sister, and I wish I had had the courage then to speak up and just leave instead of only the little talk I tried to have with my friend about it.
At the actual wedding, things didn’t get much better. The bride’s mom was crazy (always has been) and her BFF Jessica was even worse. The bride and I had a discussion before I even flew down about keeping Jessica away from the bride and properly corralled. Easy, right? HA!
The price for me asking Jessica to not enter the room during the first look was: my phone being stolen (I conveniently found it in Jessica’s bag during the reception, but don’t worry, she was just taking it to the lost and found), my speech ending up in the trash, snide comments all night long and, oh yeah, my $1000 dress being lit on fire during the send-off.
She tried to claim it was just a spark from the sparker that did it, but the fire started at the back hem and no one was behind me.
The new bestie didn’t make the wedding go any smoother. She actually snatched the mic from me during toasts in a drunken fit, ripped the bustle button off of the bride’s dress, and then blamed it on me, and tried to regulate my drinks at the open bar to just ONE, which was the last straw and the one I called her out on it.
All in all, I paid almost $3000 for her stupid wedding, and from what I hear from mutual friends they’ll probably be divorcing soon anyway.