mother-in-law tension

Hired Bridesmaids, Fake Weddings, and a Parking Lot Party with Jen Glantz

My new book Here Comes the Drama: A Ferris and Sloan Story is live!

Weddings and meltdowns? A tale as old as time. In this hilarious and heartfelt episode, Christa chats with Jen Glantz, professional bridesmaid and founder of Bridesmaid for Hire, about the chaos, comedy, and confessions that come with walking down the aisle.

From makeup disasters to fire alarms (yes, really), we hear a wild listener story that proves a great attitude and a solid DJ can save any wedding. Jen also shares her bold take on why the bridesmaid tradition might be on its way out — and we are HERE for it.

So grab your glass of champagne and tune in for secrets, laughs, and a whole lot of drama. Because if it didn’t go off the rails at least once, was it even a wedding?

Join me on Patreon and get bonus content every month!

Episode Chapter Markers

00:00 Introduction

00:40 Starting Bridesmaid for Hire

02:10 First Experiences as a Hired Bridesmaid

03:37 Wedding Drama and Secrets

10:32 Reflections on Weddings and Marriage

24:12 Surprise Weddings vs. Bridal Showers

24:39 Bridesmaid Dress Dilemmas

26:26 Wedding Day Mishaps and Makeup Mayhem

28:01 A Wedding Day Story: Locked in the Bridal Suite

36:02 Wedding Chaos and Confessions

Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments

When Makeup Goes Rogue – One bridesmaid’s obsession with touch-ups led to mismatched foundation and delayed the entire glam schedule. A perfect example of beauty chaos in action.
Locked in the Bridal Suite – Just minutes before the ceremony, the bride was accidentally locked in a historic art museum room by a kid… and had to be freed by maintenance.
The Corn-on-the-Cob Catastrophe – Steam from dinner set off the museum’s smoke detectors, forcing a full-on evacuation mid-wedding. Yes, over corn.
Dancing in the Parking Lot – With no venue access, the bartender rolled out drinks and the DJ kept the party going outside. Crisis = avoided.
The Uninvited Plus-One – An estranged wife of a guest showed up unannounced and partied like she was on the list. Because of course she did.
The Case for Bridesmaid Extinction – Jen shares her spicy hot take that bridesmaids aren’t just unnecessary, they’re on their way out completely.
Strangers Are the Best Listeners – Jen opens up about why she connects more deeply with strangers than friends, and how that makes her job as a pro bridesmaid uniquely powerful.
Chaos, Confessions, and a Wedding That Still Won – Despite the disasters, the couple (and their guests) still call it the most fun wedding they’ve ever been to, and that’s the real win.

Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode

“This is like literally a movie-like, all these little things that happen? Insane. Wild.” – Christa Innis
“We shield ourselves in certain ways, not because someone’s making us, but because it just feels easier to be our full selves around strangers sometimes.” – Christa Innis
“If you go into your wedding day knowing something will go wrong, you’re gonna be fine. It’s the ones expecting perfection that freak out.” – Christa Innis
“Please, guests, don’t tell the bride drama during the wedding. Save it for next week!” – Christa Innis
“Just leave it to the professionals, and please, put down the iPad.” – Christa Innis
“I don’t love weddings, I love helping strangers through one of the most stressful times in their lives.”– Jen Glantz
“Your best friend might lie to spare your feelings. I won’t, I’ve got no stakes in this game.” – Jen Glantz
“Being locked in a room on your wedding day? That’s my literal nightmare.” – Jen Glantz
“You don’t need bridesmaids. In five to ten years, I think they’ll be extinct.” – Jen Glantz
“If you have good people and good vendors, they can carry you through anything, even a wedding evacuation.” – Jen Glantz

About Jen:

Jen Glantz turned a closet full of bridesmaid dresses into a bold idea: what if you could hire a professional bridesmaid? After joking about always being a bridesmaid, a lightbulb moment, and a Craigslist ad, led to 250+ inquiries in two days. In 2014, she launched Bridesmaid for Hire, offering unbiased support in a $300B wedding industry. Since then, Jen’s helped hundreds of clients, trained a team of pros, and become the go-to expert on wedding chaos, featured on the TODAY Show, GMA, and more.

Follow Jen Glantz:

Join the Drama with Christa Innis:

Got Wedding Drama? We Want to Hear It!

Your stories make Here Comes the Drama what it is! Share your unforgettable wedding tales, hilarious mishaps, or unbelievable moments with us. Whether it’s a wild confession or a story worth a skit, we can’t wait to hear it.

Submit your story today: Story Submission Form

Follow us on social media for updates and sneak peeks at upcoming episodes. Your stories inspire the drama, the laughs, and the lessons we love to share!

A Team Dklutr Production

Blog Transcript:

Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies

Christa Innis: Hi Jen. Thank you for being here.

Jen Glantz: Thank you so much for having me.

Christa Innis: It feels so funny to like say hi now ’cause we’ve just been chatting nonchalantly for like 30 minutes. I’m like, oh, maybe we should like start recording. I feel like we just so naturally just started like hanging out like old friends. ’cause I’ve been following your content for such a long time and I feel like it just fits so well into what we’re gonna talk about today.

Jen Glantz: Oh, I’m so excited to be here. I love the show. I’ve been following you too, and I feel like we’re like long distance best friends who needed a reason to meet and now we’re meeting, so this is great.

The Professional Bridesmaid Who Saves Weddings (and Keeps Secrets)

Christa Innis: Yeah, and we just found out that our daughters are like pretty much twins, like born the same time, so that’s pretty fun too. So all these things just lining out, which is kind of cool. So let’s talk about a little bit more about you. you started Bridesmaid for Hire, so let’s talk about that and then we’ll get into all the drama and crazy stories that you might have. So how did you get started and like what made you start it?

Jen Glantz: It was such an accident. I was in my early twenties and like a lot of people, I was just asked to be a bridesmaid so many times by friends. And then what happened? It was like distant friends, people I hadn’t spoken to in forever started asking me to be a bridesmaid.

And I didn’t really like being a bridesmaid. I thought it was expensive. I just thought it was like too much. I didn’t like it. And I was venting to my roommate one night after two of these distant friends asked me and she was like, Jen, they’re asking you ’cause you’re a professional. Like you’re just good at this.

And I had like a light bulb moment where I thought, okay, if I could do this for people who I hardly know, maybe I could do it for people I really don’t know. And at the time, Craigslist was a big thing. So it was a Friday night. I opened up Craigslist and I posted an ad offering my services as a hired bridesmaid for strangers.

The ad went completely viral. I got hundreds of emails, people wanting to hire me, and now it’s been a decade and I’ve been a hired bridesmaid for hundreds of strangers.

Christa Innis: That’s amazing. I was gonna ask you, how many times have you been at BRIDESMAID now? So now it’s been like in the hundreds?

Jen Glantz: Yes. There were years where I worked like 59 weddings a year. I would work two or three weddings a weekend. I didn’t see anybody, none of my friends, not my boyfriend, who’s now my husband, like I was only on the road working weddings. I’ve since slowed down a little bit ’cause I have a toddler, but I still do it and the business is alive and well.

Christa Innis: Wow, that’s amazing. And so. What was that like first wedding? Like where you worked with a stranger? Like were you kind of figuring things out because I’m sure it’s so different with someone you know, versus someone that like you know nothing about. Like were you interviewing them first, finding out that you’re a good match? What were kind of the stipulations for like working together?

Jen Glantz: It was so crazy ’cause I had posted this Craigslist ad. I got all these responses and I just happened to scroll through one, her name was Ashley from Maple Grove, Minnesota, and in her email she was like, I wanna hire you because my best friend, I just fired her as my maid of honor. She was jealous. She was sabotaging the wedding. Ashley had mentioned that her mom had passed away and she just really didn’t have the support that she needed. And I got the email. I called her up, we talked for a little bit, and I thought. Okay, let’s do this. I had no idea what I was doing. I wasn’t the best bridesmaid in the world. I didn’t like being a bridesmaid. But I posted this ad for fun and I got this response and I thought, okay, well maybe it is my calling. So a couple weeks later, I got on a plane. I flew to Minnesota, I walked into her house and I was her bridesmaid for the weekend. We instantly connected. I found this like love for her in so many different ways.

I was able to show up for her. I walked down the aisle for her. I wore the dress. I danced on the dance floor with her. And I remember getting back on the plane thinking this was the craziest thing I’ve ever done. And nobody’s gonna understand this, but I absolutely know that this is something that the world needs and I’m gonna spend my life doing it. And that was 10 years ago.

Christa Innis: Wow. So I’m sure you get, like you said, like this girl had just fired her maid of honor. So I’m sure you get all kinds of like dirt or tea or stories like from people that are like, okay, like this is the bridesmaid to look out for, or we’re having issues with this bridesmaid. Like, are you so quickly like brought into the drama or brought into the dynamics of the family?

Jen Glantz: Oh, beyond. I don’t know if you realize this, like, and you do this probably too. It’s like we tell strangers things a lot easier than we do tell our friends, our family members. I know like, I’ve been on the subway or I’ve been on a bench in New York and I’ve struck up conversation with someone and told them a secret that my friends don’t even know about me.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

Jen Glantz: You know, we go to therapy, we tell the therapist things nobody knows about us. Yeah. So to a lot of people who hire me, I’m that temporary pair of ears that they can just trauma dump and never have to see again.

Yeah. I think. Interesting thing is, is that when someone hires me, nobody else knows I’m hired.

So they don’t tell their family, their friends, sometimes they don’t even tell their Beyonce. But I do think I bring this energy to people around me of you can trust me, you can tell me things and I won’t judge you. ’cause I really have no stake in the game to judge you. Mm-hmm. So I end up being that bridesmaid with no agenda, no real intentions. And people come to me to tell me things because I think I give off that energy. So I have mothers telling me things, bridesmaid telling me things like everyone telling me things and yeah, you often leave the wedding and you’re like, I am so full with drama right now. I don’t know what I’m gonna do with like, I need to explode, but I have nowhere to explode. It’s the weirdest and worst feeling after the wedding.

Christa Innis: Oh my gosh. So when you’re thinking back of all the weddings, I mean, I’m sure you’ve all these like flooded memories that come up. What’s like one of the craziest or like out there things that you either witnessed or you heard about or you saw at a wedding?

Jen Glantz: I worked a wedding one in Staten Island. I got to know the bride and the groom for about three to four months. Everything checked out. Everything seemed normal. I get to the wedding, we get her dressed. We have a great morning. Everything is going really well. All of a sudden, five minutes before the ceremony, all her guests are seated.

The wedding officiants there. Five minutes before the wedding, she grabs my arm, pulls me in a room and locks the door and she says, Jen, I hate the groom. I don’t wanna do this. Oh, that was the first time that this has happened to me. Like, you see this in movies, the bride who’s I don’t wanna do this, let’s go.

Yeah. But this was happening in real life, and I think this was like two or three years into the job where I never experienced this. So I basically said to her like, look, I will call us an Uber. I’ll sneak you out the back door. Like we will go, I don’t care. I’ve been paid. I don’t care. You know?

But I personally can’t sleep at night unless you sit down with the groom and tell him you’re leaving because like that just doesn’t seem right to me. Yeah, this isn’t a rom-com. This isn’t a movie. This is people’s real life. So I basically put the groom in the room with her. I put a timer on my phone for 10 minutes and I was like, you guys talk for 10 minutes and then I will come back and whatever is decided I will help you with.

So in that 10 minute time, they basically hashed it out and they realized, okay, like they actually don’t wanna marry each other. They don’t like each other, they don’t wanna do this. But the weddings now and my, you know, the wedding should have started. So basically what they decided was that they were gonna go through with the wedding.

They never signed the marriage license, and it was just gonna be fake because the truth is like nobody actually knows if you sign your marriage license. And that’s what marriage actually is, is that legal document. So honestly, at a lot of weddings, they just don’t sign the wedding, the marriage license, and they’re not really married.

So the wedding starts, they don’t sign the marriage license, they’re like miles away from each other. The first dance, they’re like high schoolers who like won’t touch each other. It’s an outdoor wedding. It’s supposed to be a beautiful day. It starts storming torrential downpour. Everyone’s soaking wet.

They go to move the cake on the dance floor, the cake falls off the table. Like literally everything goes wrong. It was as if the universe was like, this shouldn’t happen. And I just remember leaving that wedding thinking like, wow, like this is crazy. It was crazy.

Christa Innis: Like you mentioned, it’s not like a romcom, but it kind of like it sounds so crazy they’re like together this whole time playing this wedding and then the day of, they’re just both like, yeah, you know, I don’t really care. Let’s just go through this fake wedding. And did anyone else know?

Jen Glantz: No, because, all her friends were just like, why, what’s going on? And I was like, oh, they just like have to talk about something before they go do their vows.

So like nobody really knew. But then I think during the wedding there was obviously a sense of like distance and hatred between them. But a lot of people don’t really pick up on that. nobody really questioned it. And yeah, I think like after the wedding ended, a couple months later, they just went their separate ways. And that happens. I mean, not a lot of people, but people will break up or get divorced a couple months or a year after they get married because they felt this way on their wedding day, but they just didn’t admit it.

Christa Innis: Yeah, I’ve, seen it happen before too, where like all the signs were there and I’ve talked this before, so sorry to people listening. They’re like, I’ve heard this story, but A wedding that I was in years ago, and it was like all the signs, like every single event that we had around the wedding, the shower, the bachelorette party, even the rehearsal like ended with her in tears, like saying, I don’t wanna do this and I, like, we all sat in the car and we’re like, you don’t have to do this. We will figure out a way to get you out of this. But it was like more about now the presentation of the wedding and it was like, no, we’ll make it work. And I’m like, if you have all these negative gut feelings, I don’t know, like something’s telling me, you know? And so I feel like that happens a lot too. ’cause it’s more of the pressure of the big day, oh, family’s flying in. Oh we already paid the vendor. Or what are people gonna think of us? And it’s like, well it either doesn’t work out now or down the line it you get divorced or whatever. But yeah…

Jen Glantz: And in a weird way I get it because I do think like it’s hard to back out right before, and I’ve talked to so many people who are like. I remember walking down the aisle of my first marriage thinking, wow, this is gonna suck to have to do again. Like they knew on their wedding day that it just wasn’t gonna work.

But they were so far deep into it, and I get that, like, you get yourself so far into a situation, you might just take it to the finish line and then back out of it after. I can never judge people for that, and I completely, completely get it. But yeah, it’s really weird when someone admits that to you because there’s this aura around a wedding that everyone’s supposed to be in love and happy, but that’s not always the case.

Christa Innis: Right. I know. I think that’s where like in the wedding industry, it gets very caught up with like, looks and appeal and like, who’s spending the most money. And I feel like that’s where like a lot of the drama comes into with like, the lot of stories I read, it’s all about like looking good and like, flashy, flashy. And it’s like, are we getting lost in the mix of all this chaos around weddings versus like. A couple that just has a very intimate wedding and just signs a paper, Or just has like 15 other closest friends,not saying one’s better than the other, but I feel like sometimes we get lost in like what other people want for us or looking good in front of other people, for sure.

Jen Glantz: I think it’s scary because we get so lost in it that the wedding ends and then you’re left with the marriage and you’re like, wait a second. I spent no time thinking about the marriage. I spent no time planning what would be next. That there is that wedding blues thing where after you get married you’re like, what now?

What is life? Do I really wanna be with this person forever? Like I didn’t even have a wedding. But I did feel that after we got married, the first year of marriage was so hard for me. ’cause I was like, wait a second. I’m stuck with this my whole life, like this little thing about my husband, like he’s never gonna change this.

I have to deal with this forever. Like I definitely had moments of that where I was like, wait a second. But like I think we just feel really strange after the wedding. And if you do a good job preparing for marriage, asking your partner the right questions, being on the same page about finances and future stuff, then the wedding will end no matter how you get married.

And your marriage will be off to a good start. But if you focus so much on the wedding and then you leave the wedding, you’re in debt, you’re sad ’cause that chapter’s over, it makes marriage really hard and that first year can be kind of brutal.

Christa Innis: Yeah, I agree with that too. I feel like there’s a lot of people that don’t realize or they realize, but they kind of pushed it aside. They’re like, oh, everything’s just gonna fall in place. Because I think it’s like the movies, you know, we talk about the movies and it’s like, you see all these like romance movies when you grow up and the finish line is the marriage or the wedding, right? And so like they get married at the end, they fall in love and they live happily ever after. I dunno if it’s like how girls grow up, right? We see these movies with princesses but like there’s more after the happily ever. After the big thing, there’s the actual life starting now.

Jen Glantz: It’s so boring. Like honestly, it’s so boring. So like how are you gonna be okay with that? You know? I feel like you planned this like grand wedding and then it’s over, and then you’re like, wait, now I’m on the couch with this person for the rest of my life. There’s a big reality check that I think people feel and no one really talks about.

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm. Yeah. No, for sure. Yeah. I think that’s such an important conversation. I mean, we see these a lot, these stories when they come together, to get married. And then it’s like that, we were just talking about this before recording, how different families and personalities come together for this big day.

You hear like for example, somebody’s mother-in-law stories and then now you’re like, I’m married into this family, so now I have to see this mother-in-law at every single event. Or I have to see this cousin that hates me every single event or whatever that is. So like what people say is you’re not just marrying your partner, you’re marrying the family, or you’re marrying a routine or you’re marrying, that becomes your life, I guess.

Jen Glantz: It really does. I think the drama you’re experiencing within the wedding won’t go away. When the wedding is over. It will carry through to your life. So how you deal with it, how you process it, how you fix it during the wedding will be an indication of how you can handle it after. Because drama doesn’t just come and go with the wedding I think it sticks around for a long time, if not forever sometimes.

Christa Innis: Yeah. So in these scenarios, when you are hired as a bridesmaid, I feel like some of these dramatic moments are moments where they like kind of wanna like pull you into what’s going on. How do you like mix, empathy versus professionalism versus like how do you kinda like carry, I feel like it’d be so challenging for some of these moments.

’cause you’re like, okay, am I a friend here, but am I also like a bridesmaid? Like how do you do all that?

Jen Glantz: The only way to do it is to go all in. To go all in and pretend and not pretend, but to truly believe that this person is your friend, and to treat them that way and to show them like this level of love that you have for your friends, for this person you hardly know, which I think makes doing the job hard.

And you at the core have to be a person who. Likes other people who enjoys other people, even people who are so different than you. So I go all in. I have to listen to the drama, I have to take it on. It becomes my drama. And you have to really be there for the person, even if inside you’re thinking, this is so stupid.

This is so, like, there’s bigger problems in life. Like you’re thinking all these things. It’s just like when your friend vents to you and you’re like, I wanna tell them. Like, get over it. But instead you’re like, no, I’m here. I hear you. I’m listening. Well, how can we get through this? Like, you really have to be in the moment.

But I think again, when you leave these weddings, you never see these people again. You’re cut off from the drama, you don’t always know how things end. And you go back to your real life and you’re like, who do I talk to about this? And for a while it was like really, really hard. It would take me like 24 to 48 hours to detox from this drama and everything I experienced.

And it was really tough. And my husband, who was my boyfriend back then. He would be like listening, but he wouldn’t be able to fully understand or process ’cause he didn’t walk in those shoes.

Christa Innis: Right.

Jen Glantz: So yeah, it became really hard. It became like I was living in this double life where I’d come back to my real life and I would be like depressed because I’m just like shedding all of this emotion that I carried for a weekend.

Christa Innis: Yeah. And I think I saw, and I, if you do this for every wedding, but like sometimes you like. People don’t know you’re a hired bridesmaid. so sometimes you have a story means you have a different name. So how did that kind of start and do you think those are more common than being who you are as like known of, a hired bridesmaid?

Jen Glantz: So most of the time when they hire me, I have a fake name, a fake backstory, and I integrate into their life. So they’ll say, okay, I want you to be Jackie from high school. Here’s where I went to high school. Here’s everything you need to know. And I study this identity. I study all the facts from street corners to clubs we were in.

I read the yearbook like, oh my gosh, on this role as Jackie. And then when the wedding ends, Jackie disappears. And it’s not that weird ’cause like friends do come and go from our lives. So it’s very normal that Jackie would just be flaky and like never talk to this person again. That happens. So I become Jackie and then I ditch Jackie.

And then the next wedding I go to, I become Samantha. And I change my identity for these people to really integrate into their lives. They wanna keep it a secret. They don’t want people to know, and that’s their choice. And I carry that out for them.

Christa Innis: Wow. So. That sounds like you’re like the FBI or you’re like undercover. Do you ever stress out about like, what if I actually say the wrong name when I’m just chatting with someone?

Jen Glantz: Oh, like beyond the secret is when you’re talking to people, you just talk more about them and not about you. So like if they ask me a question, I’m like, everything’s good. I’m like, yeah, I’m good.

How about you? Like you just throw it back on them so that you don’t talk very much, which is. Totally fine. Like you could be the shy bridesmaid who just is like kind of aloof and that’s the personality you take on.

Christa Innis: Yeah. That also sounds so fun ’cause it’s like you get to like live up whatever, like you’re just telling these crazy stories. You’re like, yeah, when I was in college I did this. And you’re just living your best life. Do you go to bachelorette parties? Do you go to showers? Like what other kind of events do you attend and like what are those kind of like?

Jen Glantz: I do bachelor parties, rehearsal dinners, engagement parties, bridal showers.

I think the most interesting part is that I don’t drink, I just don’t like to drink. I haven’t drank in so many years, so I go to all these things completely sober. And it’s interesting because a lot of these environments are meant to be you, and people are kind of more rowdy and drinking. So when you’re the sober one, you see it in such a different light. Like you see the drama in a really different light. But also like I need to be sober because my job is not to party with them, it’s to fake party with them, but be there for them and you really need to have a clear mind. So I think that’s like a lot of people who want to work this job are like, I’d be so good at it. I love to party, I love to drink. I’m like, but that’s not the job. The job is to be like an emotional support animal for these people and really just like be there with all the twists and turns. And I think that it’s less glamorous than people think it is.

I’m Not Wedding-Obsessed But I’ll Be There for You”

Christa Innis: Yeah. okay, so you said like in the beginning you weren’t really a fan of being a bridesmaid, but then through making this your business and then like being in so many different weddings, is it like something that you find joy in and like what are your favorite parts of it all?

Like, because I’m sure it’s so different. I’m sure you meet like very organized brides that like tell you like this, this and this. And other times you’re probably helping them organize a little bit more. So has that like shifted or changed since you’ve done it?

Jen Glantz: You know, I’ve said this publicly from day one that I don’t love weddings. I don’t understand them. I did not have one. I’m not wedding obsessed. I never was the little girl who cared about weddings. I still feel that way. I don’t necessarily love the wedding environment. I absolutely have this like deep love for strangers and helping people Idon’t know. I’ve always been like that.

It’s just part of my personality. I find it harder to connect with people in my life. I find it easier to connect with strangers, and that’s why I do it. That’s why I love it. I do think my favorite part of the job is being able to help a person during a difficult time in their lives. People don’t label weddings as that, but they actually are.

It’s really tough for people to have a wedding, especially ’cause most people have a tough family dynamic. They have secrets they have. Problems that surface during the wedding and they don’t really have anyone to turn to. ’cause your friends, they’re busy or you feel scared to tell them this information ’cause it will live with them forever.

So being able to enter a person’s life and help them process what should be a good time in their life, but is often a stressful time. Is the reason why I really love this job. I am not qualified to be a therapist, nothing like that. But I do feel like a little bit of my job is therapy for people, or at least it’s like a secret keeper.

Like I hold onto their secrets for them. and to be able to help them get through that is what keeps me going. It just happens to be in a wedding setting.

Christa Innis: Yeah. And I’m sure like you were saying earlier, like having an unbiased opinion from someone or just an open ear is helpful. ’cause you think like all your closest people at a part of your wedding or something, they’re all gonna have some kind of bias around you.

Like whether that’s good or bad. Right? And so just having someone there that’s there to help you and listen, like I’m sure just feels good to be like, just be on my side for this. I just need to tell you about this crazy thing my aunt did, or you know, whatever it is. Um, yeah, and I’m

Jen Glantz: Not gonna lie to you because I have no stakes in the game.

So like, if you want my honest opinion, I’m gonna be honest. If you want unbiased advice, I’m going to do that because I don’t have to ever see you again. So I’m not gonna say things because I need to tiptoe around you. I’m gonna say what you want because. That’s kind of the relationship is like, I am completely going to be unbiased for you.

I’m not going to lie to you. I’m gonna try to help you and do what’s I think is best for you because I have no stakes in the game where your best friend might be like, oh, Jen, like you’re just having cold feet. Like go through it that go through with it because they don’t want you to be embarrassed and they have all these like other agendas.

I have no agenda except that I’m, my job is to be there for you like a true friend would.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I love that you said too, like it’s easier to talk to strangers about things than like people in your own life. ’cause I was like, it’s weird. I like kind of, I get that what you’re talking about. It’s such like a profound thing that I’ve never thought about. But like even when I started my TikTok account, I made sure like. It was a brand new account. I didn’t tell any of my, even like best friends that I was doing other than my husband, no one knew I was making videos on TikTok until like it hit a certain point. Then I was like, okay, they’ll probably see it somewhere. So I was like, here, like, just so you know, I’m not like lying or like making things up. I was like, here, this is my account. because it just felt easier to almost feel like, you know what? These people don’t know anything about me. I can be like on the internet and do a weird skit and know they’re not gonna be like, oh, that girl’s weird. ’cause I’m like, I have no idea who that is. You know.

Jen Glantz: Less pressure for you because then you don’t have to think about, okay, what is my friend gonna think of this? Or what is this person gonna think? Like, it’s less pressure, it’s the more authentic version of you. I think it’s amazing when people do that because I think like we’re so swayed by the people in our lives for so many things.

Like I think It could be good to get engaged and not tell anybody for a really long time and spend that time making your own decisions about what you want for your wedding because you’d be surprised, like the second you get engaged and you tell people, everybody has an opinion for you. Everybody is swaying you one way or the other. And I think that’s really hard for people. So I love that you did that because I really think it allows you to be authentic without the pressure of everyone in your life.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I think we definitely, I don’t know if it’s like shield ourself in certain ways. Not because one’s making us, but I just think we naturally like maybe act a certain way around someone or say something around a person. And that allows us to be like our, like you said, authentic self.

Okay. I know we’re kind of like behind schedule and I know you’ve got, I don’t wanna like keep you too long, so let’s get to the next area and if we have a cutoff, let me know too.

Jen Glantz: Oh my God, no. Thank you. I’m like texting my husband. He’s like, Just wondering. So I was like texting you.

Blisters, Secrets, and Surprise Weddings

Christa Innis: Yeah, no, sorry. Okay, so we’re gonna do a quick rapid fire and then we’re gonna do this week story submission, if that works for you. Okay. So Rapid Fire Wedding Chaos Edition. Would you rather find out the bride copied your wedding, or your best friend booked her wedding the same day as yours?

Jen Glantz: I’d rather someone copy my wedding because I feel like. That wouldn’t bother me as much. I do feel like it would make me kind of flattered that they liked my style or my design, but I think my best friend having the same wedding, that would be, really awful. Like, yeah, that’d be tough to get over. And I think it would separate the friendship.

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm. I agree. Would you rather have a maid of honor speech include your most embarrassing story story or your biggest secret?

Jen Glantz: I think embarrassing story. ’cause I think if it’s enough distance, time-wise, you can process that. It’s funny but secret. That could be like a dagger to the heart. I don’t know.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Especially you don’t know if it’s coming. You’re like, great.

Jen Glantz: Right. No embarrassing story. I feel like with distance it could be funny.

Christa Innis: Yeah. would you rather have to plan a surprise bridal shower or a surprise wedding?

Jen Glantz: You know, I once went to a surprise wedding and it was so cool. So I think I would say surprise wedding actually, because I feel like it’s so shocking for everybody that like it is kind of magical. Whereas bridal shower, it’s cute, it’s fun, but like I think the wedding could be really, shocking.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I feel like showers, like in my parents’ generation at least, they used to be a little more surprised. Like my mom was like, we never knew when it was coming, and like you would just get surprised. So, yeah well, surprise wedding sounds really fun. Would you rather wear a bridesmaid dress you hate, which you might have? Sorry about that. Or shoes that give you blisters.

Jen Glantz: Mm-hmm. God, this one’s like really dark. I would say bride me dress you hate. ’cause when you take it off at the end of the night, you can like leave it behind. But we’ve all had those blisters on our feet that linger for like a month and are so painful no matter what shoe you wear. Like my feet right now are like tingling, thinking about it. So I think I would say ugly dress.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I can only imagine the amount of bridesmaid dresses you have. You could probably have a collection.

Jen Glantz: Yeah, they’re literally all in garbage bags at my husband’s, parents’ house, and then we have an office and I just have like garbage bags of dresses.

Christa Innis: Oh my gosh.

Jen Glantz: Ever need a bridesmaid dress? Let me know. I probably have it. Oh my gosh.

Christa Innis: You could have like your own bridesmaid, like resale store or something from all of them.

Jen Glantz: I tell all my friends and I tell everyone I know, like, if you ever have to go to a wedding, call me first. I’ve got dresses in every size. Like, come over, take ’em. But the only rule is you cannot bring it back like once. It’s yours. It’s yours. I don’t want it.

Christa Innis: would you rather have to redo your hair and makeup three times or redo the seating chart the morning of.

Jen Glantz: I think the seating chart, I think you can get away with that easier, but you’re doing your hair and makeup, that takes so much time that I worry it would push the wedding time start. So…

Christa Innis: Yeah, that would stress me out. would you rather have a wedding, be kid free or phone free?

Jen Glantz: Because I have a kid, I’m gonna say phone free. I know that kid free weddings are like such a thing. But I do think there is such like life that these little kids bring to weddings and I’m so biased. But I do think like it’s more fun. Whereas like a phone wedding, I think we can all like put the phone down.

Like everyone’s taking like videos of them on the dance floor. Like of what? No one wants to see your head on Instagram of you like bobbing your head dancing.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

Jen Glantz: Let the kids come if you want.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Leave it to the, professional photographers. Yes, yes. Yeah. Be present. And it’s so funny because, and I know this is gonna be a blanket statement, but I feel like the, older generation that tends to be like, oh, get off your phone.

They’re the ones more on their phones at weddings when I am at weddings or their iPads.

Jen Glantz: Thank you. I was just gonna say that I’ve been to so many weddings where they’re the first two rows and their iPad is like up in the air and I’m like, oh my god. No. Yeah. I think like phone free would be amazing for everyone. Oh my gosh. I love that.

Locked Doors, Dessert Raids, and a Surprise Guest

Christa Innis: Okay, and now the story submission, are we still okay on time?

Jen Glantz: So nervous. Okay. Awesome.

Christa Innis: Okay, so this is this week’s story submission. I’ve not read it yet, so we’ll react together. this might be drama for some, but to me it was just funny. Here’s the story of our wedding day.

I come from a big family and most of them stayed in the same hotel as us the night before the wedding in different rooms. Of course, my husband took, my cousin, took it upon themselves. To make sure my husband and I didn’t accidentally run into each other the night before the ceremony. It was actually the first time he was meeting some of them, and he thought it was hilarious how seriously they took their self-appointed mission as my gift to my bridesmaids.

I paid for professional hair and makeup. One of my bridesmaid, let’s call her Leah, is a family member who kept going back for touchups between everyone else, the rest of the bridal party, my mom, even my daughter. Which caused a delay for me getting ready and threw off our timeline. Karma’s real though, because she had her makeup redone so many times.

I love that. We were just talking about having makeup redone and then this just happens. She had her makeup redone so many times. She ended up with two different foundation shades. So now in all the wedding pictures, she only shows up in profile. We got married in an art museum that used to be an old mansion.

The bridal suite was the original master bedroom complete with its original door. The museum was still open to the public when the wedding started, our ceremony was at 4:30 PM and the MU museum closed at five and there was a kid’s room right to the outside of the suite. Okay. A lot of, lot of set up details here.

Um, after the bridal party left to line up for the perception processional, I had a few minutes to myself. Not even two minutes later, I heard a kid fall into the door. Yep. They jammed it shut and I got locked inside. This sounds like a movie. Oh my gosh. I would be freaking out. Oh God. I would not do well with that. I’m telling you right now.

Jen Glantz: No, my like, literally my number one fear is getting locked inside of a bathroom. I will never lock the door. I’m like, this is like my fear. My fear,

Christa Innis: Yeah. Have you ever been somewhere where the, the doorknob gets like clicked and for a minute you’re like, this is where I live now.

Jen Glantz: It happened to me the other day. In like a dark little coffee shop bathroom, and I could not get the door open and I, I was freaking out. I was like, how does this end, it’s my, it’s my biggest fear. My whole body like shuts down and get hives. Like I’m listening to this and I’m like, on the wedding day, like the worst thing that could happen.

Christa Innis: Oh my gosh. She said, when I didn’t show up downstairs, my wedding coordinator came to find me and discovered that the door was stuck. I was laughing the whole time. At least Alicia can laugh about it. I give the credit. I know. I’m like sweating, thinking about it. I know. She ended up grabbing the maintenance man and my photographer and they had to take the hinges off the door to get me out.

Jen Glantz: God.

Christa Innis: Oh my gosh. This is like a total side story, but I’m thinking about how there was this one time. So we have a balcony where we live and one time my husband and I were out, like reading one morning, this was before we had kids, our daughter, and I’m like reading and he’s like, I’m gonna go in and shower.

And I’m like, not paying attention, so I’m just reading blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And he, um, wasn’t thinking. And I like finally go to go inside. The door is locked and he like was just, just doing his normal thing. So he just like shut it. And I’m like out there and I’m like, and it was like a hot day and like this is me just like being dramatic.

And I didn’t have my phone out. I didn’t bring my phone out, I didn’t bring my watch out. And I’m like. Oh my gosh. Okay. I’ll just try to read, I’m like sitting there panicking and I’m like, what if like, he like takes a long shower and like sometimes he just like, like, um, breathing exercises. And I was like, what if he takes so long to get outta here?

And then he like finally comes out and I’m at the door and I’m like, he’s like, oh my gosh, did I lock you in?

Jen Glantz: Nope. Like, what if he left to go out or something? Like what would you have done? What would you have done? I dunno.

Christa Innis: I don’t know. I mean, luckily we’re not too high off, but I probably would just flag someone if I saw ’em on the street. Like, hey!

Jen Glantz: Yeah, no, but like that is like terrifying. That is. But even being stuck out there for five minutes, like your life kind of flashes before you, you’re like, is there an end to this? It’s scary.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Especially when you on the clock, like you lose like track of time. You’re like, how long was I out here for?

I don’t even know what it was. I, no, it probably 30 seconds, but it feels like 20 minutes, like two minutes. Um. Why my mom always called me dramatic growing up. Um, okay. The ceremony went great. Okay, so I guess so she got out, ceremony went great. Cocktail hour, also a win. Then dinner service started. Remember, we’re still in a museum.

They brought out a fresh tray of corn on the cob and the steam from it set off the smoke detectors. Because we weren’t an official museum event, we had to evacuate until the fire department arrived. Damn.

Jen Glantz: Oh my God. Okay. I honestly thought the fire department was gonna have to come to knock down the door.

So I’m like, okay. There’s, I’m glad the fire department’s coming now. Like that is awful. Imagine standing outside in your wedding dress with all of your guests just like standing this room.

Christa Innis: This is like literally like a movie, like seeing like all these things. I’m just glad she’s like being able to like look back and like laugh on it.

Jen Glantz: Yeah. Yeah.

Christa Innis: She said 30 minutes outside, no fire trucks. It’s like weddings, like 30 minutes is a lot of time. There’s a lot that can happen. Yes. Turns out the security officer told dispatch not to send them since there wasn’t an actual fire, but the museum’s insurance required them to come, so we were stuck outside for over an hour. Oh no!

Jen Glantz: Oh my God. That is crazy. Like also like are, were they allowed to bring drinks with them? Food with them? I doubt it. Like I’m sure. Yeah. And like, God, the temperature was, and people standing around like it, I think it also kills the vibe ’cause everyone was probably like up, up, up. And then they’re like back down to reality. So recovering from that must be really tough.

Christa Innis: Oh my gosh. Seriously? Yeah. Then you’re, yeah, you’re like, you’re like outta your party mode. You’re like, okay, what? When are they gonna get here?

Jen Glantz: Yeah.

Christa Innis: Um, it says, but don’t worry, our bartender pulled their truck around and kept serving drinks. There you go. In the parking lot, the DJ grabbed a speaker and his phone and the people were dancing in the parking lot. I love that. That is so awesome.

Jen Glantz: She did it right. That’s how you, but that’s also how you know that like. This couple is good and chill because they were able to look at a situation like this and not panic and they were able to figure out a way to get through it.

Christa Innis: Yeah, and this is one of the things I talk about too, like in different like videos and stuff is like I get sometimes brides being like, oh my gosh, your video stressed me out. Like I don’t want wedding to be like that. And I’m like, no, I’m telling you, most of the time there’s no drama or people don’t know about it. Like it would be something so small and you just talk about it later. But if you go in with like. In your mind, like, okay, something will go wrong today. It’s bound to happen. There’s gonna be something, right? But if you tell yourself that, then you’re just gonna be like, oh, okay, okay. The dress needs to be steamed and we’re gonna be a little late. Or, oh, so and so’s Uber didn’t show up. You know, like there’s always gonna be something. But like if you’re just like, what can you do? Make the best out of a situation and go roll with the punches, right.

Jen Glantz: So true. I think. Yeah, exactly. Like you said, people have to go into it knowing that at least three things will go wrong. It just things happen in threes. Three things most people won’t know. You might not even know, and that’s good too, but there’s no such thing as a perfect day. I mean, these things happen. It’s life.

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm. And too, like we were talking about, is like I dramatized a lot of the skits while some Yes, I’m sure happened just like that at weddings. Um, like for example, there was like two, like two pretty small things. I wouldn’t say small. Drama ish moments that happened at our wedding, but we didn’t know, like us as the bride and groom, no one told us it happened until like weeks after.

They were like, oh, by the way, so and so said this to so-and-so. And then we were like, wait, what? And so they kept us out of it. So if you’re listening to your guests at a wedding, always keep the bride and groom out of it. Don’t tell them about little dumb things that happen. ’cause at the end of the day, like it doesn’t matter and don’t let it affect their day.

Jen Glantz: No. And if you’re in the bridal party, don’t tell the bride anything until like exactly like a week later. But yeah, I see sometimes made of actors or bridesmaids will like run up to tell the bride. I’m like, oh no, no. Like keep them out of this. They don’t need to know. It makes them just feel a lot better not knowing the truth.

Christa Innis: Yeah, absolutely. Um. She said go, but wait, there’s more. When we finally got back inside, someone had thrown out our dinner plates. Why? Why is someone trying to ruin this wedding? Crazy. Yeah. Um, and people had already started raid the dessert table. We didn’t have a cake, just two chocolate fountains, one with white chocolate for me and one with milk chocolate for my husband.

Interracial couple goals. Um, so she says the caterer had to rearrange everything to make the couple table look full again, so we could have our, our cake moment when we dipped and fed each other. As the party kept going, we noticed a woman dancing like she was having in the time of her life. Neither of us recognized her, so we assumed she was someone’s plus one.

We were wrong. It was the estranged wife of one of my husband’s friends. She found the invitation and decided to crash the way.

Jen Glantz: God. Okay. This is like a wedding where it’s like bad things happen in threes, but this is like, we’re at like six, like this is crazy, crazy. At that point, I’d just be like, okay, invite the fire truck crew, like whatever.

At this point, you know, all can come in who sees an invitation and is like, yeah, I’m gonna go, but I’m not invited. Like, that’s ballsy.

Christa Innis: That is really ballsy. Yeah. Just be like, you know what? I’m gonna stir up some drama. I mean. I, it’s, there’s no drama about her. I guess she just showed up, so,

Jen Glantz: Yeah. Yeah. And when you look at the perspective of this whole day, that’s like the least dramatic thing. So it’s like, okay, great. Like we have a wedding crasher, but also I was locked in a closet. The fire department was here. There’s no food. The desserts ruined. Like perspective wise, we’re like, let her stay, like let her have her best time here. She’s welcome.

Christa Innis: Yes, yes. Um, she said it’s been five years and people still talk about how ours was one of the best weddings they ever attended, despite all the chaos, and honestly, I have to agree, we laugh about it every time we tell the story.

It makes a really good story to like just tell people. I love that. Like every little thing that happened, they were able to just like laugh about it and be like, we’re a fun couple. We don’t care. This is not gonna bring us down. I love it.

Jen Glantz: I mean, honestly. A lot of weddings are the same, and you leave them and you’re like, well, that was it. Like that was like the last one. And like you hear a story like this and imagine like going home and telling people this story, like it makes it fun. I don’t know, it’s not like I don’t wish bad things on anybody, but like I do think when hiccups like this happen, they do make for good stories and memories for people.

And the last thing you want, I think, when you’re planning a wedding is for people to leave and be like, it was generic. Like it was just, you know, okay. Like you kind of want them to have like a moment to talk about, obviously not. So dramatic like this, but yeah, I feel like, but something people are, yeah, yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I mean I feel like the dancing in the parking lot where the de like that is so fun and the fact that like they just thought quickly. It’s also a sign that she hired some great vendors because I feel like I know vendors that would not be as like, no. You’ve heard, I’m sure you’ve seen or heard stories too, or you just, there’s some vendors that are just very like, this is it. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jen Glantz: Yeah, no, I, it shows that she had like good vendors, good people at her wedding, good partner. She had a lot of good, and I think if you have a lot of good going for you, it’ll outweigh anything that happens at your wedding.

Christa Innis: Yeah, totally. Um, yeah, that’s like another note for people that are listening. ’cause like I’ve heard even weddings about like. It down pouring, but it still just ends up being this beautiful day and they just like dance in the rain or they like have beautiful photos and everyone’s just like sopping wet and they’re just like, but it was amazing. Like if you’ve got good vibes and you’ve got that good energy, it’s gonna be amazing no matter what.

Jen Glantz: I agree. I agree.

Christa Innis: Awesome. Well that was a crazy story. I’m like picturing it as like a movie. All these like little like things that happen like. Insane. Wild.

Jen Glantz: I give her a lot of credit. I think she made the best of it and I think it’s a true testament to other people. Like, go with the flow, it’s gonna be okay. And yeah, there’s things that are gonna happen that you just can’t plan for.

Christa Innis: Absolutely. Okay. I like to end these with, um, weekly confessions. So people send me confessions on Instagram, so I’ve got a couple here that we’ll just react to, um, at the very end here. Okay. Um, wedding planning landed. My mom and I in therapy six years to this day, don’t, and we don’t talk about it.

Jen Glantz: Yeah.

Christa Innis: that’s rough. Like we were just talking about, weddings can bring out the worst in people, but can also just bring out all these like unresolved emotions. ’cause I feel like it’s all this one day different personalities coming together, finances, starting new lives. It’s, it’s a lot.

Jen Glantz: It’s not the wedding. This was gonna happen either way. Just the wedding. Propelled it forward, unfortunately, yes.

Christa Innis: Um, it says, my middle sister and I missed our eldest sister’s wedding ceremony because of a traffic jam. Ooh, that is some traffic jam.

Jen Glantz: I know. I’ve seen that happen. I’ve seen it happen. And then the couples like, well, do we push the ceremony back and wait for people? But like, there’s a timeline. Uh, it happens like we did not go to my, my husband’s brother’s wedding. There we’re all very close with him. We did not go because my 2-year-old had 105 fever. Yeah. And we couldn’t go, like we just physically, my, my husband ended up going, but we couldn’t go. And it was like so hard to explain people without kids. It was so hard to like explain the situation. But in my head I’m like, I know this is the biggest day of their life, but like there will be other days, I’m like, this is like a circumstance we can’t control. And I think you have to kind of let that go and people miss it or they can’t go. ’cause of like these crazy circumstances, forgive, because they try Like you try your hardest.

Christa Innis: Yeah, you gotta try. Yeah. And you can’t, you can’t hold on to like a, like a grudge. Hopefully. I mean, she doesn’t say too much other than that, but it’s like hopefully the sister doesn’t hold on Grudge and. If it was just a ceremony, maybe there’s a reception after and they all, you know, dance the night away.

Jen Glantz: Yeah.

Christa Innis: Um, our flora, this last one says our florist was shut down by the IRS the week of our wedding. No notice and no help.

Jen Glantz: Hmm. That’s tough because like you already spent the money. It’s hard to find. Some in the week of flowers are like a decent part of the wedding. That is. That is like really tough. That happens though. Like your vendors are businesses, they’re people like things. Things happen.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

Jen Glantz: But there will be someone who can come pick up the pieces. Like you can always try to find a solution, even if it’s on a wedding vendor, like try to look outside the box or event people or just like people who are like learning, like amateur people who can kind of step into the role and make it better for you.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It sucks when there’s like something like that that happens. I had people that happened to a friend of ours with a vendor, like they went bankrupt and like closed like a month before their wedding was supposed to happen, and it was like. Scramble. Like, let’s see what we can do.

Jen Glantz: It’s awful. My heart goes out because that’s like the last thing you wanna deal with the week before your wedding. Yeah.

Christa Innis: Oh my gosh. Totally. All right, well thank you so much for coming on. Before we sign off, do you have any like crazy, like what’s a hot take you have about weddings? I know you have, you have something that you’ve shared before.

Not to put you on the spot, if you have one. Um, what’s like a hot take that you.

Jen Glantz: You don’t need bridesmaids. I think in five to 10 years, bridesmaids will be extinct. Have your friends be there for you in the ways that they can and the ways that you want. But they don’t need the official title. They don’t need to walk down the aisle.

They don’t need the bridesmaid dresses. They don’t need any of that.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

Jen Glantz: All right. I love that.

Christa Innis: Well, where can everyone thank you so much for coming on. Of course. Like it was so much fun hanging out with you and meeting you officially. I feel like we like already know each other. It’s so weird how sometimes like internet.

No. ’cause you like see people and you like watch their content, but where can people follow you of course and keep up and what’s like the next kind of thing you’re working on?

Jen Glantz: People can find me @bridesmaidforhire.com. I’m on TikTok at Instagram at Bridesmaid for Hire. I have a newsletter called 1-800-BRIDESMAID and my book is called Finally the Bride.

You can find it on Amazon. It’s a lot of crazy stories you haven’t heard before, and thank you for the support and thank you for having me on the show.

Christa Innis: Awesome. Yeah, definitely. I wanna check out your book as well because I. I feel like you have so many crazy stories and I feel like I would, I’ve seen so many of your, I think I’m on your, your email list too, where I’ve seen like some of the stories that people send in and, um, your advice for bridesmaids. So any brides should definitely go check it out. Well, thank you so much.

Jen Glantz: Thank you. Yay.

by Christa Innis

Relationship Red Flags, Family Dynamics, and a Shocking ICU Revelation with Kate Gray, LMFT

My new book Here Comes the Drama: A Ferris and Sloan Story is live!

Get the book!

“You’re just the mother of his child.”

That one sentence cut deeper than any legal document could fix. When a tragic motorcycle accident left her partner in a coma, our storyteller learned the hard way what “not being married” really meant. What followed? A secret wedding, a livid mother-in-law, and a decades-long family rift and guest Kate Gray dissect this jaw-dropping submission with raw empathy, real questions, and a heavy dose of “WHAT just happened?” They unpack what happens when legal ties or the lack of them collide with family loyalty and personal boundaries.

Also in this episode: ruined wedding invites, Karen-level MIL energy, and the emotional weight of doing what’s best for your own future even if it means letting go of your past. If you’ve ever doubted whether the legal stuff really matters, this story will have you rethinking everything.

Join me on Patreon and get bonus content every month!

Episode Chapter Markers

00:00 Introduction

01:11 Discussing Complicated Family Dynamics

01:51 Guest’s Professional Background

02:32 Marriage and Family Therapy Insights

08:00 Wedding Planning Stress and Family Dynamics

17:11 Rapid Fire: Red Flags or Normal Stress?

36:45 Navigating Family Boundaries

37:36 Story Submission: A Life-Changing Accident

40:42 The Aftermath and Family Dynamics

49:59 Reflections on Marriage and Family

54:58 Confessions and Regrets

Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments

Life-Changing Crash – A traumatic brain injury left her partner in a coma… and her completely powerless.
Locked Out of the ICU – Despite living together and raising a child, she was denied access to his medical care by his own mother.
Secret Wedding Surprise – They threw a barbecue that turned into a surprise wedding… and the MIL didn’t know until the cake rolled out.
Family Fallout – What followed was over a decade of strained family dynamics, emotional boundaries, and financial detangling.
Power of Legal Ties – Kate and Christa explore how love, legality, and next-of-kin status affect real lives in unexpected emergencies.
Enmeshment & Control – What happens when parents can’t emotionally separate from their adult children?
Boundaries vs Protection – Should you tell your partner everything—even when it might hurt them?
MIL Chaos Strikes Again – Christa shares the viral story of a MIL destroying wedding invites out of spite.

Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode

“The wedding is kind of the test… the precursor to the marriage.” – Christa Innis
“You’re starting your own family—and you have to get in the habit of making decisions for that family.” – Christa Innis
“This is your moment. You can be a little selfish.” – Christa Innis
“You never think about what happens in a tragedy… until you’re in one.” – Christa Innis
“Do what you want. Everyone else will get over it.” – Christa Innis
“Marriage means someone else is making huge decisions about your health—this stuff matters.” – Kate Gray
“You can have boundaries as adults. You don’t have to be terrorized in your own home.” – Kate Gray
“It’s wild how many of these stories come down to family systems and emotional enmeshment.” – Kate Gray
“People are shocked to find out these things have names—and that they’re not alone.” – Kate Gray
“When it comes to relationships, there isn’t always one truth—but there is one choice: yours.” – Kate Gray

About Kate:

Kate Gray, better known online as Codependency Kate, is a couples therapist, married mom, and refreshingly real voice on all things relationships. With a deep understanding of family systems, emotional boundaries, and the unspoken chaos behind “normal” wedding and marriage dynamics, Kate offers the kind of education you wish someone had given you sooner. Her mission? To help you stop blaming yourself and start understanding the why behind your relationship struggles. Kate doesn’t just talk theory, she gets into the messy, emotional, behind-the-scenes stuff that can make or break partnerships, especially when family dynamics, trauma, or toxic in-laws get involved. Her content bridges the gap between formal therapy and real-life application, empowering listeners with language, tools, and clarity to protect what matters most.

Follow Kate Gray:

Join the Drama with Christa Innis:

Got Wedding Drama? We Want to Hear It!

Submit your story today: Story Submission Form

Follow us on social media for updates and sneak peeks at upcoming episodes. Your stories inspire the drama, the laughs, and the lessons we love to share!

A Team Dklutr Production

Blog Transcript:

Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies

Christa Innis: Hi Kate. Thank you for being here. Hi, nice to see you. I’m so excited to be here. Thanks for having me. Yes, I’m so excited. Like I was saying before we started recording, you came up on my feed strolling and you were talking about difficult relationships with mother-in-laws and daughter-in-laws. And you talk about so many complicated relationships in marriage and family.

And so that’s why I thought you are perfect to come on because we see a lot of these issues, I should say, I dunno if that’s the right term, but come up in these stories that we read. And so I thought from a professional standpoint and we can kind of, you know, chat about other stuff as well. But um, before I get too into my fangirling and being really excited about your work, can you just tell us a little bit more about yourself and what you do?

Kate Gray: Yes, so I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist, and I also make content under the handle codependency, Kate. Um, I’m so passionate about education. Like you said, there’s, these are huge issues and people don’t really talk about them except venting to their friends. You know, people don’t really understand the background behind things.

Family Drama Starts with “I Do”

And when I was in school to be a therapist, I was learning all this stuff. I was like, oh my gosh, everyone needs to know this. Why am I. Learning this now, this is so important. And so that’s when I started posting on social media, was in grad school to purely educate. And it’s just kind of turned into a thing, especially around, um, estrangement specifically, um, just because there’s so many, there’s so much stuff happening between marriages and in-laws.

It’s so complicated and complex and no one knows what to do. And so I just try to zoom out and educate people on family systems theory and dynamics so that they can be more informed, take this information to their friends and family, to their own relationships. Obviously parallel to a, um, you know, going to a therapist themselves.

But, uh, yeah, so that’s what I just try to do with the platform that I have.

Christa Innis: Yeah. No, I think that’s so good because like I was saying, in so many of these stories, it’s like. Something might happen completely outta left field. Like the husband could have a great relationship with his mom, great relationship with his fiance, and the second, you know, they get engaged or get married, there’s a flip.

Yes. Um, and so I think a lot of times people don’t know to prepare for that or like how to prepare for that. So is this something that you see a lot in your work where there it’s just kind of like, um, or you’ve studied a lot in your work where it’s like there’s a, there’s a switch because it’s a dyna, like a power shift and it’s like, oh, he has a new family.

Like where does that come from? Sometimes,

Kate Gray: yeah, it’s tough. It’s, you know, every situation is different, but it’s also not, you know, there’s definitely themes at play. Um, you know. What I have seen in my work with clients. So, ’cause it’s different, my work with clients and then a lot of stories I hear online, you know, there’s very different audiences here, but I’ve definitely seen this a lot.

I think what happens is, yes, there is a different, a totally different dynamic at play. I think what happens is an outsider coming in, it kind of reveals existing dysfunction or existing, um, power imbalances. Just very complex, complex, nuanced things that have existed for a long time. It’s all people in this dynamic know, like say the, a new husband and his mom, they’ve been in this dynamic, you know, his whole life.

He, it’s all he’s known, but then his wife comes into the picture and it kind of challenges that relationship and it shouldn’t, in healthy families, it doesn’t. It’s a, you know, a new daughter-in-law, for example, is a welcome addition. There’s the things are already set up to be successful, but in it’s, again, in these dysfunctional dynamics when things go awry, when a new person’s introduced.

Christa Innis: Yeah. And I find, and not to like, I don’t know, if not oversimplify as a thing, but not, or not to group some, I should say. Right. I find a lot of times in the stories, I feel like the husband or the partner, the male partner I should say, in heterosexual relationships. Yeah. Seems to be very, um, I don’t wanna say docile, but he seems to be like passive.

Yeah. Like more passive. Like, we don’t hear a lot of him in the story. It’s more of like, he’s go with the flow. And so like, I think it’s. He grows up, he’s good with the flow, he pleases, you know, he is good to his parents. And then if there’s someone in comes in and she’s maybe a little more strong headed or she’s not afraid to like stand up for herself, I find that’s when there’s usually like a.

Some that’s, there’s buffer contention. Yeah. Yeah.

Kate Gray: Uhhuh, are you saying, um, between her and his family or, yes.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Or like, yeah, if like, the mom’s kinda used to, you know, the son being very like, go with the flow and, um, I just find a kind common theme, like when I have people on here and we react to these stories, they’re like, where’s the partner?

Where’s the fiance? You know, you hear like, this bride rides in and she’s like, this happened, or like, the mother-in-law cornered me or she yelled at me and they’re like, where’s the fiance?

Kate Gray: And it’s kind of no position. And that is the question that is the question I asked too. Because he’s not necessarily in the middle, but he is the link between her and his family.

She, you know, I did a video where I drew this kind of in a, not a di, like a, it’s called a genogram, where you just kind of draw it and she, there’s the parents up top, the son below them, and then she’s to the side of him. You know, like she’s not another child of his parents and they’re not totally separate and she, you know, so roles are very important.

The concept of roles. And that is the question is what is the fiance doing here? What is this dynamic? There’s a lot of reasons, you know, if you go a little deeper, there’s a lot of reasons why he’s that way, and that’s kind of the dynamic shift that has to happen. He has to step into a, a different role and that I, I guess, you know, a lot of men I think don’t talk about that.

General. Mm-hmm. So they just kind of are overwhelmed by these, these women, these strong-willed women. And, um, women can get a really bad rap when the real core issue is a more passive fiance in that role.

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm. Yeah, definitely makes sense. So one of the biggest things we were talking about in wedding stories is like the overbearing mother-in-law, or, you know, and, and it’s funny ’cause a number of times I’ll say like, it’s a mother-in-law, people immediately are like, well the bride’s mom is, you know, can be this way too.

And I’m like, well, mother-in-law could be either the groom or the bride’s mom. It’s just Oh yeah. Whoever’s perspective uhhuh. But so many times people hear mother-in-law and they just assume, oh, it’s the groom’s mom. Um, but I always like to like reiterate that. Yeah. So why do you think things like a planning a wedding, I’m sure it’s like high stress levels, but

Kate Gray: Yeah.

Christa Innis: Bring out this controlling or kind of boundary pushing behavior on, on the mother’s part or parents’ part.

Kate Gray: Yeah. Well I think what I have seen recently is there is there are very big generational differences in the concepts of weddings. Um, I think in the past, mothers in-law and, you know, grandmothers have planned the whole thing or, or they’ve waited their whole lives to do this for their child.

And the daughter, for example, hasn’t been very involved. Everything’s just been picked for her and it’s just done for her. Mm-hmm. Whereas now I think brides wanna be the bride. They wanna make those decisions and for her parents to, um, not just be more in the passenger seat or the backseat and her not be in the passenger seat or backseat.

So I think that’s one part of it. Um. And I think another part of it is that people have this idea of wedding planning being an amazing thing, and it’s so much fun and it brings everyone together. It brings out the best in everyone, and that it’s just not, it’s just not the case. It’s not the case. It’s kind of one of the first big family events that happens after, you know, high school graduation, college, you know, graduation or big family events.

So it can just bring out everybody’s stress responses. And people I don’t think are prepared for that. There’s a lot of management. There’s also. It’s a new stage for the fiances to come together on. That should be the point is to, this is kind of their first endeavor together where they’re managing all these things because the, the development stage that they are in as a couple from the family life cycle point of view is leaving and cleaving from their families of origin to come together.

So it’s this like detachment phase and I think that’s just really scary and unknown. There’s, there’s loss in it for parents. Mm-hmm. And so it’s just a whole thing that people don’t, aren’t

Christa Innis: prepared

Kate Gray: for.

Christa Innis: Right. And it’s so complicated. I’m sure you see it in your work all the time. ’cause it’s like definitely there’s nothing that’s black and white because Right.

I have heard stories where. Like the mother-in-law has cried over an engagement, but yes, maybe the partner really, really was terrible to their son or daughter. And so it’s just that that’s their reaction. So I wanna make people know too, like, it’s not, it’s not always the parent that they, they can see things too.

Like, okay, yeah, this person’s terrible to my son or daughter. And they’re scared.

Kate Gray: Yeah. And they’re

Christa Innis: scared. Yeah, absolutely. So, um, it’s definitely nuance. There’s so many different, um mm-hmm. Different aspects of that, but for couples that are maybe going through a difficult relationship with, you know, in-laws as they kind of move forward in the next stage, what, how did you recommend they set clear boundaries?

Um, you know, whether it’s before the wedding or kind of moving into their new life together so that there’s not like a total like blow up.

Kate Gray: It’s really tough, I think. The stuff is so hard for people to do on their own. They, I would really, I mean, I think therapists could have a whole like sector and there might even be one of like engagement counseling or like wedding planning counseling because it’s so stressful.

There’s so much to manage and it’s really easy for people’s stress responses and kind of lack of emotion regulation and, and all that stuff to come out. Mm-hmm. And there’s so much pressure and expectations and personalities to manage that. I think first of all, meeting, like having a therapist, having a third party that is separate from the family.

Like not necessarily a wedding planner ’cause they’re not qualified to be doing this stuff. But like, um, just I think being on the same page is the most important thing in this process, I think. ’cause from my experience too, people that have been married 10 years have trauma from their engagement and from their weddings with their in-laws, with their families.

Just with one partner. Not stepping up. Not stepping in, or one person doing too much. There’s, you know, it can be, it can magnify existing dynamic issues. And so getting married and, and having a wedding is not just about the wedding, it’s about starting a healthy dynamic. And, and kind of fixing things.

Maybe that, or just getting ahead of things that you don’t foresee, or just having someone guide you, I think is, takes a lot of pressure off figuring all of that out yourself, so, right.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Because I think a lot of couples see it as like, oh, it’s this big party, it’s gonna be easy. They don’t think about finances like putting together this big party where it’s like, yes, it’s not unlimited money, first of all.

Yeah. It’s like your first time maybe like putting money together for something big or uhhuh having people that are very opinionated from different sides coming together and, and that can be a stressor and mm-hmm. Yeah. Hearing a lot of these stories, I’m like, I feel so grateful that our families just got along well and like, I get along with my mother-in-law.

Great. And so it’s just, it’s, it’s difficult when, um. These relationships kind of come together and it’s like, okay, how do we make, you can’t make everybody happy, but how do we do the best at keeping, keeping as much peace as we can.

Kate Gray: Yeah.

Christa Innis: Um, yeah. And from, and from your, your perspective too, it’s like how much is keeping the peace too much like right.

Like when is it like, when are you bending over backwards

Kate Gray: too much? Exactly. Like when is it no longer about you? Mm-hmm. And I think that is what can be really sad in these situations is like. You know, if a bride, for example, is used to keeping the peace, but then for her wedding, she actually has all these ideas that she’s wanted and she’s used to caving.

And unfortunately, this is the one situation where like she’s shaking things up and it causes problems. You know, all her worst fears can come true in these situations. Um, so I am of the advocate of a wedding planner, a therapist, a you know, your bridesmaids, your groomsmen, everyone like supporting you, um, enlisting all the emotional support you can.

’cause it is just a, it’s really tough. It can, I won’t say like make or break something, but I think it’s just important to start off, you know, on a good foot with your in-laws and with your own family. ’cause it, you know. It can just set the tone for things. Yeah. Or it can be something to come back from.

And that’s just, that just sucks. That sucks. Oh, for sure.

Christa Innis: Yeah. If you have a bad wedding experience, it can carry with you forever. Mm-hmm. I mean, some of these stories that, that were sent to me happened 20, 30, some 40, 50 years ago.

Kate Gray: Yeah.

Christa Innis: On things. They’ll send me messages and be like, this happened. It was like, I don’t know, whatever.

It was like a cake was changed last minute and it was something that they couldn’t eat or, you know, whatever it was. Or flowers were changed or she was told she looked fat in her dress. You know, like there’s been so many crazy things that were sent to me and they’re like, I still remember it and I remember how I felt and, um.

Someone like, you know, if someone put them down. And so I feel like if you start on the, having that middle ground, like what you’re talking about, um, and it’s funny that you bring up wedding planner ’cause I had a wedding planner on once and she’s like, I feel like half the time I’m a therapist.

Kate Gray: Yeah.

Literally. She, she should go to school. No, actually that is, she’s a buffer. I mean, they are a buffer between, you know, and I, I think they’re really valuable ’cause they have to advocate, you know, their, their job is what the bride and groom want. And so I think they can be really healthy. A really healthy addition to the planning crew.

Um, yeah. Mm-hmm. Oh my gosh.

Red Flag or Just Wedding Stress?

Christa Innis: Okay. So I thought we would kind of switch things up a little bit. Yeah. Put together some rapid fire if you’re okay with this. Yeah. And it’s either a red, the options are red flag or normal stress. And if you wanna add a little bit to it, feel free. Okay. Um. Because I know, I don’t, I don’t wanna like put you in a corner or make you say something that you don’t wanna say either.

So, um, they’re just different like scenarios. And then just say if it’s a red flag or normal stress around what, okay. Okay. Okay. One partner says, let’s just do what my mom wants. It’s easier that way. Red flag. Red flag. Uh, the couple hasn’t had a single conversation about how they’ll split finances after the wedding.

Kate Gray: Ooh. Major red flag.

Christa Innis: Yeah. That’s tough. Yeah. I feel like that comes up a lot with stories too, where it’s like, this is the first big event and then sometimes they just, like, they expect their parents to pay for everything and then they go to the next stage and it’s like, but then I didn’t realize like.

This happened, or we can’t afford this, or they’ve never discussed it before.

Kate Gray: No, it’s tough because you’re, you’re expected, you’re, you have these huge decisions that like only 10 year married couples are like, have the foundation to make, and you’re making them immediately upon this huge commitment. So yeah.

That’s just tough. And so those conversations in general are so important. Yeah. Yes.

Christa Innis: Uh, okay. The bride’s mom says this wedding is as much mine as it is yours.

Kate Gray: Oh. I mean, I think that’s normal. I think that’s like, that comes up so much probably. Um, but yeah. Or for the bride, that’s, that’s sad. That’s a

Christa Innis: red flag.

Yeah. Um, one partner wants kids some someday the other doesn’t, but they say they’ll figure it out later.

Kate Gray: That’s a major red flag. That’s not, yeah.

Christa Innis: I see that happen so many times. Really, I’ve seen it. I, not a ton in stories, but I’ve just seen it like, um, stories like people posted like that, like either eventually one like changes their mind and then they, one wants kids when they both didn’t want kids before.

And I’m sure that just like sometimes happens, but I feel like that’s, like, that was like one of the biggest things my husband and I talked about before, getting married to make sure, yeah, of course,

Kate Gray: age. Well that’s a compatibility issue. Like that’s a fixed thing that, um, isn’t, you know, that’s not a dynamic issue, that’s a fixed thing and it can be just a symptom of something deeper.

But how, you know, the question is like, how do you resolve things that y’all are fixed on that are opposite? You know, like even religion, faith can be part of that too. Like that you’re fixed on these things.

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm. And

Kate Gray: you just think you’re gonna deal with it or it’s gonna get better. And that’s just, that’s, that’s definitely something to handle on the front end.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Yeah. Um, the groom refuses to go to premarital counseling, counseling and says it’s a waste of time.

Kate Gray: Um, that’s tough. I mean, I, me, I’m like, red flag, red flag, red flag. But I, I think that’s probably very normal. I don’t know. Yeah. I think not going, not being open to counseling is a very much a red flag.

Christa Innis: Yeah. And I mean, I feel like if they’re having, and you might know this better from your, your profession than Yeah. Me just, no, it’s okay. But if they’re having the kind of issues where counseling would come up before and then they, he brings it, she brings it up and he’s like, no, to jump in knowing they might need some kind of.

Kate Gray: Yeah,

Christa Innis: exactly.

Kate Gray: I mean, it’s like if y’all can talk about anything and you resolve problems, then like saying no to counseling is like, okay. I mean, ’cause we don’t need it to solve problems, but if it’s just like, no, because I don’t wanna talk about anything and I don’t want outside guidance, that’s, that’s the red flag of it.

Christa Innis: Yeah, yeah, yeah. The couple always avoids hard conversations by joking or changing the subject.

Kate Gray: Um, see, these are tough because that seems so, I’ve just, that’s so normal. I think for early on in relationships, people don’t really know how to deal with stuff. So I think that’s normal. I think that that is definitely gonna come out in their marriage, that’s gonna be magnified by it.

But um, yeah, that’s not an, an unfixable issue that I would say that’s very normal, but it’s definitely not good. Yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I feel like you can. Only joke so long before, like, something’s gonna be hard, like curious. And you have, well,

Kate Gray: there, there’s something called, um, I mean, just to be all nerdy real quick, there’s something called pseudo hostility, like fake hostility.

It’s like, that’s what you’re talking about, like the joking.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

Kate Gray: And it is an indicator of like suppressed emotion and an inability to really resolve conflict and be vulnerable. Okay. So it’s like a really unhealthy dynamic and or like, um, behavior in general and it’s found in families. That’s where the term came from.

But, so it can be, it’s joking about real problems as an indicator of that, but again, it’s, it’s something that’s very fixable with a therapist or with just, you know, this podcast.

Christa Innis: So yeah, just chatting about it. Yeah, because I feel like I’ve known people before that are just very, like, that’s like their personality is like the comic relief.

So it’s like even when things are like serious, they like wanna throw a little like. Comic in there.

Kate Gray: Yeah. And that’s how comedians are born. Yeah. I

Christa Innis: I feel like that’s a lot of, like, when you hear like deeper stories about comedians, it’s like a lot of times they just have to laugh to get through things,

Kate Gray: literally.

Yeah. And that’s, I mean, it’s not an unhealthy thing when you can do that. But if you only can do that and you can’t be vulnerable and you can’t talk about your feelings and you can’t receive criticism, for example, then that’s when it becomes an issue. And that’s when that term applies. It’s not just about joking and being funny, um, or even lightening the mood sometimes.

But if you can only do that when it’s tense, you know, you think about. People that like bust out laughing at like funerals and stuff. Like, it’s like there’s response. Yeah. It’s like, um, is that how, you know? It’s just those things just invite curiosity. It’s not to like pathologize people or to say, you know, if you do this, there’s something wrong with you.

It’s just an indicator of like, something to be curious about if you’re having issues in relationships or, or if, if this is a, a pattern for you.

Christa Innis: Interesting. Wow. I’m, I’m learning so much. Oh, okay. Um, a partner deletes texts from a parent they know that the other wouldn’t approve of, oh

Kate Gray: man, this is, these are so hard.

’cause they seem very normal. ’cause it sounds the person would be trying to protect their partner. I think people do this with good intention, but at the same time, I think that’s not a good habit to get into. In a marriage. So that’s a red flag.

Christa Innis: Yeah. ’cause for someone like that, like if someone’s deleting texts, that means in some way they’re, and you can’t control the other, what the parent does, but in some way they’re allowing them to talk negatively about their partner.

Right. Right. Or they’re not setting us clear boundary of like, Hey, if you talked that way, we’re, we’re done. Yeah. Or we’re gonna limit.

Kate Gray: Yeah. No, a hundred percent. That’s right. But I also, on the other side of the spectrum, I have, in my experience with people, there’s been way too much transparency and this, their partner is like scarred for life by what the parents said.

Yeah. So there is like. Transparency isn’t necessarily, you know, there it, there’s nuance here. It just depends on what they’re saying, you know, like mm-hmm. Um, but yeah, I think the general, like the habit of deleting texts is sketchy and is definitely a red flag. Mm-hmm. In a relationship in general.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

That’s interesting. Yeah. You say that because Yeah, I know. I’m thinking about that now because, um, there was a story that a girl sent me, and this was not about a mean text necessarily, and actually podcast and she talked about it, but Oh, mother-in-law, um, yeah, she was anonymous. She turned the camera off.

Uh, so we reacted to her story and then she was like, maybe we’ll have a part two because I’m going dress shopping with her. And so I had her come on and kind of share what happened, but basically she was demanding to know the location of their wedding venue, and this was like. Far from where they lived.

They haven’t actually seen it personally yet. She’s like, well, I just wanna drive by and go see it. And they’re like, it’s a private property, you can’t. And she’s like, we sent you the location so you can kinda see pictures. And she goes, well, I delete texts. And she like went to this whole thing about how like, I delete texts, just tell me the address so I can show up and go.

And she kept pushing, pushing. It was like a long, crazy story, but she ended up like cornering her in the kitchen and was like, yeah, it was like this crazy thing. It’s still ongoing, like they haven’t gotten married yet, but, um,

Kate Gray: oh my goodness.

Christa Innis: Yeah. And so the delete texted made me think of that conversation because um, she just said like.

She would, the mother would delete texts in her phones and then claim not to have it anymore. Claim to not know that because the text was gone.

Kate Gray: That’s weird. Never heard of anything like that.

Christa Innis: I know. I was like, does she, does she work for the

Kate Gray: FBI? Why? Yeah. Seriously. Is she a CIA agent?

Christa Innis: Yeah. Yeah. So that was, wow.

Kate Gray: Interesting.

Christa Innis: Yeah. But that was one where, on her episode where she came on, she talked about they, she went through a lot of therapy herself. So like they did a good job of like keeping up with boundaries. Yeah. And it was where her husband just had a hard time of like standing up to his mom because I bet.

And so used to like running the household and now this new strong female voice comes in and she’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I’ve never been told no before, so, yeah.

Kate Gray: Yeah. Right. Which is, that’s a red flag. I’ll say that. Like, moms not being used to their adult children telling them no about things. That’s a red flag for Yeah.

Like when you’re, if you’re a fiance, you’re looking at your partner and their parent, and that’s the dynamic you see. It’s like that’s, those are, those are scary waters to enter into. Like you, that’s a scary situation. And I think their partners feel that, you know, they like get that sense. And I think that that brings out their own stress responses too.

Mm-hmm. Um, because there’s a powerlessness that children feel even when they’re adults with parents. Parents. And so that can just make them really scared and they, however they normally respond when they’re scared. So maybe they over control or they. You know, overcompensate in some ways. So it can just be tough.

Yeah.

Christa Innis: Interesting. Wow. Okay. Um, this one says, the bride says she doesn’t want the groom sister in the wedding and won’t explain why

Kate Gray: the bride says she doesn’t want the groom sister in the wedding. Oh. And she won’t explain why. Yeah. That’s part of it. That’s the part of it. That’s the red flag.

Christa Innis: Yeah. They won’t explain why.

’cause I feel like you don’t need to have your sibling or your partner’s siblings in the wedding. I feel like that’s a totally, there should be no pressure to have anybody in the wedding, but

Kate Gray: yeah.

Christa Innis: Why won’t you explain why?

Kate Gray: Yeah, why don’t you explain why, or like, why can’t they just be, I love the idea if that’s the case.

Like if, say you’re the bride and you don’t want your groom’s sister being a bridesmaid, but can she be a groomsman? I don’t know. Do you have this, the ultimate set? You know, can’t, is there some gray area here? Right. Like if

Christa Innis: he, I know. That’s what I think is interesting too, is like, I, I mean, I had my.

Husband’s sister and sister-in-law on his side. Um, sister-in-law on his side. I dunno if I said that right. But I mean, it’s our sister-in-law, but in the wedding, ’cause I’m like close with them. Yeah. But like, we have my brother ’cause like they’re not super close or anything. Okay. But I’ve seen it always and that, that’s like a weird thing.

But like, I, I don’t know. It’s interesting.

Kate Gray: Well, I think this can be an issue. So say the groom’s sister is rude to the bride or like they don’t get along or, or whatever. And so the bride’s just like, yeah. I mean, you’re not gonna be in our wedding party. Mm-hmm. Um. But I think that could also be like an, is a situation where fiance, they can come together where it’s like, Hey, I’m uncomfortable with her in my, on my side of things, you know, going on my bachelorette or like, and standing up there, that feels inauthentic to me.

But if you, you know, she’s your sister, you kind of get the say in what you want her to be in our wedding and we can talk about it. And so do you want her to stand up with you in a black dress? You know, like is there something, if your parents are gonna be really upset and embarrassed by that, like is there something we can do to get everyone a win-win scenario?

Um, yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Because what’s weird to me too is that she would have to explain to the groom almost like in my. My thought is if the bride and sister didn’t get along, the groom would already know that or know that there was some kind of weird tension. So like, let’s figure it out together. But if like, let’s say she secretly like hated the sister and was like, yeah, jealous of something, you know, whatever.

Then like that’s already, that’s a red flag because it’s like you’re not openly communicating with your groom. Like, oh, the sister did this to me. That’s

Kate Gray: the issue is like the not openly communicating.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay. This one’s, there’s two more. One person does all the wedding planning because the other partner says they don’t care.

Kate Gray: Is that the most normal thing I’ve ever heard about this? Probably. I mean, but it’s a red flag. Like. I don’t know, what do they not care about? Is that part of the dynamic? Do they not care in general? Are they like, I never care about what we eat, and so the other person’s always responsible for figuring out what they eat.

Like is this the dynamic or is this just like, oh, I don’t like, you know, oh I don’t know, some, like, I don’t wanna do girly stuff, or some stupid stuff like that. What’s the deal about it?

Christa Innis: Yeah, because I feel like there’s a big difference between like, oh honey, you’re so good at this stuff, so I don’t care.

Like, do you like the pink or the green butter? You know, or it’s like, I don’t care.

Kate Gray: You know? Like the, yeah,

Christa Innis: how are they communicating it because exactly how

Kate Gray: are they communicating it? And you know, I think that that’s not. Yeah. I think again, it’s a, all these things seem like places, things to explore. Like is this just this situation or is this in general?

Or does this bother me? Does it bother me that they don’t care? Or am I happy they don’t care because I wanted to do it on my own anyway. You know, like Right. What I, how do you actually feel about it?

Christa Innis: Right. No, that’s a, that’s a great point. It’s so, these are so nuanced. Yeah. Because I’ve seen relationships before where the bride is like such a big planner and so she was like, I got this.

We’re good. Yeah. And he kind of just was there if she needed him, but that’s it. He was like, I don’t care. Pick, I will walk in for a wedding. You want, but then I’ve seen others where like the bride was stressed beyond belief and he went a finger and you’re like, that’s where I’m like, it’s your wedding too.

Right. Um, but I think a lot of times there’s those couples where they just assume like, oh, it’s the woman’s job to do all of it. Yes. Um. But

Kate Gray: I don’t know. And that’s again, like not a a bad, these things aren’t like inherently bad, but it’s like, how do you feel about them? Do you want them more involved? Is are there things you can do together?

Are there things that they really do care about or do they just not know? I think a lot of the time people don’t know what they don’t know. Yeah. And so you think you’re not gonna care about something, but you really end up caring about the food, or you really end up caring, like caring about the transportation from the venue to the reception.

You know, like, yeah. Is, is there an open mind there? For things to be, you know, to evolve as you learn more. Because I mean, when I planned my wedding, I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know what I, you know, how do you, how are you supposed to know when you’ve never done it before?

Christa Innis: Exactly.

Kate Gray: Yeah. So

Christa Innis: it’s a lot.

And I think people don’t realize, like, especially their first time going through everything and seeing like what they have to do, they’re just like, what?

Kate Gray: Yeah, there’s so many decisions.

Christa Innis: Yeah. And so all the comparison with social media and all stuff, it’s like you have to really shut out the noise of like, okay, do I want, uh, a golden arch because they have it on Pinterest, or do I want one because it would look cool for us, like, you know.

Exactly.

Kate Gray: Yeah, for sure.

Christa Innis: Okay, last one. A parent constantly criticizes their part child’s partner, but the partner just keeps the peace to avoid conflict.

Kate Gray: Yeah. Major red flag. First of all, why is a parent criticizing? I think that’s, so, I, I think things can be so backwards. Like parents should be there to be so supportive ’cause they know they’ve been through it and they know how stressful it is.

Mm-hmm. So it’s just crazy to me in general when parents are adding, they add stress even though they know they’ve been through it themselves. Um, so I think that’s the red flag is like parents criticizing in general. That’s definitely something to have a boundary around. Um, what was the rest of the question?

And the, uh, the partner just keeps the peace to avoid conflict. Yeah. And that’s another thing. Do they always do that? Do they do that with you? Do they do that at work? Do they do that with their friends? Are they always avoiding conflict? Because the thing about that is that it comes out sideways. It it does eventually, you know, people aren’t just like doormats, you’re human beings and emotions, you know, it’s gonna come out.

So, but it, but, or is this a situational thing where it’s just like, you know, let’s just get through this wedding. Like, I don’t even care. Let’s just get through this wedding. Right. That’s one thing. So, and it’s okay to make mistakes. It’s, you know, things are not irreparable. If you just, if the wedding is just, if you decide it’s not the time to deal with all these dynamics, then just make it easy for yourself.

You know? Like if you need to avoid it, do it, whatever. But as long as like you, um, yeah, I think just doing what you need to do at the time

Christa Innis: Yeah. Is

Kate Gray: how you leave these situations. Like not traumatized.

Christa Innis: Right. When they’re

Kate Gray: tough.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I don’t know how I would react to something like that, but yeah, if it’s something like you live across the country and you’re only gonna see ’em for this one day and you talk to them, okay, whatever, just like, we’re like, whatever.

But if you see them a lot and they’re constantly putting your partner down, like, let’s, boundaries.

Kate Gray: Yeah. Boundaries. Because that’s, you know, if a parent’s criticizing their partner, that can really make the kid feel undermined. Like, Hey, you don’t trust my decisions. Like, I, I wanna hear your feedback, but I’m, all I’m hearing about them is this, and that’s making me not trust your opinion because they’re both good and bad.

Like, they definitely have stuff, but it, it’s, it feels reflective of me and what you think about me and my decision. So yeah, that can be something important to communicate. But again, if this isn’t the time, then don’t like just deal with it later.

You’re Just the Mother of His Child

Christa Innis: Yeah. Yeah. All right. Now let’s get to everyone’s favorite part of these episodes, and that’s this week’s story submission.

So here we go. Okay. It’s Blind React. I’ve not read it, so, okay. What we got. Okay. You know how people say you don’t need a piece of paper to prove your love? That was us until life taught us otherwise. We met in the mid nineties, in our early twenties and clicked instantly. Within a few months, we were living together.

The next year we experienced a miscarriage, and not long after I was pregnant again, our Rainbow baby was born the following spring. By the end of that year, we bought a house together, and still we had no plans to marry. We were anti traditional and didn’t think a certificate mattered. Then everything changed.

In the summer of 2000, my partner was riding his motorcycle and hit a full. Hit at full speed while making a, and was, I’m sorry, and was hit at full speed while making a legal turn. He suffered a traumatic brain injury and was in co a coma for three weeks. Oh my gosh. His helmet saved his life, but it was a long road ahead because we weren’t legally married.

His mother stepped in and told the doctors she was next of kin. This is, oh my gosh. Wow. Oh my God, this is so bad. This is terrible. Oh, she explicitly told them not to speak to me. How do you, that stuff, this is like something that’s so complicated that I never would’ve even thought about.

Kate Gray: Wow. Like, yeah, we just

Christa Innis: automatically assume your partner for that long.

Having kids together, like. That’s your person you like

Kate Gray: earned your right? Like in Yeah. In all in their eyes too. Yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Uh, she said I understood she was heartbroken, but I had been his partner for years. We shared a home, we were raising a toddler, and yet I was completely shut out. Wow. Oh my gosh. She even looked me dead in the eye and said, “You’re just the mother of his child.”

Oh. This is probably one of the tragic stories I’ve read on here. Um, that sentence has never left me. Yeah. A single piece of paper would’ve spared me so much pain. Mm. Thankfully we had an incredible nurse who saw what was really going on. I showed proof that we lived together and she let me sneak our son into the ICU to see his dad.

Mm. So the, the grandma was even keeping the, the son away sounds like,

Kate Gray: oh my gosh.

Christa Innis: Within four days, he woke up. I truly believe that visit made a difference. The bond between them has only grown, grown stronger since. Eventually he came home and made an incredible recovery. About 95% of who he was before the accident.

I didn’t tell him what happened while he was in the hospital. I just wanted him to heal. Oh. So this is interesting ’cause it kind of relates to what we were talking about, about like protecting your partner. Mm-hmm. But this is like the opposite way. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So she’s almost protecting him from his own mother.

What’s her take on that? Like, ’cause I am, I’m also wondering how involved this grandma is in their life. Yeah.

Kate Gray: For

Christa Innis: and be like, no, he’s my next. I’m the next of kin.

Kate Gray: Yeah, exactly. My, I have a lot of questions. I’m like, I. If they didn’t get married, then there wasn’t a family, you know, then there wasn’t a wedding and there wasn’t this family event.

This like, I don’t know how much that matters, but like basically she wasn’t necessarily included in their formal relationship.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

Kate Gray: And may, I’m wondering what their relationship was like before, you know? Mm-hmm. How involved she was, how not involved, what her relationship was like with her son. But yeah, so that’s what I have just context.

I want context to that. But you wanna really, you wanna demonize the mother-in-law in these situations, you know, like it’s easy to say, oh my gosh, what a terrible person. How could she do this and disrespect me like this?

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm.

Kate Gray: Um, yeah. And I wonder, again, that’s like zooming out. Is this a pattern where she like the.

The partner doesn’t share things with him to protect him. And is this just another thing, part of that, when this is something that he definitely needs to know?

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm.

Kate Gray: You know, they definitely need to figure out together.

Christa Innis: Yeah, because I feel like that would be my thought. Like I understand her concern with being like, you know what, let’s just focus on him healing.

But yeah, then I would also be like, what if something happens? Like where,

Kate Gray: yeah,

Christa Innis: he has a stroke. I don’t know. Just you think like something happens where like another life altering event. Of course you would hope like nothing happens after that, but like things happen and you know, then you’d be like, okay, how can I protect myself now I wanna talk to him because.

I wanna make sure we’re like on the same page moving forward or something.

Kate Gray: Yeah. Wait, did she say like, did she say that she didn’t tell him any of this? Is that what she said?

Christa Innis: So there’s still a little bit more, but she said so far, um, I didn’t tell him what happened while he was in the hospital. I just wanted him to heal.

Um mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Wait. And then right after it says, so I didn’t read this yet, but once, but once he was well enough to return to work, we started making secret wedding plans. Oh. Oh, okay. Okay. Let’s, okay, let’s see where this goes. Okay. It says, we hosted a backyard barbecue that December. A few close friends and family knew it was more than just a cookout, but most didn’t.

Okay. So they did a surprise, oh my gosh. Wedding. Most didn’t including his mother.

Kate Gray: Wait, I, oh wait, his, so his mom didn’t know. Didn’t know that it was a secret wedding.

Christa Innis: Okay. I have so many thoughts now because I’m like, okay, was their relationship with the mom always bad or if the mom always made it clear that she did not like her, because now it’s like, I’m not gonna tell you what happened.

So you talk to your mom, we’re gonna have this wedding.

Kate Gray: Oh my gosh. I didn’t even think like retaliation basically, which like,

Christa Innis: obviously they’re gonna get married anyway, so I don’t want ’em to think I’m thinking that, but I’m just like, oh. She’s like, you did that to me while my husband watch

Kate Gray: this.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

Watch this. I’ll prove you. How much like he’s my partner.

Kate Gray: Well, or I mean, or, or she just learned from that. Like, this woman is not safe for us to tell anything to, and we need her in a group of people so she’s not acting crazy that when it’s our moment. That’s such a good, that’s who. Because I, um, man, that is, that is, you can’t make that this up.

Like you cannot make this up. It’s wild. This is a wow

Christa Innis: story. Yeah. I’m like picturing it now. And that was such a good point about like being aware of like, okay, how could she act out if it was just us?

Kate Gray: Right.

Christa Innis: This way she’s gonna maybe, hopefully be on her best behavior. ’cause certain people like that aren’t gonna put on a show.

I mean, they might, some people might.

Kate Gray: Right. But if they did, there’s witnesses now.

Christa Innis: Yes,

Kate Gray: man. Like, we’re

Christa Innis: not the crazy ones. It’s not us. Yeah, exactly. Like now you see Yeah. Yeah. This is what we’re dealing with. Oh my gosh. Wow. Uh, she had no, oh, here we go. Okay. She had no idea it was a wedding until the cake came out.

She was livid. Oh my gosh. Oh. A year or so later, we paid off all of her debts and helped her move out. That’s a wait. Move out. Wait. Was the mom living with them? Did I miss something? Oh,

Kate Gray: because that would be crazy if the mom was living with them and she didn’t know they were getting married.

Christa Innis: Yeah. And like how long was, if the mom was living with them, how long was she living with them for that she then blocked out.

I’m so confused. Oh my gosh. Well, because it says best decision we ever made because they paid off her debts and helped her move out, so she was living with them.

Kate Gray: Oh wait. Helped her move out, wait. Paid off her debts and helped her move out. Yeah. Moved out of where? That’s the question.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Oh my gosh. It says our relationship with her stayed strained for over a decade.

She passed away in 2014, and since then life has been calm, happy, and drama free. Now we’re planning our 25th wedding anniversary, and this time it won’t be a surprise to anyone. Oh my God. Oh my gosh. That is

Kate Gray: a wild story. Wow. I’m feeling a lot of things about that. Yes. Well, wait, so backing up, when he got in that tragic accident, that was like, what?

Probably five years into their relationship? Is that like a general timeline? Probably. So

Christa Innis: they met mid nineties in the summer of 2000. Yeah. Yeah. So probably like five or so years. Okay. They had a toddler together, living together. Mm. Yeah, where was the mom and all this? Like did she live with

Kate Gray: Yeah, did she live with them?

Yeah. I, so my, so from a family systems point of view, remember that’s my context. ’cause like, I wanna be per, I wanna respond personally to this, but like, ’cause this is crazy, but not in a clinical way. You’re not crazy in a clinical way. Yes. But it’s still just like, what is this guy, you know, you said this at the beginning, like when people are like, oh, where’s the fiance?

People submit stories and they’re like, wait, where? Where’s the fiance? Where’s the husband? Where’s the partner?

Christa Innis: Yeah. And

Kate Gray: that’s what I’m wondering is like, what has he just been passive in this situation and mm-hmm. I don’t know. I think it’s so easy to be, you know, with these mother-in-laws that do these things, to be really scared of them.

And I mean. And let them dominate. You know, I think there gets to a point where it’s like you, you can have boundaries as adults. Like you can, you know, you don’t have to have her in your, your house. If she’s terrorizing you and you’re scared of her and you’re laughing at her behind her back, you know, like, so I don’t know, but.

That sounds,

Christa Innis: that’s what I’m confused about. Crazy. Like he had a good relationship with his mom, so he was like, oh, she’s fine, she’s harmless. But then maybe, right. It wasn’t until he was in the ICU that she became really terrible and was like, like actually a threat to their relationship.

Kate Gray: Yeah, yeah.

Christa Innis: Because you know, you hear like funerals and weddings and, you know, all those big life events bring out the worst in people. Right? Right. And so like, I mean, there’s so many cr I mean, I’m sure there could be a podcast about funeral things that happen with families, like being torn apart and money is, you know, there, there, you always hear about stuff like that.

And so that’s what makes me think of like, maybe the mom was playing nice and then she was like in tragedy brought up. Right. I don’t know.

Kate Gray: Yeah. Well, oh man, that’s so hard. That is so hard. I mean real life. And that’s why marriage relationships are so important to get right. Because life is crazy and there are huge things that happen like that, that alter things and alter relationships.

And so having a balance and having communication and resolving conflicts so that it all doesn’t come out in this one crisis, you know?

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm. Is

Kate Gray: so important because crises happen.

Christa Innis: Yeah. But yeah, and it’s um, I love that she shared this story ’cause it’s such a unique perspective and I feel like open people’s eyes up too because it’s kind of like a different perspective of the stories we usually get.

’cause you know, it’s usually like the wedding drama and the planning and stuff. So this was a very like, alternative kind of story. And I think it’s really interesting ’cause you never think like. In like a, in a tragic moment, like, what’s gonna happen? Or, you know, right. How would we handle that? Married or not?

How would we handle that situation? ’cause that’s gonna put, that can put stress on family. How is family gonna come in at that point? Um,

Do It Your Way

Kate Gray: well, yeah, and I think it depends. When I got married, I remember like a month after we got married and we’re home from and everything and it’s like really hitting you this commitment and this legal change.

And I was changing my name and I remember being like, I’m changing my social security card. Like, if I am in an accent, you, you are gonna be like, you know, who’s young at my age who doesn’t have experience with hospitals, you know, my mom’s a, a nurse and, um. I just remember like that, the gravity of that hitting me, you know, you just grow up like it, it’s just so much transition internally and in life.

And you’re like, oh my gosh. Like if I am in a car accident, you are gonna be making these decisions. Like this is crazy. Yeah. So I think there, you know, um, I, but I agree like with like what you’re saying just about how the, the legal thing like this, it matters. This marriage is, is this person is making these huge decisions and when health is on the line, I think that’s a time where like hard lines need, hard boundaries need to be there, like mm-hmm.

Or else there’s this situation right where the mom and the partner, like the wife or the, the partner Yeah. Are not, there’s no clear lines there. ’cause legally did the mom have the right, or I don’t even know what the laws are.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I don’t know. And I don’t know what state there, ’cause I’m sure it differs state to state too.

Kate Gray: Yeah.

Christa Innis: But it sounds like she probably had the legality because she was the mom, but I don’t know. ’cause it’s like if he’s over 18, doesn’t that kind of go away? I don’t know how that works. Yeah. Um, but I actually heard a crazy story. I don’t even know how long ago it was now. Um, and I’ll change up the story slightly to protect who they are, but, um, this couple was married for a long time.

They were going through a divorce and while they were going through a divorce, the man had a traumatic, like, I think I wanna say brain cancer, brain tumor. Mm-hmm. And it turns out that certain tumors can make you act different ways or like do different things. Mm. While that was happening, he had an affair with her sister.

It was, I know. It was crazy. And so while he was in the hospital, the sister and I, again, I don’t know the legalities or how this worked. Yeah. Uhhuh, um, I. This was like through a grapevine,

Kate Gray: Uhhuh,

Christa Innis: um, through, through the sister. The sister was not allowing the ex-wife to Oh, father of children. Father of the children, what?

25 years? Yeah.

Kate Gray: Oh my gosh.

Christa Innis: And I was just like, this was a long grapevine, but it was just like, what? Like how, like I, again, I don’t know, like the legalities of that because they were divorced, but he wasn’t with this new person legally. But I don’t know if she was just there when the injury happened or they like, did the surgery or what.

Oh my gosh. But the, like, those kind of things are just like, you don’t, you don’t think about that when you’re like, you know, I don’t know. Getting married or like all that stuff.

Kate Gray: No, no, you don’t. You definitely don’t. I’m watching, it’s funny we’re talking about this too. ’cause I’m rewatching, um, Grey’s Anatomy, so I’m like seeing all this stuff in episodes and um, but yeah, it really does make you think of the legalities.

’cause I think that is what they determine what they make those decisions based on. Right. Like the doctors have to know Yeah. Who’s next of kin and who’s formally next of kin.

Christa Innis: Right. Yeah. Because I know there’s been really sad stories where, um, a gay couple or something have been partners for a long time, but they, because they weren’t legally married, they refused to let a longtime partner of someone in the hospital room So crazy.

And I hope that’s changed in most cases, but I’m sure there’s gotta be some kind of like paperwork or something, I don’t know. Mm-hmm. How that works. Mm-hmm. But maybe next I need to have some like.

Kate Gray: Lawyer on it should have someone on here. Yeah. Yeah. Talking about that. Is there a lawyer listening?

Um, okay. I know we’re about at the end of our time, so I always like to end this with confessions, weekly confessions that people send me. So here’s a couple that people sent in. It says, biggest regret was having a wedding instead of eloping like I wanted to. Mm. And I was told I would regret it later.

Kate Gray: That is so sad.

I hate when people, or it’s just sad when people project their own experiences and you don’t realize it’s them projecting and not everyone’s truth and not like a universal truth, you know?

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm.

Kate Gray: Oh, that’s tough. See, that’s why like, you have to make these times, you have to do what you wanna do, I think.

Christa Innis: Yeah.

Kate Gray: Because they’re so big.

Christa Innis: Totally. And I feel like when you tend to listen to everyone around you, but yourself, you’re gonna end up regretting it a hundred percent. Whether it want a big wedding and you went small or you went small and you want, you know, or I just said the same thing twice. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Um, or you, you don’t elope, but you really wanted to elope because you’re ultimately trying to please everyone else and you’re looking back. Exactly. Feel like, what was that for?

Kate Gray: Yeah. And it’s like if you do what you wanna do and it didn’t turn out the way you wanted to, you can learn. It’s not a, it’s not, I don’t think is as bad as if you listen to someone else over yourself.

’cause I think when you get married, like when you go into that stage of life. And you start your own family, whether you have kids or not. Like you’re starting your own family, that you have to get in the habit of making decisions for your family and for yourself and putting yourself first in that way.

That’s what’s best for your family. Mm-hmm. Is choosing yourself every day over everybody else. You know, obviously considering other people, but no one knows your family, no one knows you better than you know you.

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm.

Kate Gray: Even if you haven’t been some through something that other people have been through.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Yeah. You know, the way you just said it, I’m like, you know, the wedding is kind of like the test, like, kinda like the precursor into the marriage. ’cause everyone’s so focused on the wedding. Right. But it’s really the marriage, like that counts and I, I don’t know. Yeah. I can kind of say that to like, you know, your clients before, but I just feel like so many people focus on this like, you know, big day, right?

Yeah. The flashing lights and all that, but. It really is kinda like the precursor of like, how are we gonna handle stress? How are we gonna budget for this big event? Yes. How are all these strong personalities gonna come together and how will we deal with it? Because in our, you know, marriage, there’s gonna be trials and tribulations, there’s gonna be hard times, there’s gonna be great times.

Um, and so I feel like that’s kinda like a precursor of like, are we gonna listen to everyone else before us? Yes. Like, how are we gonna Well,

Kate Gray: yeah, and like I said, like I really do, when I’m thinking about it like this, I’m like, there. People don’t, I don’t know you. It’s crazy that this amount of pressure and this complex of a thing happens at the very beginning of a relationship because in life you’re never dealing with this type of thing again.

You know, unless you have children and there’s like, you live on a compound with your family. Like there, you know, there’s not this level of pressure, of personalities of, of involvement in your life and in your life decisions as there is when you’re married. So I wanna like, I feel like that would’ve been so helpful for me to understand of just like, this is kind of a one time thing.

You know, this. And like maybe if you, if you can get pregnant, if you wanna get pregnant, whatever the birth of your first child, like, I feel like those are kinda the two main first things. And then after that, people leave you alone in a way. And so just to know like if you’re feeling a lot of pressure, you can like chill because there’s nothing like this, I think other than funerals, you know?

Yes. Other, other things like that. But even, even then, you’re not the center of it a lot of times. So

Christa Innis: yeah. This is your, your time for it to be about you. You can be a little selfish. Um, yeah. And yeah. Kind of block out the extra it,

Kate Gray: It will be over, you know? Yes. But I agree with what you’re saying. Like it totally is a precursor for things and magnifies your dynamic.

Christa Innis: Yes. Yeah. A lot of, lot of personalities and thoughts and opinions coming in on this, on this one day. That’s Yeah. That can, uh, can make or break sometimes.

Kate Gray: Yeah. But do what you want.

Christa Innis: Yes. Do what you want.

Kate Gray: Yeah.

Christa Innis: Um, this says, um, mother-in-law shared a video of Karen’s ruining weddings as a joke and warned me wait and said it was a warning from her wor from her words.

I don’t know how that. Mother-in-law shared a video of Karen’s ruining weddings as a joke and a warning from her words. Yeah. So she said it as like a warning. What? So basically saying, if you don’t do what I say, I can ruin your wedding. Oh gosh. That is so mean. Did you see there was this thing that went viral.

Someone just tagged me in on TikTok. This girl shared a picture or like a video of all her invitations in a bucket of dirty water and said, thanks to my mother-in-law, oh wait, no, I didn’t see that they were already, or they were, the water was dirty because it was all the ink. She already had pre-addressed all these invitations in envelopes, and the mother-in-law threw them in water because they weren’t what she wanted, or she didn’t want the wedding to happen.

It was like going viral on TikTok. And people were like, can you make a story about this? And I was like, let me gather some thoughts.

Kate Gray: That’s terrible. Oh my gosh, that is so awful.

Christa Innis: Do you, that is so awful. Is that someone that just can’t deal with their emotions or can’t communicate, or has or hasn’t been told? No, maybe.

Kate Gray: Yeah. So the like term is enmeshment. They’re enmeshed, which means they’re fused, like, so, um, when it comes to relationships, there’s only one truth. Like there’s right or wrong, and both people have to see it that way. Mm. Whereas, so they need to learn what’s called differentiation. Like, hey, my kid is their own person.

They’re making their own choices and their own life. And it doesn’t have to be the same as what I would do.

Christa Innis: Mm.

Kate Gray: Or I don’t have to approve. They have full autonomy and agency to do what they need to do. Mm-hmm. And so there’s definitely a component of not being able to regulate emotionally. There’s the component of, of being, um, not really having boundaries.

You know, there’s, there’s a lot. I mean, not, again, not to pathologize people and ’cause I don’t know all the context behind these things, but definitely parents that get upset at their children’s decisions, there is a level of enmeshment between them.

Christa Innis: Interesting. Wow. I don’t know how some of these people get through.

Like, I know position, I just can’t. Imagine being treated that way.

Kate Gray: Yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Um, awesome. Okay, well that’s all I have for, oh my gosh, thank you so much for coming on. It was so great chatting with you and hearing a different perspective on some of these things that we see.

Kate Gray: Thank you for having me. This was really fun and different.

Like it’s not, I normally just, I talk about this stuff on such, in such a serious way, you know, and so this was really light and fun. I really enjoyed it. Oh, good. Thank you again. Yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Well, can you tell everyone again where they can follow you, find your content, and then what kind of things you’re working on and what kind of things you share?

Kate Gray: Yeah. So, um, you can find me on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube under the handle codependency. Kate, KATE. Um, what am I working on? I don’t know. I’m just like having fun posting and, um, just still learning about my community and what the needs are and just doing fun things like this. I did start a podcast, it’s called The Gray Area.

Christa Innis: Oh, fun. Where?

Kate Gray: Yeah, where like, so I post a lot of educational stuff and my podcast is um, where I just elaborate. It’s just like long form. I literally just started it and I am doing it just by myself and I, I’ve been like, I didn’t realize I could yap the way I do. I’ve literally like for 45 minutes to an hour can just like talk about something.

I had no idea. I’ve always been curious, like I wonder if I could just go. Like how long I would talk. Yeah. And anyway, so, um, that’s on my profile. You’re sign up now? I’m literally, yeah. Um, so that’s what I’m doing. Yeah. Now.

Christa Innis: Awesome. Well, very cool. I feel like a lot of times our, our content can like cross over, like you can be like the more, more serious

Kate Gray: Yes.

Christa Innis: Um, and educational for Yes. I like education. Yeah. Yeah. Because I feel like a lot of people have que, you know, they hear these stories and they have questions about it, or, um, brides will reach out and be like, this is what I’m currently dealing with and I, I can’t deal with it from, or I can give advice from a professional standpoint.

I just can say like, this is what I’ve seen in these stories. Yes. Yeah. So,

Kate Gray: um, well, and that’s valid too, your experience with these stories. So. Not to like think that, um, you have to have formal training to be able to answer. But yeah, I’m always happy to provide the educational component because there people, from what I’ve learned, like are shocked to find out these things have names and there’s, these are issues, you know, I’ll post a video about this and people are like, oh my gosh, this is my exact situation.

And there’s, you know, 10,000 other people that feel the same way. And it’s just so family systems is super fun to educate people about and it can be very validating for people struggling in these situations.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I think that’s one of the most beautiful things about social media is that we’re able to connect on those things like, yeah.

Like I saw someone say once like, oh, my algorithm algorithm’s spot on. ’cause it’ll be like a video about like someone with like a D, H, D and anxiety and you’re like, oh my gosh, wait, I have those things. Wait, I do those things. Or it just allows you to connect and see that you’re not alone in something or someone totally in the situation.

And,

Kate Gray: um, it’s so valid. It can be such a relief and so validating for people that don’t have access to therapy or like support, extra support like that. I literally got a message from someone yesterday from like Gambia Africa. Wow. And they’re like, yeah, we don’t have access to therapy here, so I really appreciate your content.

I’m like, oh my God, this is so cool.

Christa Innis: I didn’t know. Yeah. Yeah. And I think too, there’s such a. I think, I think our world’s getting more accepting of therapy and like talking about it being like, Hey, yes, I see I go to therapy and I, but like that wasn’t always the case. Right. And I’m sure you saw too, it was more of like a hush hush thing like, oh, I go to therapy.

Mm-hmm. Like mm-hmm. You are worried about what people are gonna think about you. Mm-hmm. And so I think for those that are still kind of like scared of therapy or like they don’t know if they wanna do it, social media’s a great way of kind of start like opening that door being like, it really is, wait, this is really, this is helpful.

Oh, this is cool. Yeah. Wait, I can talk to someone and like, like get empowered or learn

Kate Gray: about myself or, yeah. That’s great. Like be listened to and just even explore my own thoughts. Like I, I just think that therapy all it is, is just creating space for you to kind of come out and learn about yourself, like you said.

Christa Innis: yeah,

Kate Gray: it’s great. Yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Love that. Awesome. Well thank you again for coming on. I had a great time chatting with you. Me too. Thanks again.

Kate Gray: Thanks.

by Christa Innis

Uninvited Guests, Screaming Cousins & a Boozy Wedding Party with Janelle Riddell

What happens when a cousin wears white, ignores boundaries, and starts throwing punches? This episode dives into the chaos of a vineyard wedding gone completely off the rails.

Christa Innis sits down with guest Janelle Riddell—creator of relatable in-law content and skits—to unpack a jaw-dropping real wedding story involving fistfights, a crying bride, and a cousin who just wouldn’t quit.

Together, they reflect on boundary-setting, judgment from the internet, and how to survive family drama on the most important day of your life. This one’s part comedy, part cautionary tale—and totally unmissable.

Join me on Patreon and get bonus content every month!

Episode Chapter Markers

00:00 Introduction

00:57 Janelle’s Social Media Journey

01:58 Content Creation and Audience Reactions

02:46 Navigating Family Dynamics

13:34 Wedding Stories and Hot Takes

23:00 Unplugged Ceremonies: To Ban or Not to Ban?

25:30 Reacting to a Crazy Wedding Story

25:59 Starting YouTube and Podcasting

27:01 Wedding Coordinator’s Nightmare Begins

27:39 Chloe’s Drunken Antics

28:55 Pre-Ceremony Chaos

31:33 Ceremony and Reception Meltdown

34:56 Post-Wedding Reflections

47:39 Weekly Confessions

Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments

The Viral Cousin Named Chloe – A guest shows up wearing white and impersonates the bridal party, leading to chaos no one could’ve predicted.
The Drama of Setting Boundaries – Christa and Janelle discuss how brides get labeled as bridezillas for simply having standards.
Skits That Start Conversations – Janelle shares why she uses storytelling and skits to reflect the complex dynamics of family relationships.
Fact-Checking Wedding Stories? – A hilarious discussion on social media critics and why no one’s got time to play journalist on DMs.
Fistfight at the Reception – A real wedding brawl breaks out, complete with alcohol, family yelling, and a screaming bride.
Intention vs. Impact in Wedding Etiquette – When wearing white or skipping a gift becomes a symptom of something deeper.
Grace vs. Guilt in Family Expectations – Why navigating in-laws and milestone events requires more than just saying “no.”
Confessions & Hot Takes – From uninvited guests to baby shower tantrums, Christa and Janelle react to listener submissions.

Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode

“If she has a boundary, she’s a bridezilla. But if she doesn’t, she’s just naive. You can’t win.” – Christa Innis
“It’s not always about the white dress—it’s about what it represents in that moment.” – Christa Innis
“I’m not here to fact-check your trauma. I’m just here to tell your story.” – Christa Innis
“People say ‘just say no,’ but when it’s your in-laws, it’s never that simple.” – Christa Innis
“Sometimes a missing seat turns into a full-blown vendetta.” – Christa Innis
“Yes, relationships are a two-way street… but who broke the road?” – Janelle Riddell
“I’m not a journalist—I’m a storyteller. There’s a difference.” – Janelle Riddell
“Some daughters-in-law are just trying to live, not plot against their in-laws at church.” – Janelle Riddell
“Wearing white wasn’t the problem—it was the years of tension behind it.” – Janelle Riddell
“People don’t realize what ‘no’ actually looks like in families like these.” – Janelle Riddell

About Janelle

Janelle Riddell is a writer and storyteller who shares real-life wedding chaos and family drama. She spends time collecting stories about in-law tension, etiquette fails, and tough relationship moments. In this episode, she talks about her own experiences and why setting boundaries matters—even when it’s hard. Janelle brings honesty, humor, and insight that every bride (and anyone close to one) will relate to.

Follow Janelle Riddell

- TikTok
- Instagram

Join the Drama with Christa Innis:

Got Wedding Drama? We Want to Hear It!

Submit your story today: Story Submission Form

Follow us on social media for updates and sneak peeks at upcoming episodes. Your stories inspire the drama, the laughs, and the lessons we love to share!

A Team Dklutr Production

Blog Transcript:

Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies

Christa Innis: Hi, Janelle. Thank you so much for coming on. Hi. Thank you for having me. I’m so glad we got to do this. Yes. for anyone that doesn’t know you or doesn’t see your content, can you just tell ’em a little bit about yourself and what you do on social media, and then we’ll kind of get into it?

Janelle Riddell: Sure. so my name’s Janelle.

My account is. @heyjanellemarie, I’m sure you’ll tag it in the show notes or wherever you do that, but, yeah, so I’m a mom of two, a wife, a full-time working mom, and I also make content primarily for people who have a challenging relationship with their mother-in-law, with their in-laws in general. I’ve been doing it for about two years now.

It’s evolved over time. It started as just like primarily just. Like a lot of relatable mother-in-law type content. whereas now I have a lot of mothers-in-law who follow me, who are learning to see if future mother-in-laws are following me. And I, so anyway, I have a lot of fun with it.

I do skits, I do vlog style content, and I’ve just built a really great community of. Women who are kind of going through the same thing. And the key is though, that we’re hoping not to repeat that cycle. We’re hoping to break the monster in-law, stereotype, for our kids.

The Complexity of Boundaries

Christa Innis: Yeah, I love that. I feel like that ties in a lot to some of the content I put out because while I do have a mother-in-law.

Stories I share. it’s all over the place. Sister-in-laws, brother-in-law, whatever, what have you. All around weddings. Right? But I think it’s really important what you say about learning from it and like these kinds of skits and content. Not always like pointing the finger.

Sometimes it’s like a reflection too, because I have moms who comment and say, thank you so much for sharing this, because now I see that I’m like overstepping my son’s boundaries or my child’s boundaries. And so I think important to be like, not just be the victim in some of these,

Because I also have other people that are like, you’re only targeting mother-in-laws. Yeah. What do you have against ’em? Yeah. And I’m like, I love my mother-in-law. I actually get along with her really well. I just get some crazy stories sent to me that I’m like, this is insane. Let’s talk about it. do you get that same kind of thing where people kind of come for you from different angles

Janelle Riddell: like.

Surprisingly, not very often. from different angles. Yes. I get surprisingly few hate messages in my dms. I get a ton of crazy comments to the point where like, Facebook, I don’t even read my Facebook comments as a dumpster fire over there. But, I get a ton of, I mean, we’re social media creators, right?

So a lot of my stories. my skits, I was finding the skits. It’s the crazy stories that perform. but it also sometimes isn’t. Sometimes it is the more nuanced examples and when you’re able to portray something that I. Like when you were, if you were to tell the story of, oh, I don’t get along with my mother-in-law for whatever reason, it’s like, seems kind of minor.

But when you see how those interactions play out in a skit, that’s where I feel like has really helped build my community in the true sense of the word is because those are the stories that people see that they’re like, yes, this, this is what I, you know, and so, but it’s still, it’s a balance as a social media creator.

So people, sometimes people accuse me of. Oh, you built a whole page to complain about your mother-in-law and like truthfully, I don’t even talk about my own mother-in-law and my own stories. It’s mostly follower submissions, but it’s also more so like themes. That’s why I’ve started integrating more lifestyle and vlog style content, almost just like a metaphor to show like.

Daughters-in-law that don’t get along with their mother-in-law, like they’re literally just pe, they’re just moms and women living their life. they’re not sitting at home scheming and plotting to see how they can, like, they didn’t intend on ruining their mother-in-law’s life despite what she’s told you at the grocery store, at the church group.

Like they’re literally just existing and the reasons why the relationship has fallen apart. is often a function of both parties, but not in the way that you would expect. that’s a key note that people love. I don’t know if they’ve like, commented that on your videos too necessarily, but always, if it’s ever relationship focused and the story or the skit or whatever really portrays one person as the protagonist and one person is the antagonist you always get.

Relationships are a two-way street And my catchphrase response to that is, yes, but like, who broke the road? Like two people can’t travel down a two-way street if it’s broken. And that’s where I am trying to bring awareness and visibility.

But also, yeah, like also it’s cathartic for people who have gone through it to watch my content and be like, yes. That’s exactly how I feel. But yeah, the broken road doesn’t always come from stories that are portrayed in, say, your skits or some of my skits. The broken road also comes from. More minor things that just build up over time too, so.

Christa Innis: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. And I think that feeling of like wanting to be seen that you’re like not crazy. Like someone can like, relate to you. and that’s the thing too, is like when I get those, I shouldn’t even say like hate comments. They’re not really hate comments, but like there’s some people that will comment and be like, this is just terrible that you would portray a person this way when you don’t understand the full story.

And I’m like. I’m just, someone sent me this story, so I’m only able to portray what this person sent me in their own words, and I’m gonna do my best to like get it out there if I can. So yes, if a bride sent me a story, then I’m gonna do it from the bride’s perspective. Sometimes, sometimes I’ll do it from another perspective, but if a mother-in-law wants to send me her story, I’ll absolutely share it, you know, so like, because most of the stories that are sent to me are from brides.

I’m gonna, you have their version and. Someone was like, do you ever fact check these? I’m like, what am I supposed to do? Call each person up and like interview them. I’m like, no, I don’t fact check.

Janelle Riddell: No, I’m not CNN. Like, what was the comment Once someone gave me and I replied with like, I’m not a journalist.

Like I don’t have any sort of like legal obligation

Christa Innis: Yeah. To

Janelle Riddell: right, like. No, and that doesn’t mean that I wanna like,catastrophize or like perpetuate negative stereotypes that aren’t true. Like I don’t wanna be part of the problem. Right. But also like, sorry, people aren’t in my dms.

Like the stories that I’m portraying and I know, I know it’s the same for you. The stories that I’m portraying are truly the tip of the iceberg. when it comes to data, like you could plot the trends. If we were to plot the number of stories I’ve been sent where someone feels. Based on their details, like they’re justified and feeling the way that they do about their wedding or the birth of their baby is another big one.

Like the data, right? It’s not mm-hmm.

Christa Innis: Like, yeah. Yeah. Anyway. Yeah, no, for sure. I think that’s a really great point. And I think too, it’s like people need to see these conversations and I think, like we said earlier, it helps people on both sides kind of see like, okay, here’s where a boundary needs to be set, or here’s where I need to like.

Limit contact or here’s where, okay, there was miscommunication, let’s work this out. Or whatever that looks like. I think it’s good to have these examples and of course, yeah, it’s part entertainment. I mean, so many people follow for entertainment. Like I know the reason I started doing like content like this is because like I loved seeing content like this.

I love the conversations seeing how things play out, and I think it helps us kind of see ourselves in conversations and be like, oh, how would I react? Or, oh, that’s really crazy. I’ve never seen something like that before. That’s how we roll.

Janelle Riddell: Totally. Like the skit I shared yesterday was a follower submission.

for those who don’t follow my content, the gist of the skit is a follower of mine sent to me. They traveled to her in-law’s house for Easter recently. They brought their. Three, four, like a newborn baby. Not fresh, fresh, but like really newborn baby and 2-year-old to their in-laws house.

They had specifically said when the baby was born, we don’t want anything shared on Facebook. They get to their in-laws house and there’s newspaper clippings of the in-laws had put in a birth announcement in the local paper. No. And, to make matters worse, hadn’t remarked the daughter-in-law’s existence.

Just proud parent and their son’s name. No. Stop the story. It was literally like 10:00 PM like two days ago I guess. ’cause I got it and I was like, it now. Need to it. I’m cackling in bed to my husband reading this. So bad, but the layers to it, which I led with. ’cause she’s like, we’ve went to my in-laws for Easter because she was a whole big, that beginning piece is the part where people start to comment because I talked about and portrayed some of the details she had shared about her husband saying to his mom, like, okay, like.

When she asked how the drive was, like, I mean we traveled five hours with a five month with a four month old, whatever. The old, the baby was a newborn and a 2-year-old. Like it was rough. But you said We had to come for Easter and the mother-in-law feels like, well, of course, like grandparents.

Like if they kids should come to us. Yeah. And so already you get comments on the video of, when you’re talking about like the back, oh, you need to share the backstory. You need to whatever. Like, people don’t understand that the, I think what is helpful to see played out is ideas. Like someone saying, well, no, that’s their fault for going, you just should say no to going.

And it’s people who aren’t in these situations don’t realize what. No. Looks like, and that’s gonna be my follow up skit portraying the, no, I’ll show you what this looks like. What this looks like is the mother-in-law saying, Like you guys should come to us for Easter and the son, in a lot of cases, it’s two ways.

It’s either the son’s saying, we gotta go to my mom’s for Easter, otherwise she’s gonna be mad at me. And That’s more of a marriage issue than a mother-in-law issue, quite honestly. Right. Or it’s the husband saying, I don’t wanna go five hours with the kids. Like that’s crazy. And the daughter-in-law is saying, no, then your mom’s gonna be mad.

Your mom’s gonna say, it’s my fault. We have to go. Whatever. And then maybe the mother-in-law throws in some comments like, well, you guys moved away because of her job, or You guys moved away. It’s not my fault that you moved away, so you should come to me. And there’s other so many like guilt and layers and all these things.

it’s not as simple as like say no, it should be for sure. Right? It should be. But then that when it is as simple as say no. then there’s an impasse. That’s that two-way street I referenced. Mm-hmm. Right? Like quite literally in this case, who’s, it’s gotta be a two-way street.

or maybe it isn’t depending on the phase of life that people are in, and maybe that’s okay. but anyway, that beginning of that story is the more like. What actually goes into setting a boundary saying, no, we’re not gonna travel five hours with the baby. Like,

Christa Innis: yeah. I find it interesting.

The Importance of Saying No

So many times when I share skits, people comment like, oh, I would’ve said no right away. it’s like, it’s so much easier. And I even, you know, myself, like, you can look from the outside and like, I’m so great at telling other people how to set boundaries and say no and like. But in your own life, it’s so much more difficult, so much more nuanced because it’s like you have a different relationship with each person and you have other people involved and you know, a history, and you’re always like, am I gonna be the bad person?

You know, and there’s all these different things as opposed to just like saying no. And I think we should ideally all get there. Like if someone’s treating us poorly, but we can’t always see it. Sometimes it’s a disguise, sometimes it’s like talked to nicely first and then it’s, you know.

Totally.

Janelle Riddell: I actually feel like it’s the people who are saying, oh, just say no. I often think that maybe they’re coming from a place. Of like, they’ve had really fortunate relationships with family in their life because I could see, had I not lived what I’ve lived now with my in-laws, I would potentially feel that way because if there’s something I don’t wanna do that my mom asked me, I just say, no, mom, I don’t wanna do that.

And she doesn’t think that my husband forced me to say no. She doesn’t think that it’s unfair that, oh well you said yes to so and so the other day, so why are you saying no to me today? No. I literally say, no, I don’t wanna do that. And then if. whatever the situation is, it doesn’t happen very often.

Again, this is like gets into the, what I try to dive into with my content, which is just the, like what goes into relationships, which is my mom knows me, we’ve built a relationship, so she generally doesn’t ask me things. That she knows I’m gonna say no to. Like she knows me and my husband is people, so it doesn’t get to a point where we really need to say no.

She reads the room or it’s not even, she reads the room. She’s built relationships with us. And that is fundamentally, I think often the root cause in a lot of these situations is they haven’t taken the time, energy, effort again, two-way street. I don’t know who’s gotta build the road.

We can split hairs on that, but, to cultivate and build a relationship with their daughter-in-law or their adult child. Quite honestly, sometimes comparatively to how the daughter-in-law’s, parents have built a relationship with her, so they’re asking for things that like. Why are you asking for something that you know is gonna put them in a position that they’re not comfortable with and different people are comfortable with different things.

That’s another huge source of comments. Like, good for you, that’s what you’re comfortable with. Not everyone’s comfortable with that. And that doesn’t mean they’re entitled or wrong, or. Yeah, sometimes it does, but not always, you know? Yes. people are people. We gotta meet people where they’re at, but people don’t wanna meet you where, where you’re at if you’ve been habitually a jerk to them.

Exactly.

Christa Innis: No, that’s such a good point about like, if you haven’t had to really deal with those difficult things harder saying no just comes off as easy. Yeah, because like I’ve never had, like, they’re not thinking that way. But yeah. If they haven’t had a deal with that, it’s like, well, it’s black and white.

They do that then totally. No. But yeah, if you tend with the teeter-totter of relationships and you’re like, uh, I don’t know. Is this one of those where I say no, or how do I back down from this? Yeah, totally.

Janelle Riddell: Yeah. Completely. Yeah.

Christa Innis: Okay. Let’s get into, ’cause I feel like we could talk about this stuff forever and we could, we could, we could.

I love it. I feel like, ’cause we have probably have like an overlap of followers of like how people like the content and stuff. But let’s get into, ’cause some crazy stories and wedding hot takes. Do you have, when we talk about weddings, does anything come to mind for like a kind of crazy story or something that you either seen at weddings or had at your own wedding?

when it comes to interesting. Opinions, I guess.

The Wedding Seat Saga

Janelle Riddell: Yeah, I mean, reflecting on it, like relative to some of the stuff that you’ve shared? No, like relative to the story of yours that sticks out for me. Is that girlfriend of the groomsman who like brought her kid and like, no, I don’t.

That one always. I’m like, that is insane. anyway, yeah, no, I don’t have anything that crazy what did happen at my wedding. And so although it does involve my mother-in-law, I’m not, to this day, I’m not necessarily blaming her. And I only found out about it after the fact because my sister-in-law told me what happened after the fact.

But we had, okay, so some of it I guess I am blaming, but, We invited my husband’s cousin per the request of certain people who generally doesn’t come to stuff. He doesn’t come to family gatherings very often. I think I’ve seen him like in the 10 years my husband and I have been together maybe two times.

We invited him. He, our VPs Yes. Doesn’t show up to the wedding. I, again, it’s my wedding day. I had no idea that he didn’t show up, but in the meantime, my mother-in-law had invited her best friend from childhood or something, which again, like. my parents invited friends too, like, okay. and didn’t RSVP with a guest, RSVP’d for herself.

Brought a guest, brought her sister, I think it was, oh

Christa Innis: my gosh,

Janelle Riddell: sister. So the guest guest brought a sister. The guest brought an on, RSVP. Guest. and the cousin, R-S-V-P-D-S No. Showed. So you do the math, there’s seats for everybody. Right. But they weren’t planned seats. So I guess what happened is

my mother-in-law’s friend’s, sister didn’t have a seat at the friend’s table or whatever, but there was an extra seat, like I guess some put their heads together and found a chair friend, the friend’s sister. So that’s great and that’s good. But apparently my mother-in-law was deeply offended and obviously it was a, personal, I had done that intentionally, was personal, and then spent my entire wedding reception.

Complaining about me, complaining about where their seat was and their wedding and how she didn’t have a seat, and how rude that was, and how none of my parents’ friends didn’t have seats. And um, because they probably all are CPD the right way I guess. I don’t know. so you could say, oh, maybe you missed it, maybe whatever.

Like understand, I’ve a project manager, been a project manager for 10 years at this point, like a spreadsheet. And me, we are friends. So maybe I missed it, but. I’m saying it would be unlikely to me either way. it didn’t ruin my day. I had no idea. But after the fact, it still sucks to hear that, like, that was like

Christa Innis: the thing that, the

Janelle Riddell: conversation that was going on.

Yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Because I feel like something like that, you can’t win. They’re gonna look for one thing to hold onto and be like, oh, she did this on purpose. But it’s like, how are you supposed to know that? Someone’s friend is gonna bring a friend. Which one? You shouldn’t be doing that at a wedding anyways.

Like, don’t just bring random people.

Janelle Riddell: I just assume maybe she RSVP’d. Incorrectly or something. And so then I, maybe people would say, oh, why didn’t you follow up? And it’s like, sorry, I’m planning at that specific point. Like I didn’t follow up with anyone else about their rsvp, someone RSVP’d.

I had lots of people who I gave a plus one to and didn’t bring APL cable alone. I didn’t confirm with them, Hey, you RSVP just for one. Are you sure? It’s, it’s just you. Like, no. And so we would’ve given her a guest like she’s, Was coming by her herself. Like I think there was a few friends of ours that were single at the time and were coming with lots of other friends that we knew.

Mm-hmm. we didn’t give maybe everyone in our friend group in RSVP if it was like very clearly. but I don’t even think there was that many people we had to do, which I know is a controversial, like to do that at all. But her, like my mother-in-law’s friend, we would’ve absolutely given her an RSVP. so maybe she just filled out the RSVP card incorrectly.

I don’t know. It was a website. We had a wedding website, so maybe she just filled out the website wrong. But anyway, yeah.

Christa Innis: thing is too, like if for some reason, like if I went to a wedding and like there wasn’t a spot for my husband, so someone that clearly would’ve been invited or something, right?

I didn’t bring this one extra and there wasn’t a seat for him, I wouldn’t automatically be like the bride did this on purpose. You know? Like, that would never be my first, I’d be like, especially as a planner myself, like I’m a type A kind of person, I’d be like, oh, there was a misstep mistake or maybe mis.

Yeah, there’s so many people involved. There’s so many moving parts. maybe we’re at the wrong table, so there’s just that different mindset of like blaming people and I’m like, things happen. It’s fine. Like. Whatever.

Janelle Riddell: Totally. I do think, though, I do think this story is a perfect example of that kind of deeper level relationship building that I talk about because yes, my mom, mom and daughter, people are gonna have a hard time equating mother-in-law and future daughter-in-law with mom and daughter.

But trust me, for my followers, there’s tons of people who are very close with their mother-in-law and were close with their mother-in-law throughout the planning process of their wedding. Or their husband is very close with his mom and they liaise and talk and discuss on a regular basis. Neither of those two things are true in my case.

And so where I’m going with this is if either my husband or I had a like friendly chitchatting about regular stuff on a regular basis, mutual exchange of information, not like the mom who calls her son to talk Adam for two hours every. Once a month and thinks that that, oh, I’m so close with my son.

No, like have a real relationship. It probably would’ve got caught. It would’ve because there would’ve been a casual conversation, oh, my friend so-and-so is bringing so and so, and I would’ve been like, what? She didn’t RSVP with someone. Oh, let’s take a look at it. Oh, let’s, we would’ve caught it. Right.

Whereas like my mom, I knew who all of her friends were bringing and, or like whatever was going on there. I think one of her friends husbands couldn’t come because something had come up, so then I just went in and changed whatever. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like. And those kinds of things get caught when you’re having regular conversation with people.

A hundred percent.

Christa Innis: Yeah. No, I totally agree with that. again, I think it’s just people wanna find a blame if they’re looking for one, there’s gonna be well and

Janelle Riddell: complain about. Totally. And I think it’s personality type too. Like there’s certain people that are like, their first instinct in a situation like that is to like.

be embarrassed. like, think that it’s about them or think that it’s, and so in, in a way, I could see how a person could feel like that. Like in this setting where you feel like, okay, well this is my friend and my nephew, so I am like. Hosting them but you’re not. But like I could see how you could feel that way.

So then you feel embarrassed ’cause the friend that you’ve brought, her sister doesn’t have a, like, I can see how you would feel embarrassed about that. And a lot of people are, would be keen to just like deflect that embarrassment in the form of blame. Which I think is a natural human response, but unfortunately, whether it’s a natural human response or not, the impact of that natural human response is people feeling like, I don’t know if that was reasonable to like completely blame the bride or, you know.

Yeah.

Christa Innis: I think we were saying this before recording, is if the bride, because stereotypically the bride plans majority of the wedding or she’s, yeah. It’s her vision. Right. Even if like, my husband and I were pretty like. Equal with what we like planned and like, I mean, I’m more the planner type, a kind of person, but like he was involved in every kind of thing.

Mm-hmm. But I think in general, people are like, oh, it’s the bride. And so if something goes wrong, it’s the bride’s fault. If something happens, it’s the bride’s fault. If she has a boundary, she’s a bridezilla. And so I think it’s just always like put on the bride for things like you don’t ever hear, like, I mean, maybe every once in a while you hear groomzilla, but very rarely.

it’s more of like a funny thing. But, I think it’s just like the, when women have boundaries or women say, no, there tend to be the problem. And it’s like, yeah. Yeah. it’s a common theme. I’ve noticed,

Janelle Riddell: I think another thing I’ve observed and a trend and a theme, if I’m looking at my content and then the comments that come of it is.

Women are accused in relationship context, like these ones where emotions are high, it’s a round a milestone event. Women are accused of not giving enough grace but then when there’s situations where someone gave grace or benefit the doubt, or maybe it’s not benefited the doubt, maybe someone just assumed that another person was gonna employ common sense.

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm. And

Janelle Riddell: they don’t. And there’s a reaction to it or a boundary because of it, or a negative experience because of it, that then I’m portraying in my skit. It’s like, well, why didn’t you just stop that thing from happening? It’s like, Sorry that I assumed you understood that when we say don’t post on Facebook, that doesn’t mean find another way to announce the birth of our baby without our permission.

and so anyway. Mm-hmm. That’s like, I find also a, takeaway I have is, yeah, women are accused they’re having boundaries in their bridezilla, they were asking like they didn’t do enough when they. Just like try to let things go as they’re like, the cards fall where they may and someone doesn’t have any common sense and they talk about it after the fact and it’s like, well, why didn’t you, put a boundary in place to prevent yourself from having, yeah.

X Why is that negative experience happened? It’s like, sorry, too much or not enough. There’s like, sorry, I didn’t know that, you didn’t realize talking negatively about the bride throughout her entire wedding was not. Inappropriate thing to do and was maybe gonna fake, make her feel negatively when she found out about it.

Like I didn’t know that. You didn’t know that, right? Sorry.

Christa Innis: Oh my gosh, yes. Okay. Let’s do a couple hot takes and then we’ll get into the main story that we’ll react to. Okay. So I’m gonna read a hot take so people send hot takes to me and social media and then we will react to it. So they said, should guests be banned from taking photos during the ceremony?

Janelle Riddell: I mean, we had a, what did we call it?

Christa Innis: you know, the weird wedding phrasing more than I do. Yeah. It was, is a thing that people said,

like a, basically like, put your phones

Janelle Riddell: Yeah.

Christa Innis: Keep your, and like,

Janelle Riddell: apparently the way my friend Dave, who officiated our wedding, read it, it was a little bit like.

Don do

Christa Innis: it.

Janelle Riddell: Yeah. And to the point where people are like, but yeah, if you don’t say that again. Common sense. This is a common sense thing. If you don’t say it then you end up with the person in the aisle with their iPad. Or

Christa Innis: iPad. It’s always the

Janelle Riddell: iPad, right? Or in front of the photographers or blocking things.

Or you have people with phones in the background of your photos. So. I don’t necessarily think you need to do no phones at a wedding ceremony. I think it’s really tough to tell a mixed group of people with mixed ages with mixed understanding of technology etiquette. It’s easier to say no phones than to say, in that moment, for those 15, 20 minutes of your life, an hour, if you’re really religious, whatever, like.

I think you mitigate the risk with no phones.

Christa Innis: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think like do what you want as a couple and if you don’t see a sign, then sure, take whatever, but just be aware of your surroundings. And if they have a sign and they make an announcement, you better put that phone away on airplane mode or whatever.

Because I’ve been to so many weddings where they announce it and there’s a sign and I’m that person where I notice. And so like I’ve seen people hold up their iPads, their phones, and I’m like. I’ve been a bridesmaid and I notice people and I’m like, they made an announcement. Please put your phone away.

They’re gonna have nicer photos later.

Janelle Riddell: my, officiant didn’t have to, he is like an outgoing, very like, professional and like. Tactful and respectful guy, but like, he’s not scared or nothing. Like he was ready to like fully embarrass people. He was gonna like stop the wedding and say, yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. You checking an important text over there. Yeah.

Janelle Riddell: Work calling. Oh, I don’t care if people pull out their phone and wanna Instagram, scroll my whole wedding don’t care. It’s, well, if they’re in the front two rows, I would care. But the front two rows are like my immediate family. No, it’s the people with their phones, like in front of the photographers.

Like Yeah. To me that’s the risk you’re trying to avoid is getting in the photographer shots.

Christa Innis: Yeah. It’s that person with the iPhone that thinks like their picture is gonna be better than any photographer. I’ve seen them like get in front of them. I’m like. It’s not gonna be that good. your thumb is in front of the, the lens.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Okay, let’s get into the story ’cause I know, I don’t wanna take too much of your time. Okay. So this week’s story, I’ve not read it yet, so I’m gonna read it and then I will, I’ll pause here and there, or feel free to stop me at any point to react and we’ll just, we’ll react together.

Janelle Riddell: So sorry.

Before, who preps these for you? Like if you’re reading them blind, like do you have, like someone vets them first and sends them to you? Yeah, so actually my husband does. Oh, Uhhuh. Okay. Love this camera. So there,

Christa Innis: there’s times where he’s like, this is a crazy story. And like he’ll just be like, yeah,

So I started, when I was doing YouTube videos, I would just like copy it, paste, and just start reading. And then sometimes I’d read ’em, I’d be like. Oh, okay. And then like that was my YouTube video though. Yeah. And so now I’m like, okay, for these podcasts, let’s get some really good ones. So I’m like, I don’t wanna read ’em.

You do the digging and, ’cause we just get tons of submission. So yeah, that’s what we do. Okay. It says. I was working as a wedding and event coordinator at a vineyard at the time. when we hosted weddings, the tasting room stayed open from 10:00 AM to 7:00 PM and then the wedding party had the vineyard to themselves for the rest of the night.

Rentals were 10 hours long, and this particular wedding had a 1:00 PM to 11:00 PM rental. The bridesmaids and groomsmen started showing up around 11:30 AM in the tasting room. They bought a couple of bottles of wine. Then a few more. We started to realize they were getting noticeably intoxicated. So I decided to cut them off help them make it through the entire wedding.

It sounds like a little before the wedding if they, she wanted to cut them off.

Janelle Riddell: Yeah. Yeah.

The Drama Unfolds Before the Wedding Begins

Christa Innis: Okay. There was one girl in particular, let’s call her Chloe, Who showed up a bit later than everyone else. She was wearing the same color as the bridesmaid dresses a white shawl.

Chloe was already clearly drunk when she arrived. Stumbling as she walked in, the bridesmaid started freaking out. Apparently Chloe was not a part of the bridal party and had specifically been told not to wear those colors. Oh my gosh. Anna White shawl. So she’s got like the bridal shawl on, what? Is she like an ex or something?

Oh my gosh. Okay. The bridesmaids start yelling at her right there in the middle of the tasting room. I quickly stepped in and told them to knock it off. They stopped and then Chloe went up to the counter and tried to buy a bottle of wine. So I’m wondering if she’s like there as a guest, like what is happening?

when my staff member told her no, she started screaming. I told her she needed to step outside and take a breather, or she would be asked to leave and wouldn’t be allowed to attend the wedding. I feel this is all happening before the wedding’s even. Sorry. They’re like popping bottles. Like this is insane.

the bridal party went off to its start decorating. They’re gonna have all these bottles of wine now. They’re gonna decorat. Right. I’m just picturing like a mess. Okay. And Chloe disappeared. I had a bad feeling, so I started walking around to try to find her. I spotted her in the garden with her boyfriend chugging a bottle of wine.

He had bought her. I made her hand it over and told her she could get it back after the wedding, but that she was not allowed to drink anything else on the property. She screamed at me. If it had been up to me, I would’ve kicked her out right then and there. But the vineyard owners were very particular and had already told me not to remove anyone unless absolutely necessary.

Chloe ended up sitting on the deck crying. Oh my gosh. I walked away and went to find the bridal party. I found them sitting at the picnic bench with bottles of beer and shooters, which we do not serve. They were all stumbling and obviously drunk, and it was only 3:00 PM Oh my gosh. It’s insane. The ceremony was supposed to start in an hour.

I took away all their outside alcohol and warned them they were risking our liquor license. I hid the contraband behind the venues bar and tried to find someone sober. I could talk to the bride and groom had put themselves as the emergency contacts, but the venue owners told me not to reach out to them and to find someone else.

Eventually I found the maid of honors dad who was helping decorate. He apologized and he didn’t know what to do and explained that he was from out of town and didn’t know anyone except his daughter who was also drunk. Everyone is just hammered at this wedding. Oh my God. Oh my gosh. I cannot, I would be so stressed, but I guess everyone’s just too drunk to care.

I don’t know. Yeah, I guess so. I briefed the bartender who were on duty for the reception and asked them not to serve anyone who was clearly intoxicated. Then I heard yelling outside. I rushed out and saw Chloe and another guest in a full blown screaming match. The other guest was yelling at her for wearing a white shawl to someone else’s wedding.

Here we go. I watched the guests rip the shawl off of Chloe, Chloe lost it. I ran over and told them both that if this continued, they would have to leave. I can’t believe you’re getting so many chances. Ugh, they eventually calmed down and went to find their seats. We are now 15 minutes from the ceremony.

The bridesmaids were waiting inside, still obviously drunk. Finally, the bride arrived and we were ready to begin. As the maid of honor started walking down the aisle. She tripped and started crying. The other bridesmaids helped her up and stood beside her. The rest of the ceremony went smoothly while aside from the drunken swaying.

Yeah,

Janelle Riddell: I bet. Bet they were just like teetering over.

The Reception Meltdown

Christa Innis: They’re all, yeah, they’re all swaying, like holding onto each other. Oh my God. Okay, so that was the ceremony part. This is says the reception meltdown. Fast forward to the reception. I stepped out briefly to turn on the exterior lights since it was getting dark.

When I came back, I saw the bride running out of the barn sobbing and yelling that no one cared about her and everyone was making the day about themselves. Right then my bartender ran up to me yelling that there was a fist fight happening, and to call the police. I immediately got on the phone.

This is like a movie scene. I’m like, what? It’s crazy. right when I feel like I’m like, no. These weddings are not shocking to me. I’ve,heard it all. I’m like a fist fight at the wedding. Here we go. Okay. While I was on the call, Chloe came up to me screaming in my face, calling me horrible names. So she just works at the venue and she’s getting all these people screaming at her in one day and this is insane.

And mocking my, she must be like,

Janelle Riddell: yeah, the coordinator, like the

Christa Innis: Yeah. The manager of the wedding or something.

Janelle Riddell: Onsite planner or something. Yeah.

Christa Innis: Yeah. Oh my gosh. I would be like, this is my last day.

Janelle Riddell: Yeah. This is above my pay grade.

Christa Innis: Yeah. she came up to me screaming in my face, calling me horrible names and mocking my appearance.

Oh my gosh. Her mother came quickly and grabbed her and they left before the police arrived. So this Chloe girl was there as a guest, I’m guessing. And why would she? Okay. And her mom was there, so she had to be. Family or something? Close friends. Close friends, yeah. Yeah. My bartender, who happened to be friends with the bride, asked if I could go inside so she could talk to her privately while I was there.

Trying to fill out an incident report. A guest came over said he could explain what happened. Apparently, while everyone was getting up to go to the buffet, the bride’s ants, started yelling at each other. No one knows why. One of the aunts was Chloe’s mom. Okay, so Chloe’s a cousin. Chloe’s a cousin.

Here we go. Chloe ran over to defend her and a bridesmaid tried to stop her gently touching her shoulder and saying, please don’t do this. It’s not about you. Today, Chloe did not like that. She turned around and smacked the bridesmaid to the ground. Then she got on top of her and started hitting her in the face.

So this Chloe girl’s just a problem all around. And it, it sounds like they all kind of knew it if she showed up and they were all like telling her to get out. Like, don’t wear that color.

Janelle Riddell: That’s crazy.

Chloe’s Chaos and the Backstory

Christa Innis: I feel like there might be some backstory. I mean, maybe it’ll still come out, but I feel like she was maybe mad that she’s not a bridesmaid, then found out what the color was and I don’t know.

Mm. That sounds plausible. that’s my vibe I’m getting,

The maid of honor’s dad pulled Chloe off and told her to leave. That’s when the bride ran outside and Chloe turned her rage on me. After I got the full story. The other bartender told me he could handle things if I wanted to go check on the bride.

I brought her tissues and reassured her that Chloe and her mom were gone and that she deserves to enjoy the rest of the night. She pulled herself together and thankfully the rest of the wedding went beautifully. My gosh, I’d be traumatized after that. later I called the venue’s owner. to update them and they yelled at me for not removing Chloe earlier, even though I asked them multiple times throughout the day.

If I could imagine then being like, it’s your class classic. Yeah. Oh my God, that is insane. Oh, and of course this was the day the security cameras weren’t working. The bridesmaid who had been attacked asked if we could provide footage for a possible lawsuit. I felt terrible for not being able to help.

Janelle Riddell: Honestly, it was the most chaotic, insane wedding I’ve ever experienced, I’ve seen a lot. Hope you enjoyed the story. Let me know if you have questions that isn’t, that’s crazy, First, I feel like the first part of that story is a perfect example of what you just said, of if a bride has a boundary, she’s a bridezilla. I had a three drink maximum for the guys getting ready. I didn’t get married till four in the afternoon. actually, I didn’t know a three drink maximum for the groomsmen.

I had a three drink maximum for my husband, but like. anyone heard that, they’d be like, oh, you’re so controlling. He’s so whipped. You’re such a bridezilla. It’s like, no, because you don’t know. Emotions run high on a wedding. Like, yeah, as long as you have in your head. I’ve promised her I’m only gonna have, of course, there’s gonna be situations where people break that promise, but like if you don’t discuss it and just assume people know not to get hammered, all of a sudden they’re feeling it, they’re having fun, whatever.

Maybe drinks are free, like whatever’s happening, and then all of a sudden you have swaying. Fist fighting bridesmaids. Yeah. Like and groomsmen.

Christa Innis: Yeah. And that’s the thing too, it’s like groomsmen show up like at noon and they literally just like hang out and like poke tuxes on bridesmaids. Were like up early.

We’re like getting like food together. We’re like decorating. I feel like it’s just such different vibes. Like it’s like that viral thing where it’s like the groomsmen just hanging out and the bridesmaids are like going crazy, you know? And I feel like. if they’re with their like best friends, you know, it’s so easy just to like socially drink with them and not react.

Yeah. But yeah, bottle of wine is insane. I was just telling someone, I’m like, we had like champagne and stuff like the morning of my wedding and I feel like I. I remember thinking like, oh, I’ll have a couple, maybe like two glasses of wine. I don’t even think I finished one because I was just so busy. Just like busy.

Yeah. Just don’t think about it. but yeah, that’s stuff you have to think about. Like if you are walking down an aisle, if you are a part of a wedding, if you’re making a speech, speech, watch yourself. I’ve seen plenty where the bus man was too drunk to give his speech. Oh yeah, me

Janelle Riddell: too.

And it’s like, me too.

Christa Innis: Embarrassing.

Janelle Riddell: Like someone has to read it. Yeah. No, I haven’t seen that, but I’ve seen it where like their grandma filter comes off, so it’s just like, it’s a mixed crowd and it’s like FBO Central and it’s like, oh no. So embarrassing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. My other reaction to this is, this isn’t Chloe’s first time doing this kind of stuff.

That Chloe was a known liability, and that’s, again, references. What I talk about in a lot of my content is like, you got a risk manage as a bride, as a groom, as a person. If someone is a risk, a known liability. You gotta have a hard conversation with them beforehand and mitigate that risk.

And if that means they’re pissed off and upset with you, then sounds like there was a lot of risks that got unmitigated here. Yeah, but it was a multifaceted risk. That’s trifle.

Christa Innis: That’s why I’m feeling like there’s some kind of backstory. ’cause if they’re cousins, there’s gotta be some kind of like we don’t have the age difference.

Like if she’s like a lot younger. No. Or if they were close at one time. Because the fact that she showed up in the color and the bridesmaids immediately were like, we don’t like her. Something had to have happened at a previous event.

Janelle Riddell: Yeah, because honestly, even the wearing white to a wedding, like I wouldn’t do it.

But I also feel like. If someone does do it. Like who cares? Like I would never go up and pull

Christa Innis: someone’s Shaw off. Oh no. I know one like, ’cause I do like confessions too that people send me.one confession was my grandmother told me she wanted to wear white to my wedding or something, or showed up to my wedding in white and I was like.

Janelle Riddell: I would never say anything. If my grandma wanted to wear white to my wedding, I would not have, I would’ve been like, I’m so happy you’re here. But I’m also not the person that would care if someone showed up white. totally, I think someone wearing white maliciously to a wedding

Christa Innis: mm-hmm.

Janelle Riddell: In either hopes to piss off the bride, hopes to draw attention to themselves because they like whatever it is, the white is the tip of that iceberg. And that’s the case with Chloe. Right.

Christa Innis: A hundred

Janelle Riddell: percent. Like and you can look at that specific scenario, parallels in so many other relationship dynamics.

Mm-hmm. Right. Like it’s not the front thing, it’s the like the way back. Yes. was someone wearing white like. you should never wear white to a wedding for sure. But I’m saying like an elderly person who’s like, doesn’t know, or a girl who like, doesn’t have enough people in her life or like whatever, and wears like a white floral dress to a wedding or something and literally it’s just there as like a friend’s date.

Like she’s just wearing a white floral sundress, lots of color on it, but a white base to a wedding. Which I personally wouldn’t do, but not everyone has a big sister. Not everyone knows. Right. You know what I mean? I think there’s a lot of like, visible wedding, no-nos, like wearing white to a wedding, which is again, woman and a female experience.

Mm-hmm. But there’s a lot of like less visible wedding no-nos that just like go unnoticed or undetected that in my opinion are just like, just as rude or like, just as, but again, that like depends on where you’re from or like. People are gonna call me tacky or whatever, where I come from, it’s very common that people don’t get, bring gifts to a wedding.

They bring just money. Yeah. we call it presentation here, yeah. So when you’re inviting someone to a wedding, you’re inviting them as a guest. So no, you’re not expecting that they’re gonna give anything as a wedding guest. But it’s also like, again, it’s 2025, like, you know, that weddings are expensive and all these sorts of things like.

I personally, would never go to someone’s wedding and give them no gift. Right. And not like have a conversation with them and say, I’m really appreciative for the invitation. I cannot afford to give you a gift right now. and they’re gonna say, oh my gosh, like, don’t worry about it, whatever. That luckily hasn’t been a scenario I’m in.

I’m just saying that’s, I kind of put wearing white to wedding along those same sort of like.

Christa Innis: Do you see

Janelle Riddell: what I’m saying? Like along that same, yeah. And different people have different thresholds. A lot of people are gonna say, who cares if she wears white to a wedding? And I would tend to, maybe a good thumb, depending on what her intentions are, just the same as a lot of people are saying that so entitled, no one has to give you a gift on your wedding day.

And I’m saying like, agree with you. I’m saying I personally would feel embarrassed to go to someone’s wedding and get them no gift. Yes. Regardless of what type of gift giving you do in your work. Culture or Yeah. Location,

Christa Innis: you know? Oh, totally. And I think you made a good point about if things are done maliciously or if that’s like the final straw that broke the camel’s back.

Because like so many people will see these stories and they’re like, oh, it’s not that bad. Or like, an wants to like pay for a part of the wedding or something, but then she makes a change last minute and they’re like, well, she was paying for it. And it’s like,

But you didn’t look at what she said before that, or that there was already this like animosity between them and then she did it. So there’s obviously, it wasn’t just like, oops, I accidentally picked pink when you wanted blue. Or there’s these little things where when they do it maliciously or on purpose to wear white, to make you feel intimidated or make you feel bad, that’s different than someone accidentally doing it.

Janelle Riddell: Or same as the same colors as the bridesmaids, right? Like that to me is also like if, you know, the bridesmaids are wearing eggplant purple or whatever. And then you wear eggplant purple. Like as a person who maybe thought they should have been a bridesmaid and weren’t like the groom’s sister who isn’t close with the bride at all, wasn’t asked to be it or whatever.

And she intentionally wears the same color as the bridesmaids. That’s maliciously wearing the same colors as the pride space. Yeah. And a lot of people are just right, whereas like. Someone who’s like the girlfriend of a friend from work has no way to like even find out. A lot of women will still ask like, Hey, could you ask your friend like what the colors are?

So I don’t wear the same colors. Some people don’t ask that, and that’s fine. I don’t think they need to. And so they accidentally show up in like the same, I don’t know, like times are tight right now. Like it’s, I’ve definitely worn. A dress I’ve worn is a bridesmaid to someone’s wedding.

Yeah. As a guest. at another wedding. Like,

Christa Innis: but that should be the goal, right? Of like being able to wear your bridesmaid dresses, which I always say I want to be able to, and then I’m like never been able to rewear them, but I have accidentally worn the same color as bridesmaids, but it wasn’t.

Maliciously. I didn’t know they were gonna wear that color and it was a style dress completely. But yeah, that’s definitely happened. I think it’s all about intent and you don’t always know someone’s intent, but I think a lot of times you have a good idea if it’s done that way.

Janelle Riddell: Yeah, I mean a lot of it is just like in this particular story too, when everything that went wrong,

I think it’s so interesting because this story is coming, like, it sounds like the bride was distressed and upset. Like, no one cares about me. Like she was crying. if there wasn’t that note included, like, yeah, that wedding sounds like an absolute cluster, you know? Mm-hmm.

Christa Innis: What I was saying was some people like don’t care. It sounds like the bride cared in this case, but as an onlooker, what they think is like, this is so crazy to a lot of people, like in their friend group, like, that’s just a Friday. You know, like it’s a bunch of drunk

bridesmaid sc groomsmen.

It’s fine. We’ll figure it out.

Janelle Riddell: Well, I mean, and no judgment, like whatever floats your boat, I guess. But, Yeah. Except that she was pulled into the drama that was upset at the bride. Yeah, totally. Totally. I think that, again, it’s like access to alcohol. Like a lot of people. I’ve been to a lot of weddings where it’s not necessarily a dry wedding, like it’s they’re serving alcohol, but because there’s so fearful that there’s gonna be like, maybe not necessarily a scene like this, but like.

A scene they really like limit the availability of alcohol or they, whatever the case is. And so often those end up being the weddings that either one person has, what alcohol they brought in from the outside or whatever, and takes it way too far and you end up with that drunk person anyway, or it’s just like a dud of a wedding.

Like no one’s dancing, no one’s like, So it’s a balancing act for sure. Yeah. Like you don’t, you gotta, that’s where you, again, you gotta know the people you’re inviting and know like What their vibes are. Like if you have a group of people that like open bar, ’cause again, where I come from in Canada, in the province, I live in open bars like typical for weddings.

Mm-hmm. Most weddings are open bar and so that I find actually like creates. Like there isn’t a weird scarcity mindset about the booze. Yeah. So it, like, it’s just a better vibe because no one’s drinking in excess. ’cause they’re not worried about the bar’s gonna be shut down or the bar’s this like, it’s just Yeah, normal.

Christa Innis: That’s a good point. Um, maybe that’s just the weddings I’ve gone to, but, yeah, I would say most I’ve been to, to our open bar, but there’s definitely been some like that. Switch over to cash bar that I’ve been to, or they start as cash bar and then it’s like open bar, or there’s some that are just kind of like uncertain where you’re like.

Is it gonna clo like it closes during dinner or something? I’ve seen that, but um,

Janelle Riddell: yeah, it’s

Christa Innis: pretty common I think at like venues, but yeah, I know alcohol’s like a tricky thing because it’s like some people have that relative or that person that they know they want there, but they can’t control themselves around alcohol.

And it’s like, do you wanna babysit all night? And as the bride and groom, you don’t want that. Responsibility. So you would hope, at least for the most part, that they would like keep the drama away. But it sounds, it sucks that this bride was brought into the drunken drama with cousins and aunts and God knows what else.

Janelle Riddell: Yeah, I’ve had a lot of followers message me, like different scenarios where exactly that they’ve been faced with that scenario. There’s someone, usually it’s like on the in-law side, right? That’s why it’s being sent to me. Whoever it is that they can’t trust them around alcohol, and so they make the decision to not invite them, and then after having a conversation with them or whatever the case is, and, that person influences a whole bunch of people to not come to the wedding or whatever it is, you know what I mean?

And so. it can be so tricky. I am really lucky that I’m speaking from a place of, I didn’t have anyone coming to my wedding that I was worried was gonna drink to excess and like make like, be really embarrassing or like get in fights or like, no, none of that. So that was really, good.

But I know there’s so many people who are in that situation, and that’s the same thing. That’s the same thing that people would say everything we were talking about. Like, oh, well just tell them not to do that thing. Or just say, you know, you’re not gonna drive five hours. Like it isn’t that simple. Like people would want their uncle there, people would want their mom there or whatever, but they know that she’s has a bad relationship with alcohol and especially on an emotionally fueled day or.

So tricky for people.

Christa Innis: well that was a crazy story. I would say that’s crazy. Probably the most violent one I’ve ever read. Oh. Um, I think I’ve maybe read one other with a fist fight. But this was like, this was pretty, pretty intense.

okay. Well to end the episode, I always like to read a couple of weekly confessions that people send me. Okay. I know we’re little over on time, so, um, we’ll go through these. Okay. First one says, I wasn’t made of honor by title, but I did everything they would do instead. Okay. That doesn’t really seem like a crazy confession.

No. Yeah, that, I mean, that sucks when that happens. ’cause you know, especially if you’re like a people pleaser you like, I did all this, but like, yeah. Not the maid of honor. Yeah. I’ve definitely been a part of a lot of weddings where I’m not the maid of honor, but I did the Maid of Honor work because I was just like, I’m that person.

Like what do you need help with? How can I help? Like, yeah,

Janelle Riddell: there.

Christa Innis: this one says, my mother-in-law threw a temper tantrum because my sister is throwing my baby shower. Yikes. I mean,

Janelle Riddell: yikes. I guess, I mean, again, like, it’s totally like situation dependent. I live in a world where like, my family is big, people’s families are big.

Like have two baby showers, then like. It doesn’t need to just be one baby shower, but I know that’s not common for everybody. Sometimes it’s like, there only is one baby shower, so

Christa Innis: Yeah. I don’t get throwing a tantrum about it. Just like, no, together, bring a cake. I don’t know. Figure it out.

Janelle Riddell: Bring a cake.

Christa Innis: Oh my gosh. Sometimes it’s like hard because I’m just like, I don’t know how people deal with, I would just be like. You can throw one at your house and invite your friends to it. Yeah. let’s see. This one says I nearly ran out on my wedding day. Turns out I should have. Ooh, ooh, there’s a, that’s it.

That’s it. That’s all it says. That’s all it says. ’cause they’re just short Instagram confessions. So I’m wondering if either they’re still married and they’re like, Ooh, rocky, or they got a divorce. I’ve had a few like that,

Janelle Riddell: maybe he’s gay. Maybe.

Christa Innis: Yeah. if she ha she or he, I don’t wanna say who.

Well, or,

Janelle Riddell: the opposite right or

Christa Innis: right, but they, maybe she’s gay.

Janelle Riddell: Yeah. I don’t know. I sus, the more likely is he’s just a jerk or he’s a, like he cheated on her or like, if we’re playing the laws of averages here, she probably should have because he’s a jerk.

Christa Innis: Yeah. I feel like if they have that feeling like before, like while they’re planning the wedding, like, I should probably cancel my wedding then it, I feel like most of the time then it comes true.

Not comes true, but like, yeah. They’re like, yeah, all those signs were pointing to, no, don’t do it. Oh my gosh.

Janelle Riddell: All right. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective and your hot takes and confessions.

Christa Innis: for anyone listening, where can they follow you, find your content, and, anything else exciting that you’re working on?

Janelle Riddell: Absolutely. thank you so much for having me. This was such a good discussion.

so they can find me on TikTok, Instagram or YouTube shorts, but I don’t post a ton on YouTube shorts right now. My username is at Hey, Janelle Marie. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on.

by Christa Innis

Blog Transcript:

I’m Not Wedding-Obsessed But I’ll Be There for You”

Blisters, Secrets, and Surprise Weddings

Locked Doors, Dessert Raids, and a Surprise Guest

Blog Transcript:

Family Drama Starts with “I Do”

Red Flag or Just Wedding Stress?

You’re Just the Mother of His Child

Do It Your Way

Blog Transcript:

The Complexity of Boundaries

The Importance of Saying No

The Wedding Seat Saga

The Drama Unfolds Before the Wedding Begins

The Reception Meltdown

Chloe’s Chaos and the Backstory

Explore

Contact

Affiliate Links

Join My Community!