“My Best Friend’s Wedding”: Insane Demands, $600 Suit, and A Secret Scandal
My new book Here Comes the Drama: A Ferris and Sloan Story is live!
What happens when wedding planning turns into a battleground of loyalty, identity, and deception?
In this gripping episode, the best man shares her emotional journey navigating a chaotic wedding filled with hidden truths, impossible demands, and fractured friendships. From forced tattoo cover-ups to $600 suits no one wanted, the pressure mounts in every corner. Listen as Christa breaks down the complex dynamics of love, friendship, and toxic relationships that threaten to unravel the celebration. This story reveals the heavy cost of “perfect” weddings and the price paid when people are asked to change who they are.
Join us for an unforgettable episode that goes beyond the ceremony to expose the real drama behind the scenes — and the heartbreak that follows.
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Episode Chapter Markers
00:00 Introduction
01:38 Listener Review and Gratitude
02:40 Bridal 911: Wedding Drama Advice
06:45 This or That: Wedding Edition
11:18 Blind Reaction: The Backup Best Man
19:30 Confusion Over Wedding Roles
21:33 Tattoo and Hair Dilemma
22:28 Dress Code Chaos
23:45 Best Man Drama
26:42 Makeup Mandate
28:46 Revelations About Brianna
30:38 Wedding Day Hypocrisy
33:18 Post-Wedding Reflections
36:17 Host’s Personal Reflections
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
- Tattoo Controversy – The best man is asked to cover her tattoos for photos, while bridesmaids proudly display theirs, highlighting unfair double standards.
- Wardrobe Wars – Confusing and costly suit fittings with last-minute fabric changes create tension and frustration among the groomsmen.
- Friendship vs. Fiancé – The groom’s conflicted loyalty between his future wife and longtime best friend creates emotional turmoil.
- Makeup Mandate – Pressure to get professional makeup done causes discomfort and unnecessary expenses for the bridal party.
- Secrets Revealed – A shocking discovery about the bride’s past threatens the foundation of the couple’s relationship.
- Wedding Day Hypocrisy – Visible tattoos on bridesmaids but hidden on the best man expose inconsistencies in wedding expectations.
- Emotional Speech – The best man’s heartfelt and surprising wedding speech leaves everyone stunned, even the groom.
- Aftermath & Reflection – Four months later, the fallout continues with strained relationships and unresolved issues.
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
- If you ask someone to be part of your wedding, it should be because you love them — not to change who they are. – Christa Innis
- Friendship breakups can be even harder than romantic breakups because of the deep emotional investment. – Christa Innis
- There’s no playbook for when your best friend and your partner don’t get along — it’s a heart-wrenching balancing act. – Christa Innis
- Weddings are supposed to celebrate love, not force people into uncomfortable roles or appearances. – Christa Innis
- Sometimes people marry just to check a box — but marriage should be about connection, not convenience. – Christa Innis
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A Team Dklutr Production
Blog Transcript:
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Christa Innis: Hey guys. Welcome back to another episode of Here Comes The Drama. I am just thrilled and excited to be here. I feel very grateful to be able to hang out with you guys on this platform. Um, as of recording this, which. Today is June 11th when I record. So I typically record a month out depending if I’m having a guest or not.
Um, this is a special solo episode, so you’re just gonna hang out with me today. Hope that’s okay with you guys. Um, but as of recording today. We have over a hundred thousand downloads. It just blows my mind. My goal for the whole year was 25,000. So just thank you so much for the support. Whether you’ve subscribed, downloaded, shared with a friend, um, are constantly active, ready to listen to every single episode, listen, every once in a while, it’s just, it just means so much to me and I’m just so grateful for the love and support.
So I wanna just start off by reading a review of the podcast, um, because, you know, they just mean a lot to me and I just wanna say thank you to this person. They say, I’ve been watching Krista’s Instagram videos for over a year now. The transition to including a podcast is the most natural progression possible.
I always want more info when I see the skits, and this podcast definitely helps scratch that itch. I can’t wait to see it grow into its own. Thank you so much Bailey, for leaving that kind review. And always if you guys love the podcast, please share it with a friend or leave a review. It really helps more people see it and hear about it.
So I just really thank you for that. Alright. I feel like I’ve been talking a ton today. As recording this, tomorrow is the launch of the book. So I feel like I’ve been doing a lot of promo stuff, um, and doing some different recordings. Of course skits, it never stops, but I love it. I love what I do and I feel so grateful to be able to do this this week.
Since it’s solo. I wanna do things a little bit different. So we’re gonna start with a bridal 9 1 1 advice column. Every once in a while people send me questions of things that are either going on in their family, uh. In regards to weddings and events, right? So I’m not a therapist, I’m not a life coach. I don’t have training in this.
This is literally just me responding as someone that reads a lot of stories and sees a lot of boundaries. So take it for what it’s worth and I’m gonna leave it with that.
When Family Drama Threatens Your Wedding
Okay? So this person here, I’m gonna leave him anonymous, sent me a question. She says, my wedding is in December of this year. I have a bunch of other dramas that have been going on, but this is the one that worries me the most.
To start off, we didn’t have money in the budget for alcohol, nor did we want it. I found out from my maid of honor, my fiance’s sister that the stepsiblings pre-game before the ceremony and every family wedding, whether it’s dry or not, I was warned about this because at every other wedding drama would ensue.
So we are talking fights would break out at one of the weddings, uh, that my fiance and I couldn’t attend to. And I’m honestly super afraid this might happen to me and I honestly don’t know what to do. Do you have any advice? So again, I’m no expert, I’m just taking it as what I would do in this situation, and this is gonna be really hard and might not be the advice you wanna hear, but there’s really.
Nothing you can do. I don’t think this is your fight to fight. We don’t know for sure if they’re going to do it. It might, it sounds like it might be pretty likely. Um, you might wanna have people there that are like ready to like. Break up a fight, um, or escort them out. However, bringing up something that might happen or stressing out something that might happen is just gonna consume you when you have so many other things to maybe worry about.
Um, it’s hard because alcohol gets the best of a lot of people. I’ve seen it firsthand at a lot of events, weddings, with family, friends, what have you. It can get the best of people and if not. Controlled. We all know what can happen, right? So essentially too, it sounds like it’s more of your husband’s family, and so I don’t think you need to personally do anything for it.
I would not stress over it. I personally think that you should talk to him about it and see what has maybe happened in the past or if there’s a way to approach it. And I know that seems kind of all over the place. I just feel like there’s a lot missing. There’s a lot that we don’t know, and I think a lot of it is more on worry.
And as the bride, I think a lot of times we, we think about a lot of situations or scenarios that could happen and that tends to consume us. Believe me, I’m an overthinker. My husband will tell you I’m an overthinker to the max. I’m constantly like, but what about this? What about this? I remember our wedding, I was worried about like the parking situation.
There was no reason to be worried about it. There was a parking garage that was like one block over, but I was just like, oh, what if this happens? And then I was like, what if they don’t know to get a hotel room? And I was like texting people, like helping them out. I’m like, people are adults. You gotta let them handle it.
Now if it’s happened before at a wedding, I understand your concern and I understand wanting to do something ahead of time, but again, we can’t control every situation. Maybe have a backup plan ready, talk with your husband or your partner, be on the same page with them, um, of like, okay, if we see some inappropriate behavior, this is what’s gonna happen.
Um, so having a plan I think is good, but I would not let it consume you. Because at the end of the day, if they have a drink in their car before and then they’re fine, there’s nothing you can really do about it. Right? So that is my advice for that and I wish you the very best for your wedding.
On First Looks, Taco Bars & Cake Smashes
Okay, next up to mix things up, I wanna do a little this or that.
I’ve been starting to incorporate a little more rapid fire with people, but I thought it’d be kind of weird if I had to rapid fire with myself. ’cause I’m like, I already kind of see the answers as I’m reading it. Um. This is similar, but this is gonna be a wedding edition, this or that. And, uh, I did a little fun one, so I haven’t read it yet.
So here we go. And this is just my, my own opinion. Okay. Buffet or plate of dinner. Okay. I feel like I should answer these quickly, but I’m gonna give a little background. I always thought growing up like I would have a plate of dinner, but when we got married we had a Taco bar, taco bar, and it was amazing.
Like we. We knew right off the bat, like when we found the venue and they gave us the suggested vendors to work with, I was like, let’s try this taco place, this Mexican food place. And it was incredible. Um, I like that you can kind of grab what you want, you know? I don’t know. Some plant dinners are great, some are not.
Some buffets are great, some are not. That’s my preference. Live band or dj. If I have to pick one, I’m gonna go dj ’cause I feel like you have more variety and you can, um, hear all your favorite songs. I’ve also heard some really amazing bands, big guest lists or intimate ceremony. If I were to get married today, intimate ceremony.
Intimate ceremony. First look or aisle reveal. I’m aisle reveal all the way. I love a good aisle reveal, uh, all white theme or full color explosion. Mm. If it’s done the right way, I think you can do full color. Me. I don’t trust myself enough. I’m not like a designer. I’m not an, I don’t have that eye. I wish I did if someone else was doing it for me.
Let’s go full color. I think that’d be okay, but me, I’ll go all white kids Welcome. Or adults only.
That’s a hard one,
I think. Okay. If we’re going with intimate ceremony, meaning I would only invite people that I’m really close with, I would say kids welcome because. People that I’m close with, I would be close with their kids and know their kids, and I would love all the kids to interact. If it’s a bigger party, I would probably say adults only.
If there’s like alcohol and it’s like cocktails and stuff. Yeah. Champagne tower or signature cocktails. Signature cocktails. I’m not a big champagne person. Matching bridesmaid dresses or mix and match. Mix and match. If I got married today, I would do make, pick whatever you want. Uh, flower petals or confetti sendoff, flower petals.
Weekday wedding or peak season? Saturday. Ah, weekday. I got married on a Friday. Fun fact, if you get married on a Friday or Sunday, you get a discount. Typically, uh, traditional vows are write your own, write your own DIY decor or hire a planner. So that’s kind of a weird one because those are kind of two different things.
I mean, a planner does help with decor. A planner is way more than decor. So my choice is either DIY or a planner. I’m going planner, but I have been hands-on designing decor for a lot of weddings before. Um, and you know what? It’s always a good time. Okay. Photo booth or 360 cam. So it’s so fun to go to a wedding that has a photo booth, but for me personally, I just did not see the benefit of it.
I just set up our own thing with Polaroid cameras. I think the 360 cam is pretty cool. I’ve never done one, but I honestly would be afraid I would get hit by it. Cake smash or classy? Kcu. Classy. I don’t, I’m, it’s not my first birthday. I don’t. I don’t need a cake smash. Okay, let’s get into this week’s blind reaction.
It’s a long one, that’s why I just wanted to kind of do some fun rapid fires.
When Weddings Cost More Than Money
Some 9 1 1. Let’s get, let’s get through to it. Okay. This is called the backup Best, man. Here we go. Let me drink some water first, guys, because my, like I said, I’ve been talking too much. I might need to go like on a week long thing where I just don’t.
My voice, that’s a joke. Even when I lost my voice, my husband kept laughing at me. ’cause I was like, I’m gonna not talk for the rest of the day. And like a minute later I’d be like, yeah, so blah, blah, blah. He’s like, aren’t you gonna rest your voice? Okay, anywho, here we go. My best friend Jake, all names have been changed.
My best friend Jake, 36 male, and I, Kara 35 female, have known each other since elementary school, though we didn’t become close enough. Close until junior year of high school by our early twenties, we were inseparable. We were together so often that we started calling each other siblings just to dodge the assumptions and constant accusations that we were Roman, that we were romantic.
That’s, that sucks. That’s always a thing. If you are friends with someone of the opposite sex, people assume you are dating or there’s some kind of romantic thing. I don’t know. That’s just the way people think. I guess girls would befriend me just to get closer to him, and I had, I had to let some of them down because Jake would ghost them or string them along endlessly.
I, on the other hand, was more of a social butterfly and rarely dated the same guy for more than a week. Eventually I ended up in a toxic long-term relationship and Jake and I drifted a bit. He moved away for work, but he’d still come home for the holidays and my family was always a part of his rotation for Thanksgiving and Christmas and we vacation together every year.
Wow. You guys are kind of like family, like if you go into family parties, but, and I hate that, I think this way, but I also wonder like. Did they ever try to date or like was it instant? Like, we don’t like each other that way because you’re spending a lot of time with this person. I’m wondering like, you seem pretty compatible, but I get it.
I get it. Sometimes you just meet someone and you’re like, they brother, sister vibes. Um, then I met my now husband, Daniel got pregnant and surprised everyone at the baby shower by getting married. Jake, despite not knowing, paid for the open bar. He also the godfather to both of my daughters. He adores them.
He wears dresses when they ask, always brings gifts, goes trick or treating with us and spends the day after Christmas with us because it’s my oldest daughter’s birthday. Wow. That jumped really quickly. Okay, so she’s married, has two girls. Jake is very involved in their life. He’s like an uncle to ’em, it sounds like.
Very involved, awesome relationship. Great. Then COVID happened. Here we go. How a lot of the stories go right? Right before the pandemic, Jake started seeing someone, let’s call her Brianna. They quarantined together. He casually mentioned wanting to introduce us, so we met up at a local petting zoo. It was awkward, Jake fo.
Jake focused entirely on my youngest daughter, and barely helped bridge the gap between me and Brianna. I tried small talk. She wasn’t interested. I gave up. I was pregnant, hot and miserable. I left feeling disappointed. When I told my husband and family, they tried to reassure me, but Daniel pulled me aside and said, Brianna’s name sounded familiar.
Then it hit me. Okay, so Daniel, in case you guys forgot, Daniel is her husband, the girl that wrote in, right? Daniel’s her husband. He’s saying the girlfriend, um, of her friend sounds, her name sounds familiar. So then it hit me years ago, she hooked up with Jake’s friend Matt. Ooh. Okay. We’re get, we’re getting some tea here on the front porch at his Halloween party while Matt was in a long-term relationship.
Okay, here we go. Here comes the drama. Right? It caused drama. Jake had even said things about her at the time. Yeah. That’s not a good first impression. Right? And then you’re like, oh, I’m gonna date this girl, even though she. Cheated with my, I guess, I don’t know if she was tied with anyone, but like his friend cheated with her.
Not really a good look still. I gave her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she felt awkward or ashamed. Maybe she needed to warm up to me. Shortly after Brianna came to my parents’ house for Jake’s birthday dinner. I love that. Her family does birthday dinners for Jake still. That’s so sweet. He told us she had been teaching English in Japan.
We were excited to hear about it, but every time we asked she just changed the subject. Interesting. I pivoted the conversation and gave Jake his gift, a working vintage eight millimeter movie projector. We set it up and watched a short film, but Brianna said she was tired and left early. Okay, and this is before we read an end of the story.
I know things like are weird and stuff. I also feel like it can be weird if you start dating someone and let’s ignore the whole like thing they learned about Brianna. Right. It can be weird if like you start dating someone and he’s like, yeah, like I want you to meet this girl. She’s my best friend for years.
I have birthday dinners at, there’s family at her family’s house. We’re inseparable. Like we, I tell her every single thing like. It can cause a little bit, if you’re already a little insecure or you’re kind of a new in their relationship, that can be like a little like, Ooh, okay, how close are you guys? You know, it’s just it, and it’s the thing that we’ve seen, like in tv it’s like, can, can a guy and girl be best friends?
Right. Of course they can. And I, I am a big believer in it. I have very close guy, best friends. Um, but as a new relationship, you might be like, I don’t know. Um, okay. Jake still came to Halloween and Thanksgiving, but Brianna didn’t. He made excuses for Christmas. He said they’d be visiting her family two hours away, but he promised to come back for my daughter’s birthday the next day.
He didn’t show, he didn’t call. My whole family was worried and I was heartbroken. My mom called him. I’m also wondering, I mean, I think it’s so sweet that he comes to their family at Christmas time. I’m wondering if there’s something like we’re missing too. Like if, um, maybe he didn’t, he wasn’t close to his family growing up, so they became a second family.
And if that’s the case, then Brianna, I feel like shouldn’t really be supporting him in this ’cause he’s like, this is this. Is my family, like, not by blood, but like by choice. I’ve, they’ve been there for me. I’ve been there for them. Um, so the fact that he just didn’t show up when he was gonna go to Christmas is kind of weird.
My mom called him, he apologized saying her family sprung brunch plans on him, and it was the first time meeting them. Another year passed. Brianna remained distant. Jake became inconsistent. Then Jake got engaged. He asked if I’d be comfortable being a groomsman. I said yes and asked if he wanted me to grow my hair out for the wedding.
Wait.
Okay.
I need to go back for a second because
I’m so confused. So full disclosure, I throw this in and we like change names, right? So because it said Kara, I assumed it was a woman, and now I’m not so sure I have to go back and look. I always just throw it into something. Change names. Um.
I was right.
Okay, let’s continue. I just got really confused for a second. Okay.
I think it’s because he asked if he would be a groomsman.
Uh, he asked if she would be a groomsman. Okay. I said yes and asked if he wanted me to grow my hair out for the wedding since my head is fully tattooed and usually shaved. He said, absolutely not. Be yourself. I booked a touch up. I booked a Touchup tattoo appointment for one month before the wedding. For fun, I let my hair grow a bit and bleach it neon green.
I also asked if I should wear a suit or a dress. He said he was fine. He said either was fine as long as it matched the others. Okay, so this is getting interesting. So I’m, I’m. I’m guessing a few different things now, and I feel like Brianna. Okay, I wanna read this. I sent him black dress options. He liked a velvet one.
They were considering velvet suits. Brianna liked the idea too. I bought the dress, then they switched fabrics. Brianna insisted everything looked uniform. Velvet was out. Jake eventually told us, di Jake eventually told us to direct all questions to the best man, Matt? Yep. Porch Halloween, Matt. Oh my gosh.
So the guy who cheated on his girlfriend with Brianna is now in the wedding with them. Okay. I asked Matt about dress options. He said to wear what made me feel best. With no clear in, with no clear direction. I ordered a $600 suit I’d likely never wear again. Ooh, okay. I don’t know if I have no direction.
I don’t know why I would order a $600 suit. I’m not shaming this person though, but that ’cause that’s on, that’s their choice and something told them that they should do that, but Oh, wow. Okay. Then I got a message from Jake. Are you planning to have hair for the wedding? Because Brianna and the planner thought my tattoos would be distracting in photos.
I told him no. I had then. I had asked him then about it when. Lemme do that again. I told him no, I had asked about it. When I accepted, I canceled my tattoo appointment. I apologized to my artist and scheduled a salon visit to cover the neon. Okay. So now they’re going back and saying, um, you need to change all this.
Which it sounds to me like Jake doesn’t really care. It’s Brianna that’s coming in and cares. I don’t get, the whole tattoos are distracting thing, but. I’m also married to someone that has a full sleeve. I love tattoos. I love the look of them. We had, gosh, I would say probably all the guys in our wedding have tattoos and some, I would say majority of the guys in our wedding had tattoos.
Have tattoos, and I would never ask any of them to cover it up because I think it adds to Indi individuality. Um, some of the girls have tattoos too, again, would never ask anyone to c cover them. If you ask someone, you are asking them because you like them, love them, want them to be a part of your wedding.
Um, I don’t know. That’s just something I would never personally do. Ask someone to change who they are to be in my wedding. Um, okay.
We were told to book suit fittings. Matt was unresponsive in the group chat. So we all went rogue you. That’s when you really need an organized person to tell you what to do and when to do it. A few of us ordered the wrong suit details. One friend had to reorder an entire jacket, $300 because of event.
Okay? I don’t know enough about suits, but I don’t know what event is, but $300. See, that’s my thing too, is if they’re not clear with direction and what people need to do, they can’t keep going back and changing things and having people spend more money. You need to have clear communication saying like, this is what you need to do.
If I don’t hear something from a brighter groom, I’m not ordering anything. Sorry. You need to be clear with them. Jake Drunkenly called me one night. He was demoting Matt as best man, and asked me to step in, said he’d always wanted me to do it. But didn’t want to burden me because I’m a mom also, Brianna didn’t think it was appropriate.
Oh gosh, this, ugh, I feel so bad for them. I accepted, I cried. It felt tainted.
But this is so. It’s so weird because it’s like this is his best friend and he wants her to be the best man. Right? But Brianna doesn’t think it’s appropriate. So what do you do in that situ, in that situation? Do you listen to your future wife or do you include your best friend? I’ve never been in a situation where my best friend and my husband don’t get along.
I’ve seen it before. I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know what I would do in that situation because you’re always gonna have to deal with that. So you have to, you have to decide. Is it more important for you to be with this person and limit your time or cut off contact with your best friend, or vice versa?
I don’t know. No one can answer it for you. I offered to split the jacket cost with Matt. He refused. Weeks later, Jake texted to me again, are you wearing makeup? I said, no, I don’t wear it and I’m not comfortable wearing wearing it. He said, cool. An hour later, Brianna texted me I needed to get my makeup done Professionally, it will photograph better.
No, I don’t agree with that either. You do not tell people in your wedding they have to get their makeup done. I just, I don’t understand that if you love them the way they are and they are your friend, you should not be telling them to change anything about themselves for the wedding. Maybe that’s, is that a hot take?
Is that a hot take? I don’t know. I told my bridesmaid like, we’re gonna have hair and makeup there if you want it, or if you’re gonna do it yourself. Don’t wear any makeup that’s, that’s on you. Like your choice a hundred percent. I want you to feel comfortable. I want you to feel beautiful. The way you do it, her artist was booked but she could help me find someone.
I reluctantly agreed, ah, I feel so bad for her. This is so awkward. Am I her appointment, the stylist, a mutual friend, spilled everything. Brianna wasn’t an English teacher in Japan. She was an escort. She never even told Jake. Her rich stepdad pays for everything. He even bought them a house. Yet Jake is making payments on it.
What? So she’s completely deceiving him of everything. I mean, what? And no one in Jake’s circle likes Brianna. She blames Jake for not affording a two month European honeymoon. Okay? I don’t think a lot of people can afford a two month European honeymoon. What? That’s not typical. He’s now working DoorDash on top of his job, so he is trying to make extra, extra money because it’s not enough for her.
That’s another, maybe it’s another hot take, but.
You chose to marry this person knowing what they make or what they can’t afford? Yes, you can strive for more and try to make more as a couple together, but to guilt him and make him feel bad for not ma, I don’t know. I just, I don’t like that. I don’t like that. I had a breakdown full on hysterics. I planned to confront him at the bachelor weekend, but it was awkward.
Matt didn’t even come. I tried to open a conversation. Jake brushed it off and said his relationship was his retirement plan. I dropped it, his retirement plan. So I wonder if it’s one of those things where he’s just like checking the box. He’s like, you know what? I’m however old I am. It’s time to get married.
Let’s just do it. It’s my retirement plan. Oh my gosh. Three days before the wedding. Hey, you’re giving a speech. Good thing I had started one just in case the makeup artist was awful. Dry. Cakey, not blended. I wiped most of it off. No one commented it was $200. What a waste. So not on, on top of them making her get her makeup done, they make her pay $200.
That’s more than I even paid for my bridal makeup. I think my bridal makeup was one 20. My bridesmaids was 85. $200 as a, as a best man. No, no, no, no, no, no. I don’t like that. Brianna greeted to us when she, Brianna greet to us when we arrived with Suits. Thanked me for stepping up. Criticized Matt said she chose him to bring the style to the groomsmen.
He might’ve sabotaged things out of jealousy. He and Brianna apparently have a history well. We learned that, okay, here’s the wedding day. Jake was silent, only smiled for the camera. Bridesmaids wore bold, micro chromatic dresses, all different cuts, all had visible tattoos. Excuse me. So the bridesmaids can have visible tattoos, but you the best man cannot.
Yours are distracting. Come on. We need to level, we need an even playing field here. It’s because, I don’t know. I feel like she’s some jealousy over the op here. The maid of honor had giant angel wings and a light bulb tattoo down her spine. My tattoos had to be covered. The hypocrisy, stung. Their vows lies claimed they loved each other since high school and had reconnected.
Years later, none of that happened. It was surreal. My family asked, what’s going on? Why were you put through so much when the bridesmaids clearly weren’t? I had no answers. I told them to just get through it. The maid of honor gave a two page speech full of jabs, not jokes, jabs. It was brutal. So apparently even the bride’s friends are not fans of the bride.
Interesting. Then it was my turn. I recited my speech from memory nailed it. Pretended to cry at the end. Everyone was shocked. Even Jake was slack jawed. I never heard that term before. I hugged him. Second. Congrats. And we left. It’s been four months. I haven’t seen him since they honeymoon in Jamaica. She still doesn’t work.
She, he’s still doing DoorDash and my head hurts. Oh, that story makes me so sad. It like, it, I feel like it’s like one of those like books or stories you read where it’s like they keep missing each other at certain points. And I’m not saying romantically, but I’m just like they’re meant to be, and I say, I say the word.
Or the term soulmate very loosely. I don’t mean soulmate romantically, like you’ve, I believe you have soulmates that are like best friends or even pets I think can be soulmates. But I feel like their soulmates in a way that they were, their souls are supposed to meet, like they obviously are very like aligned.
They have good friendship, they, their family’s blended well to how their, and I think that’s what it was supposed to be, right? But it’s so hard when. They start dating someone that just doesn’t fit into the mix. And it’s hard in that moment too, because it’s like you’re supposed to choose your future, your partner.
Right? But it sounds like they’re not even happy, and it sounds like she’s very controlling and she’s making him try to make all this extra money while she’s not doing her part, and she critiques him. And, and so that’s what’s really sad is because now she’s probably seeing the, the friend, the best man is seeing.
It all fall apart. She’s seeing her relationship with him fall apart and she’s seeing that he just kind of checked the box of like, let’s get married. It’s time to get married. Um, and that’s what’s so sad with a lot of these stories is they wanna check the box of like, okay, we got married, we’re, we’re 30, now let’s get married.
Okay, let’s have a baby. And you would hope a couple this like unhappy, I don’t know. Can realize it before it’s too late and don’t bring children into the relationship. I don’t know, it’s, it’s hard because I’m only getting so much and, and it’s, uh, it can be kind of confusing from this angle because we’re only getting one person’s perspective, but she knows him well and she knows his reactions and she knows him enough to kind of realize he’s not, he’s not happy, he’s not reconnecting well, or he is not doing well, I should say.
But yeah. Oh, I hate that. I feel like I want an update. Like, it’s okay. It’s been, it’s been four months, I should see when this story was sent, but it’s been at least four months. We need to update when they talk.
When a Friendship Feels Like Family—and Then Falls Apart
Um, maybe they’ll realize it, maybe he’ll realize after, you know, all of the, the glamor of the wedding is over and realize, you know what, this was dumb.
I wanna go back to my roots and find someone that truly loves me and. Accepts my friends and family. Right. Because it feels like, I feel like they were more of like family, like she said, like they’re like brother and sister vibes. Right. All right guys. Well that was the story for, for this week. Um, I’m so sorry to this person that sent that sounds like you’re really mourning of friendship and that’s, that’s hard.
I feel like friendship breakups, I don’t know if it’s officially a friendship breakup, but it sounds pretty, pretty wonky, roly. I always say that friendship breakups are harder than romantic breakups. And I think it’s because like you pour, not saying you don’t do this with, with romantic relationships, but with friendships it’s like you pour so much into it and they learn you like your, they’re your ins and outs.
Right. Um, I think one of my hardest friendship breakups, um, I don’t wanna give too much detail or anything, but like, uh, it was a few years back. I mean, we’re probably going on. Gosh, I don’t even know how old I was. I dunno. Probably like 10 years ago. I don’t know. It was after college, but it was, it was distraught.
Like it was, it was so sad because this is someone that you do everything with you, you tell them like, you know, you’re like your thoughts and your wishes and your dreams and like. I don’t know. It’s just so different than a romantic relationship. I feel like when you’re breaking up with someone or someone breaks up with you, yes, it’s sad, but you move on depending on, you know, how long you’re with that person.
I know I’m just blabbing now, but I don’t know, I just really feel for this person because it’s hard to go through that. But, um, hopefully he realizes and you guys can be friends again. Anyways, thank you guys for hanging out with me in this special solo episode. If you guys haven’t noticed yet, I’m kind of doing a pattern of the second, um, episode.
Every single month is a solo pod just to kind of like, hang out with you guys, like one-on-one. Um, share a little bit more, um, behind the scenes and stuff, um, in case you guys missed it. You can now order my book. Here comes the drama of Ferris and Sloan story. Um, and don’t forget to tag me on social media at party planning by Krista for a chance to be featured on my page.
And then I’m also giving away random prizes, whether that’s a signed copy or Amazon gift cards and so much more. So I’ll be able to, so make sure to check out my social media pages to see what’s kind of going on, um, this week. Um, and of course if you ordered it on Amazon or other platforms, of course allow it as well.
But please leave a review when you read the book because that just helps more people see it and hear about it. And I just wanna, I just wanna see what you guys think. It’s like, it’s so scary writing something and putting it out into the world because it’s like, oh my gosh, what are they gonna think? Do you guys like it?
Oh my gosh. But again, I also have to also have to remind myself that it’s my first book. I’m a beginner. Uh, I mean, I went to school for writing, but it’s been a long time. Um, so even if, you know, just the fact that I got it out there, I feel like is, is a prize in itself and I’m very, very excited for that.
But I really like to throw it back to you guys and just say thank you for the support and the excitement for it. That’s all I got you guys. Thank you so much for hanging out with me and I will see you next time. Bye now.
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.
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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, 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.
