What would you think of your mother in law wanted to invite 3 friends to your wedding, you’ve not met before

Honestly if the venue allowed the numbers id allow it

What does the groom think? It should be a joint decision.

when I got married I had friends of both mil/ pil and dm. They were people who meant something to them and made their day nicer. When you’re the couple you don’t spend much time with each guest so it’s nice for them to have people they know there.

It’s normally a fun and happy thing when your child gets married. These are presumably friends who will have known her before she had children, when the children were young, now one is getting married. I’d be very happy to have her friends join if numbers permitted.

If these friends had been part of my MILs life, were there supporting her as she raised her son/the groom, would make them more comfortable at the wedding, the groom was ok with them coming (as it’s his family) and it didn’t otherwise cause any issues, why not.

Labelling it as anxiety is a bit disingenuous when it is simply bridezilla.

My mother in law did!! They contributed to our wedding as did my parent's (they were fairly equal) but we paid well over double and then some either contribution. I hadn't met these people before or since and a couple I didnt even see at the wedding (they were there as they gave us a card, we were laughing our heads off opening the card going who the bloody hell is that?!). 10 years on do I regret inviting them, well yes, some of our friends couldnt make the cut due to budget and some who we were close to before and still are 10 years on were bumped to evening, I have no idea why we allowed people we didnt know to attend??? It's bonkers now I think about it.

We had some of my parent's best friends there but these are people both me and my husband have had meals, celebrations etc etc out with over many years, they aren't random people us and I have seen them lots over the years since our wedding and they sent gifts/cards when we had our children too.

Random friends you've never met, absolutely not!!!

bridezilla to choose their own wedding guests?

Our wedding plans changed completely after MiL wanted to invite people DH didn't know to our wedding, apparently she had been to their DD's wedding.

I think some of my mum’s friends probably know me far more than I know then. They have been there for mum through my birth and school and leaving home etc. So I’d see it more as a thanks to my parents to invite those who supported them during my upbringing. But not their new mate from the pub, more someone who is the equivalent of an aunt /uncle.

what does the woman’s son think, ie this is for the groom to consider.

No is a full sentence!

it’s just her mother in law to be mates that’s she not even meet before

It's not unusual to have guests at your wedding on the other side who you don't know. More distant relatives, old family friends, partners of friends... unless it's a very small wedding, it's likely at least one of these will be there.

As for the friend invitations in this case, it all depends on context. I can't see my parents wanting to invite friends to my wedding - but they'd be there alongside my sister and BIL, aunt and uncle, my cousins... it's a bit different if you're Dora Ragland in the corner on your own.

Mine invited, the week before the wedding, a random cousin, his girlfriend and her friend who were visiting from Australia. Our wedding was a small registry office do. Have never met three before or spoken to them since. She was not paying for the wedding.

We had a similar scenario, IL's wanted 7 couples who they'd been friends with a long time and they'd been invited to weddings of the circle's children. DH knew them from childhood but hadn't seen them for years by the time of our wedding, IL's weren't paying.
We compromised by saying we could offer all day invitations to the two couples they were closest with and who DH knows well then evening invites to the rest.
I get on with my in-laws and didn't want to cause bad feeling but 14 extra guests full day, most of whom neither of us had much of a relationship with, was too much in terms of space and cost, the compromise worked well.

Hard no. It’s not her wedding and quite possibly has already had her wedding

I mean I kind of get it, you don’t want the older generation having no one to talk to.

Our wedding was small (26 guests) of who a third were family so it wasn’t an issue, but my sister who had a much bigger wedding gave both sets of parents a table of eight each to fill so six guests each. Plus aunts and uncles were there. It meant they all had a great time. It made sense to me!

If she's paying for the wedding you've got no choice, but if you and your husband to be are paying she can take a running jump!

One of my elderly relatives advice after looking through our wedding photos was to write on the back who these people are because you won’t remember in 30yrs time - we’re 28 years in and I cant recall the last time the album was dug out so I suspect they were right!

I would be glad and add them to the invite list. We are not particularly close but I am marrying into the family and into her life.

I think it's weird when people try and dictate the guest list for their kids wedding.
I'd just say "we are keeping it small, we wont he extending invites beyond our own close family and friends."

Does your boyfriend know them? Are they old family friends?
It wouldn't particularly bother me, there were people at my wedding I had never met and similarly at my daughter's wedding there were people my son in law had never met but they were all people important to one of the families.

It wouldn't bother me at all and I'd be happy 3 extra people wanted to celebrate my wedding. Obviously not 50 extra guests but 3 sounds a nice request.
I wish my MIL had actually come tomorrow wedding. She couldn't be bothered to get the easyjet flight required (she lives abroad).

Has her own mother and father invited any friends from their generation? If not then it needs to be equal and a conversation had?

I think it depends.

If it's small intimate wedding, unreasonable request.

If it's a big wedding, 3 people aren't going to make a difference frankly, the B&G won't likely have time to talk to everyone anyway and would hardly notice. But it might make MIL's night, a family member, more enjoyable in a big roomful of strangers to her.

Somewhere in the middle? Who's funding the wedding? Would it really affect the dynamics? Could it be 1 good friend if it would be noticeable due to size? Just have the discussion.

My MIL wanted to invite a bus load of friends neither I nor my husband knew to our small wedding (that my significantly poorer parents paid for). We compromised and said she could invite 10 friends to the (still small) evening party. She was mortally offended that we would only allow her 10 invitations and felt this was an insult because, after all, the day was about her as much as us. Then she didn't invite anybody because she would have offended anyone she didn't invite out of her huge friend circle. She was lucky she was still invited after all that 🤣

For the sake of 3 extra guests, I would let her invite them. But personally see no need for them to be invited and cant see why they'd want to go to the wedding of a couple they dont know but that's just me, I would decline that invite if I was the friends.