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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Feeling totally overlooked as mother of the bride

268 replies

Lilygreen42 · 18/09/2019 09:09

First time posting here.

After a very stressful year, Mum diagnosed with dementia, splitting from partner, son at university, etc, etc, I finally looked at my daughter's wedding photographs taken by the official photographer properly for the first time - the wedding was last year. Know it sounds mad but I just haven't done this till now. I was very upset to find that there wasn't one single photo of me with my daughter apart from one large group photo with the rest of my family. There were no photos of me with my daughter by ourselves. There aren't any taken by other guests either. Don't know how it happened. I took a few but I think I must have assumed that I didn't need to ask anyone to take some for me because the official photographer would have done so. I don't know. I have emailed the photographer and he said it might have been an oversight on his part! He's offered to do a family photo shoot, but I feel the moment has passed and what's the point? There were hardly any photos of my side of the family at all and absolutely loads of the groom's side - there were loads of the groom's Dad - the groom's Mum sadly passed away about 10 years ago. I also realised that I had no flowers either to match every else, nor did my mother nor the groom's gran. Don't the mother of the bride and the grans usually have a corsage? The men all had buttonholes but I had nothing. Plus, my daughter was supposed to organise a "hen do" for me and my sister and she never did - she went with her friends on her official hen do. The wedding took place in the groom's home town and I now feel that the whole wedding was for him, his family and their friends and that the bride's family were way down on the list of priority. Her brothers were groomsmen and her Dad gave her away and her cousin, my niece was a bridesmaid and obviously there were photos of all of them, but I just feel that her own family didn't figure highly in my daughter's thinking when it came to her wedding. Maybe I'm being unfair and just upset about it all. I helped my daughter with a lot of the preparations beforehand, decorated the church with flowers with my sister, helped prepare the presents for the guests, wrote out all the names for the place settings, took back all the suits to the suit hirer, etc. I feel I was just a dogsbody and that I wasn't treated properly as mother of the bride. It was the bride's day and she was beautiful but it should have been special for me too, but I was just treated like any other guest. It's taken me this long to work it out. Am I wrong to feel like this?

OP posts:
HighNetGirth · 18/09/2019 09:28

Did you talk to your daughter about having a corsage etc? If not, maybe she assumed you didn’t want one. Because you were involved and a big help to her, perhaps she expected you to let her know that kind of thing. And also, with all there is to do, things like 2nd hen parties (a kind thought) often fall by the wayside.
It was last year: if you felt ok immediately after the wedding, ask yourself if your feelings now are actually about something else. You have had a tough time, perhaps that is colouring your thinking.

Aria2015 · 18/09/2019 09:28

I can understand you feel sad that you didn't capture a photo of you with your daughter or the couple but memories of the day are far more important than. Photos. You were there, you got to see your daughter enjoy her day, that's what counts. I had a rogue photographer at my wedding and have hardly any decent photos of us as a couple never mind anyone else. I don't feel sad about it though. I have the memory of the day so that's what I reflect on. Don't let this get to you, it’s happened and there's no changing it.

newnametocomplain · 18/09/2019 09:29

YABVU. The wedding was your daughter and her husbands special day, not yours.

HiJenny35 · 18/09/2019 09:29

You're mourning your mum having dementia, separating from your partner, your on moving out this isn't about the wedding it's about you being hurt.
You way overstepped contacting the photographer and as your daughter I'd be cross, you are being very unreasonable, no mothers often don't have a corsage only the men in the main wedding party and if you wanted one you should have said, your daughter tried to involve you in the arrangements and now you complain, as for the hen do it's normal not to have your mum there and if you wanted a tea you should have organise it for her. This was her wedding and if you bring this stuff up you will make her feel bad and spoil it for her so stop being selfish, she didn't exclude you.
With everything else you are not being unreasonable to feel overwhelmed, talk to someone as you are tightly wound and ready to pop at the wrong people.

MILHouse · 18/09/2019 09:30

You can’t care that much if it’s taken you a year to look at the wedding photo’s!

YABU.

SpoonBlender · 18/09/2019 09:30

That's no reason to try and live vicariously through your daughter's wedding album.

SweetAsSpice · 18/09/2019 09:30

Yabu. Let it go ffs.

MatildaTheCat · 18/09/2019 09:30

YANBU. This happened to my friend and it was almost as if she hadn’t attended the wedding at all. No family issues and she was a fully involved mother of bride, the photographer just ‘forgot’.

She was really sad too. That was quite a while ago and she’s over it but we, as her friends were all sad, too.

GlasshouseStoneThrower · 18/09/2019 09:30

To be honest, I think that even if you were reasonable about how you feel, you are now well past the point of reasonably being able to address it. You can't air grievances about a wedding that took place last year. Nothing can be done, and it will cause hurt and upset.

This wedding was for your daughter and your son in law. If they had a happy day, the wedding was a success. Try to hold on to that.

It sounds like you've been through a lot recently, and looking at the album is maybe triggering lots of complicated and unresolved feelings about your family generally. Try to be gentle with yourself and focus on the good things Thanks

MustShowDH · 18/09/2019 09:31

It's not about you.

You can't be that bothered if it's taken you a year to notice.

You should have organised a 'family hen do' if that's what you wanted - not up to the bride to organise her own.

Sounds like you WERE involved - you just choose to see it as being a dogsbody.

This isn't about the wedding, it's about your relationship with your daughter. Surely that's more important than a few photographs?

SleepingStandingUp · 18/09/2019 09:31

I can see why you'd be sad Re the photos, but did it not occur to you on the day that you hadn't posed for a photo with her, or with her Dad and you or all your side of the family?

Re Hen Do you could easily have arranged a meal for her, you, your sister and the cousin instead of sitting there sad becasue you didn't get YOU'RE hen do.

Bookworm4 · 18/09/2019 09:31

So it’s took a year for you to look at the photos, hardly important to you then eh?
You sound very self absorbed, you’ve had a tough year and now decide to look for conflict where there’s none, give yourself peace.

PrimeraVez · 18/09/2019 09:32

This is so weird. I think the photo thing was probably a case of poor communication/planning on the part of the photographer and the bride and groom. And I'm sure the lack of corsage was an oversight (but how important is it anyway?!)

The rest sounds like you're looking for a reason to be annoyed. 'The bride's family weren't a priority' yet there were lots of your side of the family in the bridal party and you were very involved in the preparations (eg decorating the venue, writing the place cards) - I'm assuming your DD asked you to be involved in this eg she actively wanted to make you a part of it.

If my mum told me all this now about my wedding, I would be confused, annoyed and upset.

CherryPavlova · 18/09/2019 09:32

I think you’re stressing about the wrong things. You can’t help how you feel but you can make a conscious decision to look forwards and not allow trivia to make you unhappy.
I’m a mother of a bride next year. Delighted if I don’t feature in photos much - I want a single photo of a beaming, joyous couple and nothing more. I wish for their happiness not a posed photo of mother and daughter.
I’ll have a corsage but then I’m making all the buttonholes and doing the church flowers with a few friends. If you wanted one, why didn’t you ask? What role did you play? It is about making the day special for the marrying couple and supporting them as they start a life together, not about you, your outfit, your flowers, your photograph. I suspect I’ll work very hard at my daughters wedding. I won’t feel like a dogsbody though; it will be an absolute pleasure to see them having a lovely day that we’ve helped bring about.
Take your daughter out for a nice lunch at a National Trust property or somewhere else beautiful and get a photo of a happy time together rather than a staged and stiff photo of something your not happy about.

Whoops75 · 18/09/2019 09:32

I don’t have a photo with my mum either, just me and my dad at the wedding car.
We gave mum & mil flowers during the speeches - did anything like that happen?

I think you have to forget and forgive any oversight by your daughter.The wedding is about the couple and it’s an extremely busy time. You have left it too late to do anything about photos or flowers.

Move on OP x

WhiskersPete · 18/09/2019 09:32

You are supposed to organise the hen do for the bride. If you wanted one you should have done it yourself!

MatildaTheCat · 18/09/2019 09:33

YABU about some of the other stuff, though. You could have sorted most of that out at the time?

KUGA · 18/09/2019 09:33

You could contact some of the family/guests and see if they have any random photo`s of you and DD.

SmellbowSmellbow123 · 18/09/2019 09:33

I kinda feel like this is a reverse. Are you actually the bride and your mums upset about your wedding?

SmileCheese · 18/09/2019 09:34

I kinda feel like this is a reverse. Are you actually the bride and your mums upset about your wedding?

I'm kind of hoping it is a reverse surely no one is this self centred?

Fleetheart · 18/09/2019 09:34

I feel sad for you but I think the many losses you have suffered are colouring the way that you are viewing this. You’re feeling lost and abandoned and you have just replayed your daughter’s wedding to fit in with the theme. You have been having a hard time, but not sure that you have been treated poorly by your daughter Flowers

Tahitiitsamagicalplace · 18/09/2019 09:35

Yabu. It's not about you.

I'm a photographer and do weddings, and I only do specific portraits/group photos if the bride and groom specifically ask for them and organise them. If anyone at a wedding wants me to take their photo, they'll ask. Otherwise I just run around taking candid shots of any "action" happening, focussing mainly on the bride and groom. Most photographers work the same way.

Did you pay for the photographer and sign the contract with them? If not, ywbu to email him complaining. How nice of him to offer a free shoot! That's above and beyond what he should have done.

The photos obviously weren't and aren't important to you, the real issue is possibly you are insecure about how you're seen or your standing within your daughter's new larger family.

Basil90 · 18/09/2019 09:36

I've never heard so much bloody moaning in all my life!

WooMaWang · 18/09/2019 09:36

Are you somehow seeing your DD’s wedding as a vicarious wedding for yourself, OP?

I think this is all displacement so you don’t have to think about the real stresses in your life.

Fleetheart · 18/09/2019 09:36

PS, it’s not a great idea to post in AIBU if you’re feeling vulnerable. It’s a shark cage!