Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Have I been dumped?!

62 replies

ffrindbyrdi · 07/11/2025 22:06

Still reeling from this although it happened last weekend, but I just need to know.

Backstory: Group of friends who have all been close since 12/13 and now in our 30s.

Perhaps drifted apart a bit more so since Covid but still see each other for birthdays etc.

One of the friends weddings last Saturday and I was invited as a guest. She didn’t mention having bridesmaids or anything and she’s quite unconventional so I didn’t think anything of it.

Turn up to the wedding to find I’m the only friend not a bridesmaid. I even went to the hen do last month and bridal parties were never mentioned once.

That’s odd isn’t it? Have I been friend dumped?

And so as not to drip feed, the only ‘big change’ in our friendship is that I have had a baby so missed maybe a handful of get togethers when my son was a newborn. That must’ve been where they discussed bridesmaids etc? No fallouts, nothing.

I feel well and truly shit tbh

OP posts:
ffrindbyrdi · 07/11/2025 22:53

IFeelLikeChickenTonite · 07/11/2025 22:47

Did they think you would be too busy attending to your baby so you couldn’t take on the role of bridesmaid? If you’re married with kids you’re not really bridesmaid material anyway? I think you and your mates are just at different life stages. They’re still your mates. And when they start having kids you’ll get closer to them again. I wouldn’t go off in a strop about this. Not everything centres around you.

But if that was the case, why not just say?! We have been bridesmaids at each others weddings for the last 7 years and ‘close’ friends for 20+

There’s only one out of the 6 of us now unmarried.

To actively exclude one person and not tell her feels strange. If it is because I have a kid then fine, but tell me that and don’t hide you’re having bridesmaids until I find out on the day. It’s weird.

Like I’ve said though, I won’t be bringing it up to them and don’t ever want to make it about me, just using this space to ‘strop’ 😉

OP posts:
TheatricalLife · 07/11/2025 22:55

I wouldn't say dumped...sidelined maybe.
I wouldn't actually care about not being a bridesmaid, but it would piss me off that it had very clearly been hidden from you. Nobody had the guts to just tell you, they all fannied out and let it be a nasty surprise on the day. That's shit. I don't think I'd be making an effort with them going forward.

FurForksSake · 07/11/2025 22:58

Im not confrontational, but I would at some point in the not too distant future make clear how hurt they’ve made you. What have you got to lose?

it’s very easy just to back away, but they will then just justify their own behaviour to each other.

id be clear and concise with it, you were confused and hurt to have been excluded and that you have been left wondering what has happened.

You Can then either move on from them, or sort it out.

leaving it will just leave you wondering and being the injured party. Take back a bit of the power and get a conclusion / closure.

PJsandbiscuits · 07/11/2025 23:04

I’d talk to one person, whoever you feel most comfortable with, and ask if something has happened or if you have done something that lead them not feeling comfortable telling you that they would all be in the bridal party. You can let them know you don’t have any problem with them being bridesmaids, they all looked gorgeous etc, you just cannot understand why this was not mentioned to you.

Honestly, it is probably because you are at a different stage of life -are you the first one to have a baby? They may have just made assumptions about you would want/not want to do. Brides are often self absorbed when it comes to their weddings but your friends should have let you know.

Manyroadss · 07/11/2025 23:06

I think they've got closer as a group and you have become the de factor less close friend. The way they have gone about it would give me the serious ick as far as the friendship goes. I would back away and find some better friends, you are now at different life stages and they see you as someone in a different percentile for want of a better word!

tragichero · 07/11/2025 23:14

Firstly, I am sorry you are hurt and I do understand why you are, fully. I don't want anything I say next to come across like I am belittling your feelings, which are real and valid.

BUT, I am a woman who has close female friendships that are very important to me, and have been throughout my life. I have been a bride twice (late 40s now), but never once been a bridesmaid.

There have been women I half expected to ask me, but they didn't. It could be because the friendships meant/mean more to me than to them, but I choose not to see it that way.

It's a particular role, and you pick particular kinds of people to fulfil it. And clearly I have just never seemed the bridesmaid type. I'm not especially into hair, beauty, makeup etc - so that could be why. (I like to look nice, but my own version of nice - I guess I am not a conventional dresser in that sense).

I had a bridesmaid for my first wedding, an amazing friend I am still extremely close to now, over 20 years on. We holiday together etc - to be honest I think of her as (one of my) non-biological sisters.

When she got married about 6 months after me, she chose a different bridesmaid. A woman who I believe she no longer sees at all.

Was I hurt? Slightly.

Did I consider myself friend-dumped? No. Has it altered the way I see her, or the friendship? Also, no.

I get that your situation feels worse because of the other people involved, and what must feel like deliberate secrecy about it.

But there are reasons I can think of even from just reading your thread. Your son being the big one. I presume he is still pretty little? The bride and her friends may have assumed you would be way too caught up with motherhood to be able to give headspace to bridesmaid duties, dress fittings etc. And in a really pragmatic sense, they may have assumed you would need to be holding/tending to your son during the ceremony, which would make bridesmaiding awkward if not impossible.

You also don't mention finances, but could that be a consideration? With a dependant you have financial considerations others don't. There is a financial burden to being a bridesmaid, even if you don't pay for the dress itself - travel costs to dress fittings and so on, possibly the cost of appropriate underwear if it's a certain type of dress. Plus the need to find babysitters every time you attended a fitting, or bring your son, which wouldn't be much fun for him.

If your friends are lovely in other ways, I honestly don't think it's worth assuming the worst. If your friends have been keeping their distance a little since your son's birth, that too may be for the best of intentions - not wanting to crowd you when they assume you will be busy with the little one.

If you actually have scope to socialise more (not sure if your son has another involved parent? Or you may have parents of your own who help a lot with childcare) then I would perhaps organise a couple of meets yourself, so they realise you are still in a position to do nights out.

I really hope I am right, and that they aren't just a bunch of mean cows. If they are, I apologise for wasting your time with this super-long and irrelevant post.

But I always think it's better to believe the best of people, when the best is still plausibly the truth....

Good luck.

Ophy83 · 07/11/2025 23:17

Traditionally bridesmaids were literally that - unmarried "maids". That isn't the case now, but some people may still avoid having mothers, particularly if they want to be a main priority for the bridesmaids in the lead up to the wedding/organising the hen etc (out of interest, who organised your friend's hen?). I had my 3 cousins when I got married, when my cousin got married she had the other 2 cousins with my dd and her new husband's niece as flower girls. I assume she thought I wouldn't want to be a bridesmaid because I'm married and/or a mother, I don't think it was out of a lack of affection for me

Manyroadss · 07/11/2025 23:19

tragichero · 07/11/2025 23:14

Firstly, I am sorry you are hurt and I do understand why you are, fully. I don't want anything I say next to come across like I am belittling your feelings, which are real and valid.

BUT, I am a woman who has close female friendships that are very important to me, and have been throughout my life. I have been a bride twice (late 40s now), but never once been a bridesmaid.

There have been women I half expected to ask me, but they didn't. It could be because the friendships meant/mean more to me than to them, but I choose not to see it that way.

It's a particular role, and you pick particular kinds of people to fulfil it. And clearly I have just never seemed the bridesmaid type. I'm not especially into hair, beauty, makeup etc - so that could be why. (I like to look nice, but my own version of nice - I guess I am not a conventional dresser in that sense).

I had a bridesmaid for my first wedding, an amazing friend I am still extremely close to now, over 20 years on. We holiday together etc - to be honest I think of her as (one of my) non-biological sisters.

When she got married about 6 months after me, she chose a different bridesmaid. A woman who I believe she no longer sees at all.

Was I hurt? Slightly.

Did I consider myself friend-dumped? No. Has it altered the way I see her, or the friendship? Also, no.

I get that your situation feels worse because of the other people involved, and what must feel like deliberate secrecy about it.

But there are reasons I can think of even from just reading your thread. Your son being the big one. I presume he is still pretty little? The bride and her friends may have assumed you would be way too caught up with motherhood to be able to give headspace to bridesmaid duties, dress fittings etc. And in a really pragmatic sense, they may have assumed you would need to be holding/tending to your son during the ceremony, which would make bridesmaiding awkward if not impossible.

You also don't mention finances, but could that be a consideration? With a dependant you have financial considerations others don't. There is a financial burden to being a bridesmaid, even if you don't pay for the dress itself - travel costs to dress fittings and so on, possibly the cost of appropriate underwear if it's a certain type of dress. Plus the need to find babysitters every time you attended a fitting, or bring your son, which wouldn't be much fun for him.

If your friends are lovely in other ways, I honestly don't think it's worth assuming the worst. If your friends have been keeping their distance a little since your son's birth, that too may be for the best of intentions - not wanting to crowd you when they assume you will be busy with the little one.

If you actually have scope to socialise more (not sure if your son has another involved parent? Or you may have parents of your own who help a lot with childcare) then I would perhaps organise a couple of meets yourself, so they realise you are still in a position to do nights out.

I really hope I am right, and that they aren't just a bunch of mean cows. If they are, I apologise for wasting your time with this super-long and irrelevant post.

But I always think it's better to believe the best of people, when the best is still plausibly the truth....

Good luck.

I do understand what you are saying but behaviour is a Language . It's the speaking around. They didn't want the op to be a bridesmaid or part of the wedding party, that suggests the op is no longer in inner circle
.

Manyroadss · 07/11/2025 23:19

Sneaking
!!!

Diarygirlqueen · 07/11/2025 23:32

Sorry OP, this must be so hurtful.
It's the secrecy I would struggle to get past, very unnecessary.
I would definitely reach out to the closest friend you have in the group and voice your concerns. I think you deserve to know why.
Honestly, I would be looking for better friends, I would struggle to forgive this.

Frostynoman · 07/11/2025 23:35

I wouldn’t be initiating contact with them again, it’s terrible behaviour to a long standing friend

HermioneGrangersHair · 07/11/2025 23:44

I think, given you have been each others bridesmaids up to now, it’s really mean to not ask you ( or explain to you) … and also worse not to mention it at all.
I am really surprised that no one asked at the hen do ‘who are bridesmaids?’ as it seems a perfectly natural thing to ask a bride to be… really strange. I would be hurt too @ffrindbyrdi , and you can be hurt without making it all about you.

WLINewbie · 08/11/2025 00:06

Hi OP

I'm sorry this has happened to you and get how you must feel so upset. One thing I'm wondering though is you wrote you assumed the bride had no bridesmaids. Did you never ask her? Is she really that close a frien? Surely that's something you'd naturally ask
Obviously you've had a lot to distract you and friendship dynamics can drastically change when babies start to arrive, but maybe to the bride its come across that you weren't interested.

I hope you're OK, it's horrible to be left out

LushLemonTart · 08/11/2025 01:04

How mean of them.

I agree with making new mum friends.

FullOfMomsense · 08/11/2025 01:17

Aw that's awful. I think you're better off without them if they've treated you differently since becoming a mum and now this! For the whole group to be bridesmaids and it being hidden from you is snakey.

Nelly44 · 08/11/2025 06:32

i know it can feel personal but try to step back- you too could have asked about bridesmaids. If you’re so far removed to have not been chatting with the bride about her wedding, colours, style of dresses and who for bridesmaids maybe she feels you have dropped her??

just another perspective

rainbowstardrops · 08/11/2025 06:44

Oh blimey, that’s really mean of them not to even mention it to you. I find that quite deceitful, as there must have been a separate wedding WhatsApp group etc. I’d take a step back if I were you because I wouldn’t be able to look at them in the same way right now.
Let’s see if they want your friendship when they’re in the thick of baby struggles!

ffrindbyrdi · 08/11/2025 06:55

WLINewbie · 08/11/2025 00:06

Hi OP

I'm sorry this has happened to you and get how you must feel so upset. One thing I'm wondering though is you wrote you assumed the bride had no bridesmaids. Did you never ask her? Is she really that close a frien? Surely that's something you'd naturally ask
Obviously you've had a lot to distract you and friendship dynamics can drastically change when babies start to arrive, but maybe to the bride its come across that you weren't interested.

I hope you're OK, it's horrible to be left out

It was a super quirky wedding and nothing was very conventional (without giving too much away) so the fact bridesmaids weren’t mentioned made me think that was part of it.

I’d asked about and seen photos of the dress (she went dress shopping with her mum only, so again no ‘bridesmaid’ type vibes), venue, asked her all about the unique little aspects of it etc.

OP posts:
Livelovebehappy · 08/11/2025 07:46

When you say you’ve missed a handful of meet-ups since the baby, how many are we talking about? Maybe if it’s been quite a few they feel it’s you who’s checked out of the friendship?

KnewYearKnewMe · 08/11/2025 07:50

That sounds so hurtful. I can see why you’re so affected by it 😥 I would be too, it’s the deceit, isn’t it.

did you have messages with the other friends ahead of time with ‘what are you wearing?’, etc? What did they say?

SugarPlumpFairyCakes · 08/11/2025 08:00

It’s just so strange not it mention it at all. Not to mention hurtful. Friends chat about their wedding plans, discuss issues etc.

I wouldn’t actually ever say anything about this. You will get some fudgy bollocks response. So what’s the point? They have all behaved badly and they will all know they have.

So I would just fade from their lives slowly and deliberately. No drama. Just don’t initiate meet ups. Maybe don’t go to any meet ups since they deliberately excluded you anyway.

Concentrate totally on making new friends.

Lifealwaysgetsbetter · 08/11/2025 08:13

I’d perhaps say something to one of the people you’re closest too along the lines of “you looked lovely at the wedding - tbh I didn’t know who the bridesmaids were going to be or if she was having any as she never mentioned them”. Then say nothing and see what she says. Don’t mention the hurt - see what your nicest friend says in terms of the facts… then you can say you know it was a shock that nobody mentioned it and we’ve all been each others bridesmaids.

But it must have felt like rejection if you’ve all been friends so long and bridesmaids for each other & you were the only one excluded. She could have said “look I know you’re pregnant/you’ve had a baby and prob don’t need the hassle so I’ll leave it up to you if you want to be a bridesmaid”. To exclude just one friend is awful but only the bride is to blame.

aCatCalledFawkes · 08/11/2025 08:13

How old is your son? Is it possible she didn't chose you because she didn't want to add any stress to you being a new Mum? Having a new baby does absorb energy levels as well as money, sometimes if they are ill you have to cancel plans and then there is the whole thing with how much our bodies change. I know you say you hardly mention him (which I find a bit weird) when out and but trying to show your the same as them when with them and not be a mum is hard when they are your child is your priority.

winter8090 · 08/11/2025 08:17

I don’t think you’ve been dumped (you got invited to the wedding after all) but I do think it seems like your lives might have started to go in different directions since you had the baby.

Perfectly natural although I understand upsetting.

pictoosh · 08/11/2025 08:20

Only you know the dynamic of your friendship group OP and if you feel this is 'off' it probably is.
The way you descibe the others appearing on the day in the matching dresses unbeknownst to you made me feel sad. I can understand why that felt like a punch in the gut...even your dh knew it wasn't as expected.

I don't know how to advise you but I understand why you feel as you do.