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Wedding went viral

283 replies

Xenia · 29/06/2011 16:11

Agree with the step mother but she should not have written it. If you want a sil,y big wedding you are not someone to marry.
www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23965571-in-the-white-corner-the-bride-in-the-pink-the-mother-in-law-from-hell.do

In the white corner, the bride. In the pink, the mother-in-law from hell...
Laura Roberts
29 Jun 2011

The last thing any bride-to-be wants is to fall foul of her future mother-in-law - particularly when her damning criticism of your behaviour goes viral on the internet.

But that is what has happened to Heidi Withers, a PA working in the West End.

She received an email last month from Carolyn Bourne, the stepmother of her fiancé Freddie Bourne.

The 29-year-old forwarded the message to a select group of friends who were so surprised by its tone that they too forwarded it on to others...and then on to thousands.

Mrs Bourne, 60, who is married to Freddie's father Edward, wrote: "It is high time someone explained to you about good manners. Yours are obvious by their absence and I feel sorry for you."

She went on: "Unfortunately for Freddie, he has fallen in love with you and Freddie being Freddie, I gather it is not easy to reason with him or yet encourage him to consider how he might be able to help you. It may just be possible to get through to you though. I do hope so. Your behaviour on your visit to Devon during April was staggering in its uncouthness and lack of grace.

"Unfortunately, this was not the first example of bad manners I have experienced from you. If you want to be accepted by the wider Bourne family I suggest you take some guidance from experts with utmost haste."

She even described her future daughter-in-law as "an ideal candidate for the Ladette to Lady television series".

Mrs Bourne, who lives near Dawlish in Devon and is a renowned breeder of pinks and dianthus flowers, went on to list numerous examples of Miss Withers's "lack of manners" - as detailed below.

She concluded by saying: "I pity Freddie."

Her stepson, who runs online bike shop Capital Cycles and lives in Putney, declined to comment. His father Edward Bourne, 63, said: "We have nothing to say."

Miss Withers and Mr Bourne are not the first to suffer acute embarrassment because of out-of-control email round robins. A derogatory email exchange between Harry Fildes, 25, and Sebastian Marsh, 24, about the latter's ex-girlfriend "went viral" in March after Mr Fildes accidentally copied her in. Mr Marsh was later sacked by his company, Miller Insurance.

Holly Leam-Taylor, a graduate trainee at consultants Deloitte quit in December 2009 after sending an email discussing attractive male staff. The email, entitled Deloitte First year analysts Christmas Awards, asked her female colleagues to vote on which men in the office they considered most attractive.

The nine categories included "boy most likely to sleep his way to the top".

An excerpt from their email exchange...

from: Carolyn Bourne
to: heidi withers
subject: your lack of manners

Here are a few examples of your lack of manners:
When you are a guest in another's house, you do not declare what you will and will not eat - unless you are positively allergic to something.
You do not remark that you do not have enough food.

You do not start before everyone else.
You do not take additional helpings without being invited to by your host.

When a guest in another's house, you do not lie in bed until late morning in households that rise early - you fall in line with house norms.

You should never ever insult the family you are about to join at any time and most definitely not in public. I gather you passed this off as a joke but the reaction in the pub was one of shock, not laughter.

You regularly draw attention to yourself. Perhaps you should ask yourself why. No one gets married in a castle unless they own it. It is brash, celebrity style behaviour.

I understand your parents are unable to contribute very much towards the cost of your wedding. (There is nothing wrong with that except that convention is such that one might presume they would have saved over the years for their daughters' marriages.)

If this is the case, it would be most ladylike and gracious to lower your sights and have a modest wedding as befits both your incomes.

One could be accused of thinking that Heidi Withers must be patting herself on the back for having caught a most eligible young man. I pity Freddie.

OP posts:
lachesis · 02/07/2011 11:36

She isn't the MIL, either, she's just the blow-in stepmother.

scottishmummy · 02/07/2011 11:38

blow-in stepmother.lol.like camilla parker knoll

Riveninside · 02/07/2011 14:52

I just thank people there and then, not write little cards. Isnt that normal?

Xenia · 02/07/2011 16:05

In some groups amongst in the UK you send a hadnwritten thank you card. What you need to do is find out what is the norm in that culture (eg in Iran I didn't go round shaking hands with men). However it is rude to tell your guest they are rude which is why it's been such an interesting story.

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StayFrosty · 02/07/2011 16:14

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yearningforthesun · 02/07/2011 16:47

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yearningforthesun · 02/07/2011 16:48

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lachesis · 02/07/2011 19:04

I have a feeling step-MIL won't be staying with Heidi and short arse when they spawn.

MardyBra · 03/07/2011 08:20

What's with all the heightism? Nowt wrong with short people.

JohannaM · 03/07/2011 13:17

Haven't read every single post on this thread so my comments may have already been stated.

In my opinion Mrs Bourne would have done better to send her comments to her future DIL by post. I'm also surprised by the Daily Wail's list of "Do's & Don'ts" when visiting another person's home for the first time! These are simply basic good manners - nothing more and nothing less!

Wamster · 03/07/2011 18:28

I think it would have been better for her to send it by post but still incredibly stupid of her to send anything at all!

The bottom line is that you don't piss off the bride when you are a mother-in-law. Unless you are completely thick, that is. Grin

puffling · 03/07/2011 23:42

An odd co-incidence that father dubbed Mrs Bourne 'Fancypants' then there's a pic published of the woman wearing a huge pair of comedy pants. I'm not sure that I buy into it being a set up but find it odd that none of the parties involved seem bothered by this.

perfectstorm · 04/07/2011 00:11

Sorry if anyone has posted this, but the papers have only printed an edited version of the email, which does make me think it's being a set-up is less likely, perhaps naively - but would they need to edit according to the PCC codes on health and personal data if she were in on it? Because Heidi Withers has diet-managed diabetes. Her fiance's stepmother had a massive go at her about her trying to explain this, and ask for her dietary needs to be met, as apparently mentioning it at all was vulgar, being "fussy" about food was vulgar, and so was fainting on a walk (and badly organised, too) and sleeping in (which, if she is diabetic and was being prevented from eating as and when and what she needed to, could have been because her blood sugar was low, no?)

I just thought that made the whole thing even worse.

maypole1 · 04/07/2011 00:56

Turns out Freddie is opening a wedding company, so make of that what you will

perfectstorm · 04/07/2011 08:45

That's what the headlines say. When you read the actual stories, he joined a 2 year old company 4 months ago, and that company specialises in catering to venues (castles, for example) so having them called "crass" isn't great PR. And the website was taken down after all this. If it was a stunt it backfired - and how can they plan something like this, anyway? I mean, fw an email to a few friends back in May - who on earth could have predicted this kind of media attention, and why would the MIL and the fiancee be willing to be exposed to the kind of criticism they have been? I find the conspiracy theory a bit odd, tbh. But then again, who knows.

Ponders · 04/07/2011 09:57

the diabetes thing did come up in some of the earlier links - apparently fancypants already knows someone with diabetes & who is perfectly ladylike about it, so now she's an expert (all diabetics needing identical treatment, obv Hmm)

'It is tragic that you have diabetes. However, you aren't the only young person in the world who is a diabetic.
I know quite a few young people who have this condition, one of whom is getting married in June. I have never heard her discuss her condition.
She quietly gets on with it. She doesn't like being diabetic. Who would? You do not need to regale everyone with the details of your condition or use it as an excuse to draw attention to yourself. It is vulgar.'

tragic???

\link{http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010696/So-Miss-Fancy-Pants--s-correct-way-wear-bloomers-outside-trousers.html\and look what was in the DM yesterday} - they got hold of some very ladylike photos Grin

culturemulcher · 04/07/2011 12:50

I know it's wrong to ask, but does anyone know when the wedding is? I really want to know who actually shows up Blush.

slhilly · 04/07/2011 12:55

I'm with dittany on this.

Yes, the MIL did something that was hurtful. Which of us has not, from time to time, done something really bad? Some of us may even have done things that are worse than sending a vile email to our DIL (gasp: is such a thing possible??)

It is one thing to have your nose rubbed in your bad behaviour by the people affected by it, it's another thing when millions of people in this country and others are sneering at you, and the DM is publishing your FB photos (which, unlike that email, surely have a greater expectation of privacy attached to them if they're not part of your public profile). It can't do much for your mental health.

JohannaM · 04/07/2011 14:02

Wamster Sun 03-Jul-11 18:28:54 "I think it would have been better for her to send it by post but still incredibly stupid of her to send anything at all!

The bottom line is that you don't piss off the bride when you are a mother-in-law. Unless you are completely thick, that is."

Why not? Or are women expected never to offer the slightest criticism about DS's DW? Hmm

How many of us can (hands on hearts now) claim never to made any critical comments directly TO our MILs?

Xenia · 04/07/2011 14:18

It might well have been valuable publicity for the wedding business although if it's web site is down that is unlikely.

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fedupofnamechanging · 04/07/2011 15:04

I don't have a lot of sympathy for her wrt the publishing of the email. However< I think it is disgusting for 'news' papers to trawl through her past and publish photos her DD put on fb.

Wamster · 04/07/2011 15:39

JohannaM, M-i-ls should avoid ANY criticism of their dils and vice versa. No good can come of it. A m-i-l who criticises her daughter-in-law is, by default, asking her son to choose sides. Not fair on the son AND risks alienating her daughter-in-law, is this really wise given that she is now a huge influence in his life? Don't think so. A friend of mine- had a nightmare of a mil who was worse than how Mrs Bourne appears here; my mate used to erase all messages from the ansamachine when she called and other sly, downright dirty and mean tricks. Daughters-in-law should avoid criticising their mothers-in-law, too. It cuts both ways.

It's no good pretending that they are just two women here-it is true that plenty of women would get on very well if not related in this way, but they are related in a way that makes them extra wary of the other.

The aborigines have it right- a woman is not supposed to have any contact with her mother-in-law after the marriage.

SinisterBuggyMonth · 04/07/2011 17:55

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SinisterBuggyMonth · 04/07/2011 18:02

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perfectstorm · 04/07/2011 19:32

Wamster - the weird one here is that she isn't the mother-in-law. She's the groom's stepmother. The groom's mother has come out and said she thinks the bride is lovely and has never known her be rude on any occasion. I suppose that's a silver lining? Nothing like an alliance against a second wife to smooth tensions!

I agree that the press rootling around in the family closets is not fair and a serious invasion of privacy. They've not intentionally gone to the media, as far as we know (the media would surely have printed the diabetes bit if they had?) and it's really unfair to do this to someone not in public life in any way. And Xenia not only is the website supposedly down, but they are allegedly altering their target market from weddings to corporate events now, so it doesn't sound like they wanted this kind of exposure, no. It's not that end of the market, I don't think. This saga hardly screams class and elegance, does it? In fact I feel distinctly sorry for the other business partners, tbh, if it's not a set-up.