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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:
Ponders · 30/06/2011 23:15

I have never told my children to write handwritten thank you notes but it's interseting that the girls do, presumably because all their friends do so they have picked it up as what you do if you spend the night at your friend's parents etc.

You have boys as well, Xenia? Don't they hand-write notes to their hosts too? If not, why not?

Ponders · 30/06/2011 23:45

where does it say she upset the dog? I've read the "full text" in several places & can't find anything about the dog Confused

mayorquimby · 30/06/2011 23:50

Seems to be two versions doing the rounds. in the full one linked above it says Edward, her husband. In the version I originally saw It says bomber has been left in a state of distress de to her poor manners.

"I am being kept awake ? or woken early ? by Bomber who is so profoundly upset by your behaviour on your recent visit that he is depressed and anxious."

lachesis · 30/06/2011 23:55

Xenia, a graduate of the Carole Thatcher Charm School . . .

puffling · 30/06/2011 23:56

According to (what I think is)her friends reunited entry, Heidi worked on a summer camp for inner city children in America. Why would an uncouth and slatternly young woman give up her time to work with those less fortunate than herself?
I think Mrs Bourne has shown herself to be a vicious and vindictive piece of work. She won't live this down and she doesn't deserve to.

lachesis · 30/06/2011 23:59

Did Thomas Campion marry Amaryllis, or kowtow to Mummy when the former fell pregnant because Mummy said Amaryllis wasn't good enough for precious Thomas?

lachesis · 01/07/2011 00:04

Oh, but, puffling, you see, she's just a PA.

People like Mrs Bourne really put Britain in a bad light, tbh. People like this should be the subject of scorn and ridicule. As someone pointed out, Her Majesty wouldn't write such a diatribe. Apparently, her own husband queried why she bowed her head when Diana's funeral hearse passed her and she replied that the lady was the mother of the future king.

All my children write or sign their thank you notes, boys included, as they can.

Jux · 01/07/2011 00:25

it's all Freddie's fault. He's said to Heidi "Look love, you'll get tiny portions cuz you're a girl, so just help yourself if you need more. You've been working long hours and organising this whole wedding and all that, you're knackered so don't worry about getting up early, cuz I won't be. Oh and if you stay in bed awhile, I'll nip across the corridor when they're all downstairs having brekkie and we can have a bit of a cuddle and then have a decent bite a bit later when the old bag's out of the way, you know what she's like......"

Little did he know how utterly without breeding, how uncouth and vulgar his stepmum really was.

lachesis · 01/07/2011 00:58

I hope Freddie told her where to stick it. Obviously, he gave enough of a satisfactory answer that the wedding is going ahead.

Longtalljosie · 01/07/2011 06:59

I think the starting before everyone else may be a real sign she was having blood sugar problems. Given that Mrs Bourne thinks diabetes is "no excuse", an apologetic "I'm sorry, I'm going to have to start" wouldn't have been enough. Presumably the woman would have thought it would have been equally gauche and drawing attention to herself if she'd actually gone hypo.

Does anyone else think Xenia might have finally jumped the shark?

Jux · 01/07/2011 08:13

In our family we expect people to start as soon as they are served, otherwise the food goes cold. If you've gone to the trouble of serving a guest first (which you should) then it's the height of rudeness to expect them to sit there watching their food gently congealing on the plate, while everyone else gets served, and therefore gets their food at a hotter temperature.

It's these nouveau riche. No idea, just snobbishness. Like the ladies withdrawing so the gentlemen can smoke and have interesting conversations. No one with any real manners does that any more (my MIL does, and expects the 'girls' to talk about babies.....).

Jux · 01/07/2011 08:15

And whoever said it upthread: no way can this woman have any breeding. She grows pinks.

CoteDAzur · 01/07/2011 08:22

"Where does it suggest that the wedding plans are anything other than a joint decision by the couple, being paid for by the couple?"

Here: "ladylike and gracious to lower your sights and have a modest wedding as befits both your incomes."

Jux · 01/07/2011 08:30

She has no business telling them how to spend their money though, regardless of their incomes. If they want to save for 100 years to pay for it that's up to them. If they want to get a massive loan which they'll be paying off for the next 100 years, it's their business. It only becomes her business if she is being expected to pay for it herself. I see nothing that implies that.

Height of bad form telling other people how to spend their money.

Fact is, the woman doesn't want them to have the wedding they want. Sounds like she doesn't actually want the wedding to happen at all.

SpringHeeledJack · 01/07/2011 08:30

that doesn't indicate that anyone else is paying for it, iykwim

they could be borrowing it from the bank- pretty standard practice, as far as I know

and MIL could- possibly- be jealous? after all, there's nowt like a huuuge fuck off wedding to put some noses out of joint...

SpringHeeledJack · 01/07/2011 08:31

x-posts

mine was to Cote

Xenia · 01/07/2011 08:53

The girls are the older ones and my older son hasn't been to stay with a friend at their country house etc. I think it's a matter of learning the culture of the group of people amongst whom you put yourself and that could be taking shoes off at the door because in that religion or culture shoes are unclean or sitting only with women because men and women don't mix in that religion or culture (I don't just mean some Jews, Muslims here but also women leaving when port is passed etc at those country houses and all those other sexist practices).

There is always the issue of whether you stand up for what you regard as objective moral issues such as speaking out if you see racism or sexism. In some cases it can be the best moral decision to challenge the tradition and by kow towing to it you embed the sexism, racism (or in this case classism I suppose if that is a word) and in other cases the more polite course is not to object. In this case it sounds like the fiance put the nose sout of joint of her guest and a letter most of us would not have sent was sent back.

Apparently she and her boyfriend did reply but that is not available presuambly because the parents didn't see fit to distribute it around in the way the finance had done.

OP posts:
Riveninside · 01/07/2011 09:03

Most people try and make guests feel welcome. Can you imagine how much fun that house 'Hiundspool or spill ' is at xmas? Grin

radiohelen · 01/07/2011 09:38

I have to say I have fallen victim to the writing notes set. There was much pursing of lips when I failed to send a card to my husband's family the first time I visited.... Also I regularly get it in the neck when I fail to send thank you cards for presents and stuff. My MiL regularly calls me to remind me of various birthdays for remote members of the family. Bear in mind that the first Christmas I went there we sat in a circle at around 10am, after breakfast on Christmas morning, not a present opened, and read through all the cards that had been sent, including the crap poems inside, with comments on how lovely they were and how kind it was of xxxx to think of them.
I am actually now thinking that the email of thanks is not enough and I should be sending a hand written card to the nice family that let us use their house in France for our holiday.

The BourneMater may be a harridan but she's not alone. There are a lot of them out there, hidden away behind laurel hedges tutting to themselves. The trouble is, you don't know you've got one until its too late and then you have to learn fast or resign yourself to being thought uncouth.

fedupofnamechanging · 01/07/2011 09:58

Would much rather spend a weekend with Heidi's family than with the 'Bourne's'.

Heidi is no more 'marrying in' to their family than poor Freddie is marrying in to Heidi's. They are just two people getting hitched. The way Mrs Bourne is carrying on, you'd think Freddie was heir to the throne.

I honestly can't see what Heidi did, that was so awful she deserved to receive such a staggeringly rude email. I also don't think she should have to adapt, long term, to fit in with people who display such appalling snobbery. There is no excuse for the dig at the bride's parents.

Would love to see the joint reply sent by Heidi and Freddie Grin

GinSlinger · 01/07/2011 10:31

radiohelen - Perhaps I'm getting old but I think I'd expect a handwritten note to thank me for lending my house in France to someone for a holiday. Even just a postcard while people were holidaying there would be nice. But the MIL in this case is wrong on lots of levels.

greencolorpack · 01/07/2011 10:43

Having read that I feel vindicated that I have absolutely banned my children from ever self importantly declaring their food dislikes in public. Perhaps my daughter would be an acceptable bride for Freddie when she's older.

Hullygully · 01/07/2011 11:02
SoupDragon · 01/07/2011 11:05

Xenia, for the love of all that is holy, please sort your auto correct out so that it doesn't replace fiancé/fiancee with finance.

Georgimama · 01/07/2011 11:11

I was trying to make head or tail of where the dog came into it. The version I read had the FIL's name in the second sentence. So it was the dog who was profoundly upset, distressed and anxious?

Oh my pelvic floor can't take this.