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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Fiancé just told me he only proposed to shut me up.

154 replies

olaplexy · 28/02/2022 21:24

Name changed for this because I’m so embarrassed and I don’t want it linked to other threads where I’ve talked about how happy we are.

Fiancé and I got engaged last summer after being together for 7 years. Booked a wedding venue in autumn for autumn 2022. We had different ideas about the wedding, he wanted something bigger and I wanted something smaller and we compromised at something imbetween. I’ve gone through stages of being excited to plan and looking forward to the day and stages of wishing we could just elope and be married, as that is what I am most excited for - being married. I’ve expressed this to him and he has told me he finds it wearing. But I’ve been the one who has done 80% of the planning, form filling, finding vendors. In fact the only job he had was to book the registrar and he hasn’t done that yet.

Anyway, we’ve had a tough few weeks with some stuff going on in his family that’s made us both worried about how it will impact our day. I was just feeling sad about how I can’t get excited about the day at the moment and he asked me what we could to do make it better. I said we couldn’t do much within the parameters of what we already had booked/who we had invited etc. I then said he didn’t seem very excited about the wedding either, and he agreed. I asked him what he would change if we didn’t have any deposits etc paid and he said he would cancel what we had booked, and just have a long engagement and not think about a wedding until we both had a special day planned.

I then said I’d do the opposite - if just get married in a registry office asap and start married life. He told me he didn’t want to waste our one wedding day on a shit wedding and why would I want to do that. The argument suddenly escalated, with him
saying nasty things about my parents wedding and me asking why he wanted to cancel the wedding.

He suddenly started being really cold and nasty, and told me he only proposed to shut me up because I kept nagging him, he’s sick of trying to make me happy and I have an empty, bottomless void inside me that means I’ll always be miserable. He was so unpleasant.

We then carried on talking and he said he’d only said that to be mean, and he thought I was trying to railroad him into getting married without his family (which I wasn’t - I’ve been the only one to make compromises on that because my ideal
wedding has 0 guests!) and I’d gone into the conversation with an agenda.

I’m sat upstairs now not knowing how to proceed from here. He made me feel like I was in the wrong? But I don’t know why you would ever say to the person you’re engaged to you didn’t want to propose unless you actually mean it? I don’t know what to do.

OP posts:
SofiaJessica4 · 03/03/2022 21:46

my ex husband was like this. not with the nasty comments but with the gaslighting and the refusal to hear what I had to say. IMO the post re respectful relationships is spot on. Can he change? It's an exhausting thing to live with if he won't

lightand · 03/03/2022 22:12

@olaplexy

Thank you so much for all your advice. I’m reading it all but my head is spinning. I appreciate the support and kindness so much. I couldn’t talk to anyone about this in real life yet, I’d be so embarrassed, so this is such a help.

I’m oscillating between wondering if it wasn’t that big a deal? He clearly doesn’t think it was if he just came in like we’d had a silly row..? Like, am I over-reacting? Am I just escalating this? and then agreeing with most of you this was a really horrid thing to say.

My opinion, it was a silly row, but find out what his real thoughts are about things, from time to time.
EllaVaNight · 03/03/2022 22:23

I think some men who don't want to get married bang on about a big expensive once in a lifetime wedding to make it seem like they are interested whilst knowing they can drag out the planning for years.

I wouldn't want to get married anyway but I certainly wouldn't marry someone who has said what your boyfriend has said. You'll be walking down the aisle replaying what he said.

GettingItOutThere · 03/03/2022 22:25

@olaplexy

Thank you so much for all your advice. I’m reading it all but my head is spinning. I appreciate the support and kindness so much. I couldn’t talk to anyone about this in real life yet, I’d be so embarrassed, so this is such a help.

I’m oscillating between wondering if it wasn’t that big a deal? He clearly doesn’t think it was if he just came in like we’d had a silly row..? Like, am I over-reacting? Am I just escalating this? and then agreeing with most of you this was a really horrid thing to say.

sorry OP but he does not want to get married, why would you stay with him?!

raise your standards, i know someone who proposed to move things faster for her. Boyfriend is a waste of space but she cannot see it. sad really

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