I Snapped Back After My Cousin Kept Mocking My Budget Wedding—Now My Family’s Furious

People have different tastes and preferences that tend to spark disagreements with others. In this story, the differences had an impact on the family bond, as the woman continued to receive mocking comments about her wedding choices from her cousin.

Let’s dive into her story:

I (29F) got married at 20. My husband and I were young, desperately in love, and super broke. I was never one to want a big wedding, so we kept it small.

I will admit— my cousin (36F) helped a ton with the decorations. I’m not one to be super into that stuff. I was fine with it, just looking a little plain, but she wanted to make the day special for me, and I appreciated it. I sang her praises the entire day, paid her for helping me after the fact, and literally made a speech the day of the wedding how grateful I was for her.

I should also note that she got married a few months before me in an extremely lavish, extremely expensive wedding. Her wedding day was actually perfect, and everyone still talks about it. However, she got divorced about 4 years ago.

I’m unsure what has caused this, but now any time we are together, she makes fun of my wedding. She mocks how small it was, she mocks how corny the venue was, she insults my bridesmaids and my husband’s family, and how “useless” they were on the day of. I normally don’t react because, honestly, I don’t care about her opinion.

However, today we are at a large Father’s Day gathering with all my family. From the second she saw me, she started ragging on my wedding to her new boyfriend. I’m not sure, but something in my brain just flipped, and I said back to her, “Well, at least I’m still married.”

EVERYONE in my family is upset with me. They said I went below the belt with that comment, but absolutely no one has ever checked her for insulting me over and over and over. Am I wrong?

People on the internet conveyed their thoughts about her situation.

• You can only be pushed so far until you react. She’s clearly jealous of the success of your marriage and has resorted to insulting your wedding to cope with her feelings. Pathetic. Stick to it. © ShaHocks / Reddit
• She started it, and you finished it. Maybe now she’ll learn to keep her mouth shut. She obviously hasn’t learned that if she has nothing nice to say, she should say nothing at all. It’s a fairly simple rule, really.
  And her insistence on ragging on your wedding is truly just her being annoyed that you are still married. She had the big, splashy day, and it didn’t fix her relationship. You had a nice, quiet day and celebrated your relationship instead of making a spectacle of yourself.
  Don’t let anyone down on you for telling her the truth. They are only mad because YOU had the guts to say what THEY have all been thinking.
  The thing is, they were too busy trying to placate her, and you’ve flipped the script. Instead of making your cousin feel better like everyone else, you told the truth. She didn’t like it because you weren’t putting up with her nonsense. © EfficientSociety73 / Reddit
• This wasn’t a one-off; she has been doing this for years. You needed to shut it down.
  My mom got divorced in the 80s. She had 7 sisters, all older. They were all still married to their spouses. They were always complaining about their spouses at gatherings when it was just us girls.
  Most of them had very toxic marriages. They used to demean my mom about how she couldn’t keep a marriage going. Broke a sacred covenant, blah blah blah.
  I finally lost it at a Thanksgiving dinner. Staying married to a bad person doesn’t make you a better person. © PreferenceSeparate11 / Reddit

• It’s so weird to make fun of your wedding in the first place, but 9 years later? What is wrong with her? Did your family hear her making fun of you all these years? If they know this pattern and still take her side, they’re terrible, too. © catsbooksnaps / Reddit
• You put up with her bringing up and insulting one of the most important days of your life for literally no reason, over and over. If it was one time, still awful for her to do, but would say that comment after once might be a little strong... but that’s not the case here.
  Why does a group of people allow someone to say horrible, mean things to someone constantly without saying one word about it, and when the person they’re insulting has had enough and says something back, it’s pearl clutching time? It’s such a ridiculous double standard. © h***macaroley / Reddit
• Just make sure your family members understand that you weren’t responding to a single comment, but to an ongoing mockery from your cousin. And you’d finally had enough, especially given the time & place of her latest act that triggered your response.
  Then, refuse to engage any further on the matter. FWIW, I’m guessing your cousin has now learned to drop the matter. For good. © joemc225 / Reddit

A comment pointed out why she put up with her cousin’s words and did not say anything when she was bothered by it. She replied by saying, “It didn’t bother me because she was going through her divorce and knew she had a lot going on. But now she’s been away from her ex for almost 5 years and is in a much better headspace, so I don’t understand the insults anymore. I haven’t seen her in about a year and a half, so I was really hoping she was over it.”

We at the Bright Side believe that what matters is the life and love you’ve built, not the grandness of your wedding. Be proud of the marriage you’ve nurtured, and the choices you’ve made were understandable. We hope that your family will also look at your situation and not stay on the other side of the coin.

In another story, a woman was blindsided by the plans her son and DIL had decided on when she was unconscious. Find out what happens next through this link.