As a wedding planner, I’ve had my fair share of crazy weddings. From bridezillas to lazy grooms, to the most insane requests. Once, I had a couple who wanted to say their vows on a hot air balloon — only for the bride to realize that she was afraid of heights.
For my wedding, I was so sure that Fred and I were ready. That we had finally gotten everything done right. But I even so, I wanted my colleague, Jenna, to take over the logistics behind the wedding. I wanted to have my moment as a bride.
An orange hot air balloon | Source: Pexels
Fred knew that I was in my element when it came to our wedding, so he left everything to me — other than making sure that there would be sliders are the wedding reception, everything was on me.
We met Jenna in a restaurant about a year before our wedding, and I gave her everything she needed to know in a planner. It was going to be easy for her — all she needed to do was the admin behind the plans. And to bring the vision to life.
“Maya,” she said, sipping on her drink. “This is perfect. You’ve planned everything.”
A wedding planner’s notebook | Source: Pexels
“I just don’t want to be bogged down with the planning part of it,” I said, sipping a cocktail.
“And having you around will be so much better,” Fred chuckled. “Show Maya options that are friendly to my pocket.”
It was all perfect.
Everything was ticking along perfectly, with each detail meticulously planned and poised for what was meant to be the happiest day of our lives.
Until three nights before the wedding, when all hell broke loose.
A couple sitting at a table | Source: Pexels
It must have been around 8PM, and I was unwinding by watching reality television and eating a slice of pie.
I had my nail appointment the next morning, and I was finally starting to feel like a bride. In the past few weeks, Fred and I seemed to find anything and everything to fight about. We argued with no reason, until it was time to sleep.
At least, this week, Fred was staying with his best man.
“Just to get him out of your hair for a bit, Maya,” he said.
“You’ll get no complaints from me,” I told him. “Just keep him out of trouble.”
A brown duffel bag on the floor | Source: Unsplash
I knew that the root of the problem was my soon-to-be mother-in-law, Marlene. The woman was an actress. She loved me in front of everyone else — constantly putting on a show that I was the best thing to happen to Fred.
But what she didn’t know was that months before Fred proposed to me, I had overheard a conversation between them.
“Fred, Maya is not your wife. She’s not the type of woman you need. You need the exact opposite of her,” Marlene whispered furiously when we were having dinner at her home one evening.
“Mom, Maya is the only person I want to marry,” Fred said calmly.
“You’ll regret it, Fred. Just you wait,” Marlene threatened.
People sitting around a dinner table | Source: Unsplash
But as I sat there, watching TV, I picked up my phone to text Fred. I hadn’t spoken to him for most of the day and I was starting to get worried.
The doorbell ringing shook me out of my head.
That’s probably him, I thought to myself as I opened the door.
But no.
The person standing on the other side was a delivery man, holding a huge bouquet of flowers.
“That’s beautiful,” I said. “Who is it from?”
“There’s a card, ma’am,” the delivery man said.
He handed the bouquet to me and turned around to walk down the stairs.
A bouquet of flowers | Source: Pexels
“Oh, Fred,” I said, sniffing the flowers.
Sending me random flowers was something that he would do.
But then I read the card and my heart dropped into the pit of my stomach.
I Don’t was written on the card.
All the air inside my lungs suddenly went out. I sat down on the couch and cried my heart out.
After a few hours, I called Fred about twenty times. He never picked up.
A woman holding a phone at night | Source: Pexels
I called Jenna. I needed someone objective, who would look at the situation with fresh eyes. I needed someone who wouldn’t want to be on my side or Fred’s. I needed someone unbiased who would tell me the truth.
While Jenna was on her way to my apartment, I began to spiral. I was thinking the worst. That Fred had been hurt and was in hospital room all alone.
“Thank goodness,” I said, opening the door. “I think we need to go to the emergency room and look for Fred there.”
Jenna looked at me closely for a moment. I knew she was wondering what on earth had happened.
“Fine,” she agreed. “I’ll drive.”
We got to the emergency room and there was nobody matching my fiancé’s description.
“Let me take you home,” Jenna said, steering me to the car.
In the car, I told her all about the flowers and the message on the card.
An emergency sign at a hospital | Source: Pexels
We got home and I asked Jenna to leave. I didn’t know what else to do about the entire episode.
I called Marlene, who ignored my calls, too.
In the early hours of the morning, Fred finally called me back — my phone waking me up.
It turned out that he had gone out to have one last night of drinks with his friends.
Fred was plastered, he was barely coherent and his tone was full of surprise.
“Flowers? What flowers?” he slurred over the phone.
The plot thickened when it came to light that Fred really had absolutely nothing to do with the ominous floral arrangement.
He eventually let it slip that he had passed out at his friend’s place, and would stay there until the morning.
A man passed out on the floor | Source: Pexels
Marlene had to be the anonymous person behind the flowers.
Now that the wedding was so close, she probably couldn’t handle that it was actually happening.
The following morning, I invited Marlene over to my apartment.
“It’s important,” I said into the phone. “It’s about Fred. I’m worried.”
I knew that was the only line to get her to me.
“Do you want me to marry Fred or not?” I asked her the moment she walked through the door.
An older woman dressed in black | Source: Pexels
“No, I do,” Marlene said, sipping on coffee that she had helped herself to. “It’s just that the two of you are so young. Look at Fred, he went out drinking last night. His brother told me because they were all together. Is that a man ready for marriage?”
I had to give it to Marlene, I had my doubts, too. Not about Fred and his love for me. Never that. I just wondered if he was ready for marriage.
“I don’t know if you’re the right fit,” she said. “When I picture Fred being married, it’s with someone conventional. Someone who wants to have a quiet life with him. You plan weddings, Maya. You’re making a life out of planning parties.”
“That’s not fair and you know it,” I replied. “Did you send the flowers?”
A mug of coffee | Source: Unsplash
Marlene nodded.
“I also told Fred that we spoke. And that you weren’t sure that you wanted to get married. I’m sorry, Maya,” she said coldly. “I just needed to set the seed of doubt. I needed you two to take more time.”
Marlene and I spoke for hours. And eventually, we got through our differences.
Well, enough for her to give me her blessing to marry Fred over the weekend.
“But I’m going to meet Fred now,” Marlene said. “And I’m going to give him a piece of my mind, darling. No man should be drunk and passed out just days before their wedding.”
A bride getting dressed | Source: Pexels
On the morning of our wedding, as Fred and I said our vows — nobody could have imagined the turmoil that we had faced a few days before getting married.
There were laughs, there were tears, and there was a whole lot of reconciling. The guests loved the wedding — they ate to their hearts content and danced throughout the night.
Later, when Fred and I drove off for our honeymoon, Marlene cried, finally accepting that she had gained a daughter in me.
Or, so I hoped.
A bride and groom standing next to a car | Source: Pexels
In the end, things went as planned. And I’m grateful that there was a happily ever after, because despite it all — I needed Marlene to accept me before our wedding.
I needed to know that deep down, she cared. Although her flower delivery had threatened everything.
But now, at least my wedding is over. I only have to worry about the wedding of strangers to come.
Rings on a wedding planner | Source: Pexels
Do you have any weird and wonderful wedding stories?
