I watched a wedding DISASTER in real time... I think they'll be divorced in a year! -r/weddingshaming | Reddit Stories | EP3087

0:00 Hey, this is Angie.

0:01 And this is Riley, your favorite OK Storytime host. And we got some great stories coming up.

0:05 But before that, we have a quick two-minute break from our sponsors that keep the show alive.

0:11 I watched a wedding disaster in real time. I think they'll be divorced in a year.

0:15 That's actually not a bad marriage.

0:16 I went to a wedding where the maid of honor speech was about 10 minutes of her talking about how many times the couple broke up and got back together. No. And how much she hated him when she first met him and grew to hate him more and more every time he broke up with the bride. That's like the type of speech where you're like, okay, when does it?

0:36 Where is this leading to?

0:37 Yeah.

0:38 She's like, I hated him so much. She talked about a night she and the bride stayed up all night consoling her through yet another breakup with the groom. Of course, she made sure to include the story of how she and the bride actually stopped talking for a chunk of time because of him. I forgot that this is the maid of honor who's making this speech. Yikes.

0:59 That's good context to have.

1:00 Yeah, yeah. This is not the bride saying, oh, yeah, we broke up a bunch of times.

1:04 That is what I thought it was. And I was like, how are they? How did they even get married?

1:07 How are they still together? Yeah, yeah.

1:08 No, it's.

1:09 Well, they're not. It's been a year probably.

1:10 It's only a year. This was like a 200-person wedding, and the entire ballroom kept looking around, staring at each other in disbelief. Thankfully, the best man went after her and nailed it. No one forgot the maid of honor speech, but it definitely softened the blow. You can't forget that. You go home and tell everyone you know about that speech.

1:27 Yeah, someone probably livestreamed it, honestly.

1:29 Yeah, they're like, chat, what do you think about this maid of honor speech? Top 10 maid of honor fails. It's WatchMojo, actually. Our friend's dad owned the venue, so when the servers started coming out, we reserved our food before the bride and groom. Our friend was mortified and apologized profusely to the whole table. And she wasn't BSing.

1:49 She looked like she was on the verge of tears. By the way, this comes from throw7790away. And if you want to submit your own stories, go to the r slash okstorytime subreddit. I'm Sophia.

2:00 What up?

2:01 I'm Aaron. I'm a comic sometimes for some reason. I also do data analytics for IHOP.

2:06 Thank you so much for joining us. Aaron's going to help us read.

2:08 Yeah.

2:09 He can do it.

2:10 I can read. I really learned how. And I can prove it, but she won't let me.

2:14 I won't let him. Opie says, thankfully, I don't think the wedding party realized. But what then you thinks that's the right decision? Anyway, the bride and groom did their first dance, mother, son, father, daughter, etc. And then we're off taking pictures, I guess. Maybe a quickie.

2:32 What?

2:32 Crazy.

2:32 Crazy.

2:33 At the wedding?

2:33 I don't think so.

2:34 I don't think so.

2:35 Probably just taking pictures.

2:36 Probably normal wedding stuff.

2:39 I think the person who wrote this might be a freak.

2:42 Yeah, they're like, maybe it was a quickie.

2:43 Maybe it was a quickie, and that's what.

2:46 I was hoping for. And dinner was long over, and we were all just awkwardly sitting at our tables waiting for the dance floor to open up. One of the bridesmaids caught on to how bored everyone was, so she took it upon herself to get the DJ going and started the dancing. And everyone finally started having fun. That fun came to a halt when the bride came back and got mad at the bridesmaid for doing this. Yelling at her saying, she wanted to be the one who started the dancing. The DJ also didn't let a single song play all the way through without some random transition into the next song. Or just getting on the microphone to yell some random sentences trying to be a very bad hype man. Have you been to a lot of weddings?

3:25 Uh.

3:25 Yeah, I've been to a good amount.

3:27 Yeah, I've been to a lot of family weddings, and every so often there's a bad DJ.

3:33 Yeah, I think the best wedding I've been to had a very good DJ and made all the difference.

3:38 I thought you were going to be like, the best wedding had a terrible DJ. Yeah, the DJ really counts.

3:43 Yeah, it sounds like the DJ just wasn't doing his job.

3:47 At the end of the night, the DJ made an announcement that they had a special guest. And out came the groom's college mascot. Maybe this would be fun if it was a big party school or a school with a ton of school spirit. But like everyone who went there, my fiance included, hated it. Got out of there as soon as possible. They didn't even have a football team.

4:08 The mascots presence also came as a shock to the bride who wasn't told about this idea. And we could see them in the back of the room bickering about it. I mean, sort of fair, but keep it under wraps until y'all get home. The bride and groom invited everyone out to the bars after, and literally all of our friends except those in the wedding party chose to go home because at that point, all we wanted was our beds and not in a fun way. We got updates from our wedding party friends in the group chat. Bride was again yelling at that one bridesmaid who was now crying.

4:40 Groomsmen blacked out. Someone lost their credit card. The bride and groom were still bickering about the mascot. Bride later threw up on her dress. Girl. There's a little bit left of this story. Do you have any final thoughts?

4:54 Honestly, I just, I have no final thoughts. I have a lot of questions.

4:58 I don't know if I can answer them, but ask away.

5:00 Like, so one, the maid of honor, she wrote this, right?

5:05 I think OP is just like a person attending the wedding, yeah.

5:08 Wedding attendee.

5:09 Yeah, she's just a regular gal.

5:12 I guess final thoughts are that one year might be a little ambitious, honestly.

5:16 Yeah, for this wedding. I'm impressed if they could get to that.

5:21 I'm honestly impressed that they didn't divorce before OP wrote this story.

5:25 Then about a week after the wedding, anyone who didn't give a gift or cash, the groom reached out to them via text asking if their credit cards weren't working on the registry website. I have my opinions on no gifters, but regardless, I had the hardest time choosing between flares. OMG, it was a nightmare. And edit to add, when the couple got engaged, the groom's best friend sat him down and told him no one really likes his fiancee. and asks him if he actually wanted to go through with it, they'll be divorced in a year. Yikes.

5:56 Can we go back to the him hounding guests for gifts? That's crazy, right?

6:02 That is insane. It is a little bit bad for a person to not give a wedding gift, but you're just like, oh, that person kind of, you know, they're not who I thought they were, but you keep that to yourself.

6:12 Yeah, like, you know when someone hits you with the Venmo reminder? This feels like that, but more personal.

6:18 Yeah.

6:18 It's like if someone texted you and was like, hey, they had a birthday party and they're like, where's my gift?

6:25 Where's my gift? This is paid, right? How much am I getting for this?

6:28 Oh, yeah.

6:29 Your issues. Venmo reminder. I hated my wedding and I want a remake.

6:35 Lucky for you, 50% of marriages end in divorce.

6:38 I hated my wedding on the day I was happy because I can honestly say I married my best friend. But looking back, I'm filled with regret and outright sadness over the event itself. We had an extremely small wedding with only 14 people, but it was still pricey and involved a lot of planning.

6:55 How much planning do you really need for a 14-person wedding? That's a dinner.

6:59 Yeah, you could do that on a school night.

7:03 That's not a wedding.

7:03 That's like a small gathering.

7:06 We got married at the courthouse, then had a cocktail hour in a private room in a fancy restaurant, followed by a sit-down multi-course meal, a dessert hour, food was delicious, I'll say that, and wrapped up the night at a bar where the tab was covered as well. I had planned things meticulously despite the small size. Still, so many things went wrong that day.

7:26 How many things can go wrong at a 14-person wedding? Do you just marry the wrong person?

7:30 Yeah, that's the wrong thing. Oh, he's like, well, 13 people showed up. So already we're off to a bad start.

7:36 It's unlucky.

7:37 Yeah, it's just unlucky. Yeah, someone has to leave or someone has to come.

7:41 Also, I do want to say, I like how she was like, the tab was covered by, it's a wedding. I would hope that the bar tab is covered.

7:47 For starters, the professional bridal hair company I'd hired just flat out didn't show up. I cannot say who it was, as they literally made me sign a non-disclosure to get my money back. It was a nightmare. Due to this, we were very late for photos. By the way, this comes from YayDeno, and if you want to submit your own stories, go to the r slash showcase story time subreddit.

8:07 I'm Sophia.

8:09 I'm YayDeno underscore one.

8:11 What?

8:12 This is your story?

8:13 No, it's just a weird coincidence.

8:14 That's Aaron. Hey, I'm Aaron.

8:16 Opie says, my parents went to City Hall and not the courthouse and almost missed our time slot. and proceeded to scream at me despite the text instructions I'd sent being very clearly accurate. The cake was objectively disgusting and flat-out ugly. I was actually embarrassed. We had who we thought was a close friend choose to go on a cruise that same weekend. They let it slip one night that this was not an accident, and they knew about our day. Could have chosen another time.

8:44 It was almost a 15-person wedding.

8:45 Now that's a party.

8:46 Yeah, if you went over 14, everything before then, again, a gathering.

8:51 A gathering.

8:51 But 15.

8:52 Now that's a wedding.

8:53 Now we're at a wedding, yeah.

8:54 We have no idea what we did to this friend to make them do that. We got the hint, though, regardless, and stopped communicating with them. We've got a little bit left to this story. How do you, what does OP do in this situation where everything's going wrong?

9:09 So I'm not going to lie. Initially, I was like, why would you throw another wedding? But now I'm like, honestly, you never even threw a wedding.

9:15 Yeah, you didn't. You didn't have 15 people there. You could just add one more person and then.

9:20 You, yeah. Because obviously the other person is probably going to go. I just keep switching. I'm just going to keep switching back and forth and give someone a seizure.

9:27 Yeah, yeah.

9:28 That's what we want.

9:30 So, yeah, I mean, the friend who went on a cruise, do you think they still get the invite for the next one or no?

9:35 No, I think they're done. They're cut off?

9:38 They should do the next wedding on a cruise, same cruise, and not invite them. And then it's a statement.

9:43 We had another friend blurt out at dinner, is this free? I want to keep drinking. Yes, it was free to her. We paid. Then she proceeded to order the most expensive whiskey they had. She literally asked the waitress what the most expensive one was, as if it was owed to her because she showed up.

9:59 No comment.

10:00 Or nothing from her gift-wise after that behavior, too.

10:02 Wow.

10:03 You have bad friends. I think we just should start over because you have bad friends.

10:07 Yeah, honestly, at this point, she could throw another wedding and just all new people. It's like you never even had a wedding in the first place.

10:14 And another friend showed up in completely dirty clothing from biking all day. No, I'm not kidding. He's an avid bicyclist and straight up showed up like that. Then I got an earful from my parents for weeks about how stupid it was that we had a honeymoon fund on the cake table in the corner of the room, despite not having a registry or bridal shower or bachelorette or bachelor parties and all expenses being covered by us. And each thought we never mentioned it or anything at all.

10:42 Is it crazy that I want to redo?

10:44 Honestly, not crazy.

10:45 Not crazy. If you were saying, I had a 100-person wedding in, I don't know, like Italy, and I want to do a redo of that, I'd be like, that's silly. You don't need all that.

10:56 I think run it back.

10:57 Yeah, I think you could do it again.

10:59 Run it back. You have to invite us.

11:01 Yeah, you can hire us. You have to pay us.

11:05 We're going to bike there, though. We care about the environment.

11:07 We do, we do. We don't want to, you know. Use gas or anything. But we'll be at your wedding and it'll be way better. Yeah.

11:13 You're welcome.

11:15 And that's the end of the story. We're going to go on to the next one.

11:18 The bridezilla banned her bridesmaids from getting pregnant, so they quit.

11:22 If we can't get impregnated, we're done here.

11:26 One of my sister-in-laws is a psychologist who has the unfortunate pleasure of working with an atrociously self-centered me-me-me type. And my sister-in-law actually knows what she's talking about, who's getting married later this year. The private clinic where they work has a number of these types because the practice actively goes after rich, high-profile clients, offering them a fancy Hilton of healthcare experience. The management is even more toxic, and everything is about pandering to wealthy clients, even when it puts proper care at risk. My sister-in-law stays because the hours are flexible and she can charge high fees, so her student debt is vanishing fast. and they'll be able to put down a sizable deposit for a place

12:07 in a nice area. Anyway, I get to hear about a lot of the goings-on because a lot of the staff come to her to vent, since she's such a sweetheart and is seen as a neutral ground. So Melissa, not her real name, is particularly the bane of everyone's existence because she's the daughter of the clinic's owners. Ah, nepotism!

12:26 Melissa was placed into a management role straight out of university, a job usually reserved for people with years of real experience. She has no management skills, qualifications, or experience. She knows it and knows the only reason she has the job is because her parents own the place. She also knows she's stuck there because if anything happened to the clinic, she'd be unemployable elsewhere since it's not a huge industry and everyone knows everyone. By the way, this comes from Speedy Pete's. And if you want to submit your own stories, go to the r slash showcase story time subreddit. I'm Sophia.

12:59 I'm Dakota.

13:00 And we're here to give good advice goofily, but we don't have all the answers. So if you've got answers, put them down below. And Opie says she likes to bully staff who can't defend themselves and is the biggest suck up to anyone she thinks she can use or who's a famous or wealthy client. Toxic 101, basically. She makes everyone's daily life about her and whatever wannabe IG famous thing she dreams up. Yes, Melissa also thinks she's an influencer of some status and trendsetter. Except almost everything she does is a painful copy of the million others who've already done the same thing. Honestly, though, that's how you do it.

13:36 Yeah, I'm sensing.

13:37 A little bit of a tilt on OP's perspective here.

13:42 It doesn't even feel like OP actually knows this person. It's just through the eyes of her cousin. Her cousin?

13:48 Sister-in-law.

13:49 A sister-in-law who hates Melissa.

13:52 And like, yeah, Nepo baby.

13:53 Yeah, Melissa comes home and she's like, let me tell you about this Nepo baby Instagram wannabe, freaking terrible at her job. And Opie's like, wow, let me tell, and then she comes to Reddit, let me tell you about my sister-in-laws.

14:08 Yeah, let me tell you about Melissa.

14:10 Including her upcoming wedding to some minor sporting star. Every morning team meeting, they're given an update on Melissa's wedding progress in excruciating detail.

14:19 In the team meeting?

14:20 Yes, in the team meeting. They're like, okay, so we're going to have some new clients coming in and also Melissa's wedding. Don't forget everyone. She wants you to look at the wedding registry.

14:29 Imagine we had a team meeting and it was like a chunk of it was dedicated to all of us updating everyone on our relationships.

14:35 Are we single dating? What's happening? She's been planning this for over a year already, and woe betide anyone who dares to point out they need to get on with actual work during her updates. There's no conversation anyone can have that she won't insert herself and her wedding into constantly. It seems like she's desperately trying to outdo her future sister-in-law's wedding. The sister of Melissa's fiancé, who's apparently a lovely down-to-earth guy, as is his sister. That sister-in-law is married to a major professional sportsman and is one of the local celebrity wives. So far, the wedding planning madness has included six weeks of barely doing any actual work while she contacted venues, a destination wedding, of course, during

15:17 work hours trying to find something flashier that would be the right aesthetic for us. Yet part of that aesthetic is having the most bland, predictable menu, think nuggets and chips, that she's already drawn up, including how it would be prepared and served on the day. Melissa presented those demands as non-negotiable to the venues because of her supposed life-risking allergies, which conveniently aren't trouble when she wants to eat something someone brought in for their own lunch at work. These are venues known for their world-class chefs and creative food, so she was most surprised... read furious when turned down by most.

15:53 Of them we're we're not doing dino nuggies at the three star michelin deconstruction restaurant.

16:01 They deconstruct the nuggets it's yeah.

16:03 It's just a whole baby chicken that's alive.

16:06 Dang i think that's illegal in most.

16:08 Places the meal is that you have to take it home and raise.

16:10 It oh interesting and then you have to you have to unalive it yourself.

16:15 Yeah, you actually, you set two reservations at the restaurant, one for when you pick up the chicken and then you have the second reservation to bring it in and it gets slaughtered and turned into your food.

16:24 One place eventually agreed to do her menu, but at a massive premium per head. A month-long saga about invitations. I never thought choosing a font and envelope size could be so fraught. She also posted on her socials every time, another batch flying with love, when invitations were put in a postbox. A month of drama posted online with her over-the-top teary reaction videos asking each of her 11 bridesmaids, 10 maids, one maid of honor, will you be my bridesmaid?

16:53 They said yes. Done over a month because she took them each out to dinner, complete with personalized cakes, asking the question at ridiculously expensive restaurants. Once they had agreed, the poor things were given a contract to sign, which was live-streamed to some kind of Zoom meeting with the bride and groom's family watching. It included task lists, rules, and financial obligations, with immense pressure to sign right there during the meeting. Looks like those poor women are going to be funding a lot of things because, of course, the bride does not pay for her special day. I mean, like, famously, yes, they do.

17:26 Yeah, that's kind of how it works, you know? Like, yeah.

17:29 And if you can't afford that, You can't have a wedding.

17:33 The contract is crazy work. I'd be like, oh, sorry, no, this is weird.

17:39 There are multiple week-long destination events that bridesmaids are expected to attend and fund. Bridal showers, yes, plural, a destination week-long bachelorette, and some kind of bridecation, the week of the weddings that the bridesmaids are expected to fund but cannot attend. They're also paying for their own dresses, hair, makeup, artists, accommodation, flights, and a gift for the bride. Any pushback has been met with bullying from Melissa until they give in. She's most recently decided that no one but the videographer and photographer her future sister-in-law used is suitable, so she's using them along with the same bakery and wanting the same DJ.

18:16 That caused issues because the DJ... is a longtime friend of the sister-in-law's father. And when Melissa started demanding they DJ the wedding, he quite rightly told her to foxtrot Oscar. She was also discussing having an additional ceremony coordinator on top of her wedding coordinator and venue coordinators. She's also hiring someone just to make social media content for her so she can have more time to focus on herself during this emotional process. The amount of money being spent must be over the 100k mark. My sister-in-law isn't even sure if the groom's been asked about anything he wants, as Melissa vetoed who he could have as groomsmen, what they can wear, and even what he can do for his stag weekend. The drama today was more of the same.

18:58 In the middle of all this, two other employees had the nerve to independently announce they're getting married. two different people, and Melissa lost it at them very publicly during the meeting. She's apparently putting in a formal complaint about their unprofessional behavior during a staff meeting and wanting them publicly disciplined.

19:16 That is so hypocritical. Dang. Dang. We're going to be like, I can't believe they would talk about their weddings during our work meeting. Only I can do that. Ridiculous.

19:28 Like, what does she think is going to happen?

19:31 She thinks she's fully bulletproof, but like, Now she's starting something that's going to end with it being like, yeah, actually, this is all your fault for making that environment in the first place.

19:43 They're fairly new staff and had no idea no one else is allowed to have a life or a wedding. I'll be interested to see the outcome. because i think they'd have a good case against her and we do have an update and we'll just keep.

19:55 Going yeah i hope they get fired so they can get a wrongful termination lawsuit.

20:00 So the dress has finally been decided according to those who've done this before melissa has cut it extremely close with less than a year to the wedding particularly having it customized quite a bit. It's some exclusive Australian designer gown, tweaked into a backless, strapless, deeply plunging, thigh-high slit, extremely figure-hugging, swarf-ski, of course, encrusted floor-length number with a built-in train that extends a meter or so behind her. In super bright white, of course, and from the pictures, it's quite sheer between the crystal design areas. It looks like one of those gowns where you look amazing standing up or walking down the aisle, but doing anything else is going to be uncomfortable and you need several people to help you go

20:42 to the bathroom. Someone asked how Melissa was going to dance at the reception as they're doing some complex choreographed bridal dance involving all the bridesmaids and groomsmen. This is when she revealed she'll be wearing a different dress for the reception with more stretch in rose gold. Her theme colors are rose gold, apricot, and dark navy blue. which actually seems quite lovely. So I wonder if they're the same as her future sister-in-law's wedding colors, whom she copies slavishly.

21:08 The mothers and grandmothers are restricted to apricot outfits. The bridesmaids will be in dark navy and something figure-hugging. That leads into the recent bridesmaid drama. As part of the agreement they all signed, Melissa included clauses about none of them being allowed to get publicly engaged, married, or change their appearance significantly. That last part is decided at the discretion of Melissa, because she's obviously dictated a certain look they all must have and chosen the bridesmaids accordingly. Melissa is in her mid-30s and the bridesmaids are of similar age.

21:39 This is where the problem rose. A couple of the bridesmaids had been very quietly going through IVF, and although not currently pregnant, Melissa found out and demanded they cease trying until after the wedding, reminding them they agreed not to make significant appearance changes. Quite rightly, they told her she was out of her mind and they wouldn't be stopping.

21:58 Because any disruption to their plans could mean the difference between never or ever having children. So they got told they were no longer in the bridal party. Well, dang, dang, oh man, I can't be in the bridal party where I have to pay thousands of dollars.

22:16 I'm sure that's not going to start the dominoes of all of your bridesmaids pulling out because they're not going to foot the $ 20, 000 bill you're trying to give them.

22:26 My sister-in-law says Melissa has been going on and on about how dare they ruin their wedding and has been very ostentatiously in contact with her parents' lawyers because she's having trouble getting others to take their place. Maybe news traveled fast about the outrageous demand. I presume she thinks her ridiculous contract can actually be enforced. Personally, I think they might end up being the lucky ones getting f * * * ed out before they did end up expecting and Melissa detrimentally affecting the pregnancy. Another update! I'm just really curious what Melissa is telling OP's sister-in-law. Because it seems like OP's sister-in-law has kind of somehow intuited what the bridesmaids are feeling. She's intuited the bad stuff underneath what Melissa

23:11 is telling. And I need to know how she did that and what Melissa is saying.

23:15 I'm sure everyone around the office is talking about the insane contracts.

23:22 I'm sure.

23:23 They're probably like, oh, can we see those contracts? Just say more. I feel like everyone is, you know what I think is happening? I think Melissa is both telling everyone things, but everyone is so invested in this insane story that they're not asking her questions.

23:36 Yeah.

23:37 They're just rolling with, they're like, I'd like to see how this plays out. And she's got like a clause in the contract. It's like, and also I, I'm forever like the prettiest princess and no one will, none of you will ever be prettier than me.

23:49 And that's a rule.

23:50 My magic mirror told me that I'm the prettiest princess in the world.

23:54 Yes, I have to be the prettiest princess or my magic mirror will suck your soul out and you'll live in my magic mirror.

23:59 Update two. There was more drama, of course. And yes, the wedding did go ahead in the end. I'm not normally a betting person, but I'd have put good money on it not happening. So I'm glad I didn't. So 11 bridesmaids ended up being six, five maids and a new maid of honor. The original two who were fired for daring to want babies were possibly sent letters by solicitors or not. The posturing went on a while longer and then stopped. The best guess of sister-in-law and her colleagues is that she probably did attempt to make it happen.

24:32 They paid a lot of money consulting the family lawyers, only to be told, diplomatically, that she was out of her mind and no court would uphold her contracts, particularly with evidence of pressure on various meeting recordings.

24:45 That's so funny. I know that lawyer was just like, oh, free money.

24:50 Yeah.

24:50 Oh, you want me to enforce your bridesmaid contract legally?

24:54 Yeah, I'll see what I can do about that.

24:57 Let me bill you for 70 hours.

24:59 Another two bridesmaids bowed out along the way, probably realizing the depth of the insanity and cutting their losses. Her maid of honor apparently got lucky, claimed pregnancy and resigned the position. Finding replacements proved impossible. Surprising, I know. So Melissa eventually had to reduce her number. She was obviously getting desperate, having no luck threatening or cajoling anyone into saying yes. So most likely was told by her family to suck it up and ask her younger and possibly more attractive sister, who was then drafted in as maid of honor.

25:29 Dang, you know that one stings, the hotter sister.

25:33 Melissa and her sister don't get along, so she wasn't the original choice for any position. This meant Melissa pressured the groom to downsize his groomsmen to match her new, best-ever-brands-made team. This was after initially pressuring him to choose 11 people from her pre-vetted list, because 11 was their lucky number. Obviously, some of those gentlemen did not meet Melissa's exacting appearance standards, or were just famous enough to take attention away from her, so they couldn't possibly have been accidentally caught in a photograph. He still did not walk away from this terrible wedding. Melissa had to settle for someone else to DJ, as no amount of tantrums were changing the original person's mind. That became a trash

26:13 fest at one staff meeting about how the original DJ choice was a loser and a second rate and missing out on exposure opportunities as this wedding will be in all the social pages.

26:24 Yeah, I'm sure it's going to be all across town.

26:29 It's sweeping the nation.

26:31 Everyone's talking about Melissa's wedding.

26:34 And also, you owe her $ 50.

26:38 Everyone who read this post owes Melissa money.

26:41 Yes.

26:42 I'm sure whoever DJed on the day wished they could tell her to F off too. So I hope they charged well. The bakery must be used to outlandish demands. So apart from her complaining about how much the cake cost... was relatively drama-free. Most of the pre-wedding events went as well as you'd expect, basically trying to squeeze people for money to fund her fantasy lifestyle. She eventually had to scale back some things because the remaining bridal party simply could not afford all her demands, and she couldn't push them too hard or risk them quitting too. Instead, she hit her parents up to fund some things because daddy never says no to his friends. Daddy funded her bridecation week in full, which I'm surprised more people didn't chip

27:23 in for to get rid of Melissa for a week. Nothing was mentioned about the groom's stag weekend. I don't think he gets one.

27:30 Yeah, they just went to, like, Chili's.

27:32 Yeah, he's like, whatever, I don't even care. Once Melissa and Mr. Melissa returned from her month-long honeymoon, sorry, their honeymoon, more tea was spilled. A sister-in-law and several co-workers obviously don't believe everything Melissa said went wrong, but found it entertaining enough to have a good laugh about it. According to Melissa, she clearly stated this was to be a completely child-free wedding. No children under any circumstances.

27:59 That's why she didn't want the pregnancy.

28:02 Yeah, no children under any circumstances, even if they're in your belly.

28:06 Even if they're not cooked all the way yet.

28:08 Even the ring bearer and flower girls, the children of Melissa's older sister, were supposed to be brought in just before the ceremony. Then the older sister and family were to leave immediately and not attend the reception. Even the sister? The sister and the adult family members had to leave? Well, that did not go to plan, as some guests brought their own young children without warning. That's kind of messed up, though.

28:30 Like to be told it's a child-free wedding and then bring your kids?

28:33 I mean, I would do it just for fun at this point.

28:36 The older sister and husband also refused to leave after the ceremony. So about a dozen small children ended up attending. That caused Melissa an epic meltdown only fixed by the venue graciously offering seating the families in a smaller function room so she did not have to look at them. And daddy agreed to pay the extra. Guess that basic menu food came in handy after all. Then the photographer and videographer ruined everything by having the nerve to actually take pictures of guests, the groom, and the rest of the bridal party, rather than slavishly following only Melissa around all day. There were other things sister-in-law mentioned Melissa allegedly did, but they seemed so unbelievable they discounted them as fabrications.

29:18 Conspiracies about the parents-in-law sabotaging her wedding by encouraging people to ignore her seating plans, and her younger sister deliberately engineering the other bridesmaids to quit so she had to be included. Just out of madness.

29:31 For sure not what happened. You're just way... The sister had nothing to do with that.

29:37 Sister probably didn't even want to be maid of honor.

29:39 Yeah.

29:40 She wasn't even involved in the wedding.

29:42 So they just had another room where they just put people in there and they couldn't see anything.

29:47 They were just somewhere else with their kids eating nuggets. Okay. When you go back, what did it say? It said something back there. Scroll back a little bit.

29:58 I can't remember, but Yeah, the fact that they took pictures of anyone else at the wedding.

30:02 And she's like, they're ruining everything. It's like, she's going to get all her pictures back. And then she's going to send back notes on all the pictures and be like, can you Photoshop all those other people out? And then just put me there. And put me in their place. Can you Photoshop my face onto everyone else?

30:18 Please, can I just be all of the people? Maybe she was only me at my wedding.

30:22 She's crazy.

30:23 By the time they got back from the honeymoon, all was not well. and there were already signs of strain that everything had not gone to plan there either. She was overheard hissing down the phone one day, Well, you have to have spicy sleep to get pregnant, and he's refusing to come near me since the first week. Yeah, I don't think he likes you.

30:40 I wouldn't like you anymore.

30:42 Maybe there's hope for him. To end on a more positive note, I have some other news. My beautiful sister-in-law found out she's expecting and is due mid-year. A girl. Luckily, all the wedding drama was over before she'd have to say anything at work. This gives her the perfect way out of the clinic if she decides to take it.

31:00 Management stupidly hasn't been looking for someone to cover her maternity leave. My sister-in-law offered to train the person up to speed, but they were lukewarm at best, so she's expecting this to bite them hard if they leave it until she's already on leave, because she said she won't be putting herself.

31:15 Out for them.

31:17 No, sir.

31:18 No, sirree.

31:19 Wow. Um, yeah.

31:21 Well, I'm glad that your sister-in-law has gotten all the money that she needs and is going to have her baby and be done. Yeah.

31:27 It's so funny that the manager who is that Melissa is just like, no, you baby, you're still working.

31:34 What do you mean?

31:35 You'll probably give birth to the baby here and then the baby will start working and then you can.

31:39 Take a break.

31:40 Yeah. Thank you. Sorry. It's my world.

31:43 I am.

31:43 I'm I'm put my face on every person in the world.

31:46 As was clearly stated in my contract, any child you have immediately works for me.

31:52 And that's the end of the story. We're going to go on to the next one.

31:55 Hey, it's Smiley Riley here from OK Storytime. We're going to get back to these stories, but here's three minutes worth of ads from our sponsors.

32:03 I flew to a wedding for my friend, but the bride's family wanted me gone.

32:07 Groom's family pretty chill, though.

32:08 Backstory. I, 26 female, have known the groom, 26 male, since we were in elementary school. He and I were in a very close-knit friend group for years.

32:18 Sorry, can I interject?

32:19 Yes.

32:19 I think I know where this is going.

32:20 He and I were in a very close-knit friend group for years, and his sister is one of my best friends. Four years ago, he expressed he had feelings for me, and I immediately shut it down. Nothing ever happened after that, and we went back to being friends normally. Flash forward to one and a half years ago, he met his bride, 22 female. The friend group never got to know her because the groom completely immersed himself into her social circle.

32:44 The friend group would invite both the groom and bride to multiple events, and they'd never reply or show. The groom's sister told us the bride is very particular about which women the groom interacts with.

32:57 Yikes.

32:57 Red flag there.

32:58 Red flag. Flag on the play.

33:00 Flag on the play. Someone called a referee. The groom distanced himself from the friend group, but we all still considered him a friend. And once we got invited to their destination wedding, my four girlfriends and I RSVP'd yes and booked our flights. Would you go to a wedding for like a person that you, I mean, yeah, I'll still ask this. Would you go to a wedding for a person you were friends with, but for like the last couple of years has kind of ignored you and not come to any events and then they invite you to their wedding?

33:32 I don't know. I guess I think in this case, I probably would because they were homies back in elementary school.

33:35 That's true. That's true. And it's a destination wedding.

33:38 Destination wedding.

33:39 Yeah. Sometimes I guess that can go either way.

33:41 Yeah.

33:41 If it's somewhere cool, then I'm like, you know, I'll clear my schedule. Yeah.

33:45 I guess I'm on vacation.

33:46 Yeah.

33:47 Okay.

33:47 That's fair.

33:48 However, the sister of the groom warned us not to interact too much with the bride because she supposedly is not a fan of us. By the way, this comes from Sarah Livingston, 95. And if you want to submit your own stories, go to the r slash showcase story time subreddit. I'm Sophia.

34:03 Hey, what up?

34:05 I'm, what's my name again?

34:06 Aaron. Aaron, sorry.

34:08 But Aaron's going to help us read these stories and is new here. So say hi. Hi.

34:14 Good job.

34:15 OP says the wedding consisted of three events, two dinners, and the actual reception. Event one was a dinner at a restaurant. The bride's mother, who we'd met a few times, was going around saying hi to everyone. When she came to our table, she acknowledged my three other friends by name. And when I put my hand out to shake, she turned around and walked away. Has she been forewarned of OP?

34:39 She has to know something that we don't know yet.

34:40 Yeah, she's like, mm, woman. I can't talk to her.

34:44 Women, hate them.

34:45 Hate them all. Completely caught me off guard, but I figured it was an accident. That's optimistic. Then at the end of the night, the sister of the bride was walking past our table and was staring at me. When I said hi, she continued to stare and completely ignored me. This is really weird.

35:04 This is toxic. I feel like she... Needs to stop giving people the benefit of the doubt and maybe pick up on some weird energy.

35:09 Yeah, she's like, hello? Just calm out at this wedding.

35:14 Yeah, just be like, I object to the way I've been treated.

35:17 Yeah, yeah. The priest is like, does anyone have anything? Like, I object. I just feel like everyone's been really mean to me today.

35:24 I just feel like I'm getting bullied right now.

35:27 I thought that your wedding would be a safe space, and it's not. I didn't know what to think of the situation, but I brushed it off. The second event. took place at a venue. When we walked in, the bride and groom were already inside, and when we tried to say hi, the bride grabbed the groom's hand and walked away. Later, all the guests were watching the couple take pictures at the front of the room, and the sister of the bride, 19 female, comes up to me directly and says, can you guys just give them some privacy?

35:55 So my friends and I abided and walked away. When they were taking pictures? That's... Okay, so they're taking pictures... Everyone is watching, and they specifically go up to Opie and the friends.

36:08 Like, hey, we just need some privacy in this very public setting.

36:11 Yeah, can you just turn around?

36:12 Thank you. Also, why did she even get, how did she get the invite? That's what I'm, right?

36:18 It's so weird to me that the bride, I mean, you know, I don't want to say let, but it does feel like she let the groom invite them, but doesn't want them there at all.

36:28 She said, hey, your friend can come, but we're going to ice her out completely.

36:31 If she talks to you. I will. her she's done she's gone then we all go to the dance floor and are standing around the couple in a circle but i'm three rows behind the bride's mother comes directly in front of me and starts flapping her arms to the music blocking me off from seeing the.

36:49 Cup she's just like.

36:52 Don't look at them stop Later on the dance floor, the older sister of the bride stood directly in front of me and motioned for her cousin and younger sister to come stand in front of me as well. Are these like, what's a sports term? Like linebackers?

37:09 Linebackers. It's like they're like setting a screen.

37:11 Yeah, yeah. They're in front of the goal. They're not letting you get in.

37:15 Actually, you know what it is? Do you watch soccer? Did you watch the World Cup?

37:17 I did watch the World Cup.

37:19 When they're setting up for like a freak.

37:20 That's exactly what I was thinking. And they're all lined up. Yeah, that's exactly what's happening. I watched the World Cup for Jude Bellingham. And this happened at least eight times during the night. At some point during the night, I was passing by one of the bride's cousins and she slammed her shoulder into me, knocking me backwards a few steps.

37:38 She continued walking. Damn, she shoulder checked you?

37:41 Oh my God.

37:43 She continued walking away and didn't bother to turn around or apologize. So I knew it was on purpose. At another point during the night, I was standing in the mother of the bride's direct line of vision and she rolled her eyes at me.

37:56 I feel like at a certain point she should have just stayed away from the family.

37:59 Yeah, she's like, you know what? I know what I'm not wanted. I'll be in the back. Yeah.

38:03 Also, yeah, she might be a linebacker.

38:05 She might be. OP or the mother?

38:08 Just the whole family. They have a whole football family.

38:11 Broad shoulders.

38:12 Very broad shoulders. Underneath the wedding dress, she's got.

38:16 Yeah, she's the thick padding. She's got a mouth guard.

38:20 Sorry.

38:22 Do you have any final thoughts on what OP could do, what OP should have done?

38:27 I think OP is honestly justified to attack someone in the family.

38:31 I think the next time someone makes any sort of verbal, physical eye contact in a negative way, OP can attack.

38:41 You can retaliate.

38:42 It's the law.

38:43 Call them out.

38:44 Call them out right now at the wedding.

38:46 No, because generally, I think usually I try to like.

38:48 Yeah.

38:48 I'm usually like, all right, I'll fight fire with kindness. At a certain point, you got to start fighting back.

38:54 You simply must. Pull out the fire extinguisher.

38:57 I thought that was a... Pull out that fire extinguisher.

39:01 Pull out that fire extinguisher.

39:03 Yeah, during the final dance.

39:06 During the final dance, the bride's two sisters and her cousin again came and stood in front of me. And every time I would move, they would follow me. At one point during this game of tag, the little sister of the bride got annoyed and turned around and said, can you just leave?

39:21 They invited her.

39:23 They invited Opie.

39:25 Well, do you think the boyfriend or the guy was just really begging? He was like, please, we got to bring this friend.

39:31 This is my close friend.

39:32 And she was like, yeah, you can bring her, but we're just going to bully her.

39:35 Yeah, she will be bullied. And that's on you.

39:39 And he was like, OK, I can live with that.

39:41 I had enough and went and told the groom's sister who spoke to the groom's father and the bride's father. As we were walking out of the event, the bride's little sister looked me up and down and rolled her eyes. Why is everyone rolling their eyes?

39:53 It really runs in the family.

39:56 After we got home, I seriously considered not attending the wedding. Oh, we haven't even got to the wedding.

40:00 Wait, this is not the wedding?

40:01 I guess there was three events.

40:03 Why would she still go to the wedding after?

40:04 I wouldn't go to the wedding.

40:06 But also, I'm like, she's like, can you just leave? But it's a destination wedding, so where would she go?

40:10 She just has to leave.

40:11 I don't know.

40:12 Like, at the bars?

40:13 She's voted off the island.

40:15 But the sister and father of the groom reassured me that I was wanted and should attend. I don't believe you.

40:20 That's no way. There's no way that she was wanted.

40:23 I don't.

40:24 Like, that's like if you're in school and you're being relentlessly bullied and then the principal's like, no, no, no. We don't believe in bullying at this school.

40:31 They're extreme gaslighters and eye rollers.

40:34 They're rolling their eyes. The wedding itself was fine, and the bride's family didn't bother me at all. At the end of the night, the groom came up to my friends and I and apologized for his in-law's behavior.

40:44 Oh, okay, it's fine then.

40:46 Oh, we're fine.

40:46 Yeah, we're all is.

40:48 Water under the bridge.

40:49 I'm now wondering if I overstepped by attending, even though I was invited. Uh, yeah. That's the question. I'm now wondering if I overstepped. What's your answer?

41:00 Yeah, she's definitely the a-hole.

41:02 Yeah, never go to an event that you're invited to. Rule number one.

41:07 Never go outside.

41:08 Just don't leave your house.

41:10 And that's on you. No, Pete, that's ridiculous.

41:13 But also, I don't think.

41:14 You should go to the wedding. Yeah, well, oh wait, so when she posted this, the wedding hadn't happened? No, the wedding happened.

41:20 Oh, you're right.

41:21 She did go to the wedding.

41:22 You said the wedding, yeah. Okay, she said it was fine.

41:24 But it's weird that they were mean at the dinner.

41:26 Yeah.

41:26 Yeah.

41:27 I guess they're like, we got to get it out of our system.

41:28 I think maybe they were trying to bully her to a point where she wouldn't want to go to the wedding.

41:33 Yeah, I can see that.

41:34 Because they were like, oh, we can't do this at the wedding because it'll be more obvious. But if we just bully her so much that she just doesn't want to come.

41:42 Do you think in a weird way they almost respected her for sticking it out? Yeah.

41:48 Instead of an eye roll at the wedding, they're just like, I admire you. Get spunked, kid.

41:53 And that's the end of this story. We're going to go on to the next one.

41:56 My father refuses to acknowledge my boyfriend, so we're planning to secretly get married.

42:00 We're married!

42:01 My boyfriend, male 26, and I, female 24, are planning to get married soon. We met in graduate school. We have been dating for two years and living together for a few months, and it's great! We feel that it's right. My boyfriend is not an American citizen. We work in the arts, so a work visa is extremely difficult to come by, especially in our particular field. We spent a lot of time this year discussing how we're going to arrange for him to stay in the country after his year-long OPT is up. One of the options is investing about half a million dollars in the U.S. and getting a visa based on that. This option is a huge hassle and obviously very expensive. The easiest option is marriage.

42:42 We both see our relationship heading towards marriage anyway. We are perfect for each other. By the way, this comes from user ToBePerfectlyHonest. And if you want to submit your own stories, go to the r slash OKStoryTime subreddit. I'm Kion.

42:53 I'm Sophia. And I'm Savannah.

42:55 And we're here to give good advice goofily. We don't have all the answers, guys. We only know what we do. So let us know what you do in the comments down below, pretty please. As OP says, we love each other. We're very attracted to each other. We're good at communicating clearly. We're mutually supportive. And we even collaborate artistically. We're also both very grounded. and we know that marriage is not a fairy tale. We think of ourselves as very lucky to have found each other, and it would devastate both of us if he had to leave the country. If he were a US citizen, we would probably wait a few more years to get married so we could pay for a wedding and avoid judgment from our families for

43:29 getting married relatively young. But that's not the situation we have. We have discussed our situation at length and have come up with a plan. The plan is, we want to get married at City Hall by the end of this year, and then have a wedding two to three years from now. My boyfriend has told his parents about the plan, and I've told my mother. They're all fine with this. My mother is excited, even. She loves my boyfriend. His parents love me. My mom loves his parents, and his parents love my mom.

43:56 Everyone's happy.

43:57 It's all great, right? Yeah. Right, Sophia?

44:00 Yeah.

44:00 Nope.

44:01 No.

44:01 Nope, it's not.

44:02 Oh, you're kidding me.

44:03 The issue is this. It's my dad, male 56. Overall... I have a very good relationship with my dad. In many ways, we're similar. We can talk for hours on any subject, except for my relationships. My whole life, my dad has refused to acknowledge my relationships. He just pretends they don't exist. I haven't had that many boyfriends, only one other serious relationship, and he acted the same way towards that boyfriend. Right now, my dad barely even acknowledges that I'm dating someone, much less living with someone. He refuses to acknowledge he exists. And he hates him. He refuses to use his name. He refuses to talk to him. Okay, he makes joking threats to me about beating him up.

44:47 He doesn't dismiss my boyfriend on any reasonable grounds. He usually just dismisses him by saying, he's goofy. My boyfriend is a little goofy, but in a good way. He's charismatic and very funny. And not afraid to be a little nerdy. But my dad doesn't mean it in a good way. He just means he doesn't take my boyfriend seriously.

45:05 I've brought my boyfriend to plenty of family events. Everyone loves him. He's even managed to win my more cantankerous relatives over. But my dad? My dad completely avoids him. My dad's usually a talkative, amicable guy, but he completely goes quiet when my boyfriend is around. If he says anything, it's usually negative and veiled by a joke. Even my half-sister on my dad's side, who is eight, feels bad for my boyfriend because she can tell my dad is being mean.

45:32 Aw, not when the eight-year-old can tell he's going too far.

45:35 Well, you know, children just are straight up. They have no filter. Daddy, I'm being mean.

45:40 Stop it.

45:41 Yeah.

45:41 Yeah, no, I'd call him out.

45:43 I try to talk to my dad about this issue, but he completely shuts down every time I try to address it. Sometimes I feel that he is jealous that I have a good relationship and he doesn't. I can tell he sees me as a younger version of him and lives vicariously through me in a lot of ways. His relationship with my mother didn't work out. They broke up when I was in elementary school and his current marriage is pretty much on the rocks. He's told me a lot about what he's learned from his failed or failing relationships and I really pay attention. I don't want to end up in a marriage like his. My boyfriend and I want to keep our city hall marriage on the down low. We're going to tell the world we're engaged,

46:23 so it's not confusing when we have a wedding two years later, but... Those close to us will know the truth. I want to tell my dad the truth, but I don't know how to go about it. Every time I ask him why he refuses to meet my boyfriend, he berates me, gets very cold, and calls me young and naive and idiotic. It doesn't help that he's really good at arguing and talking his way out of situations. He does it for a living. Lawyer.

46:46 Lawyer.

46:47 Lawyer.

46:48 Lawyer.

46:49 Lawyer.

46:49 No, I mean, that makes a lot of sense in terms of his personality. But live your own life, girly pop. Live your own life.

46:58 Truly. He has no say in your life. He doesn't control you. So live your life. And my dad is quite good at finding my emotional weak spots and exploiting them. I've asked many times about arranging dinners or lunches or even effing coffee. where my dad can sit down and actually get to know my boyfriend. But no matter how much I argue that this is important to me, my dad says that it's not a good time. If I ask someone else to talk to him because he won't listen to me, he calls me up and asks, Why he has to hear about my life from other people.

47:28 Everyone who knows about this thinks this is a very weird reaction. I want him to know that I'm getting married. But I also don't want him to make this into another reason to hate my boyfriend. I don't want him to think I'm just doing this for a visa. I don't want him to tell everyone. I also don't want him to never forgive me if I didn't tell him.

47:46 I'm just not sure how to go about this. Should I just keep trying to arrange a nice meeting between him and my boyfriend first, hoping he'll come to his senses and realize that this is ridiculous? Should I trick him into coming to a dinner with my boyfriend? I'm sure that wouldn't go down well. Should I just come out and tell him that I'm getting married and it's up to him to get to know my future husband because I'm tired of trying? We have an update.

48:10 I think that you should go to your dad and say, hey. You better freaking get on board or you're not going to be involved in my life.

48:22 That's the problem, Sophia. She can't sit him down because he never wants to sit down with her.

48:28 Judo flip him down. No. Tell him, hey, let's go on a road trip. Let's go on a road trip, Dad. He's stuck in the car with you for two hours. We're going in circles. Yeah, lock the doors. You say, hey, Dad, I have a boyfriend. You know this. You never want to. Who? You never want him in your life. Who? My boyfriend. Who?

48:48 My boyfriend. Who? And then you go in circles until he gets over that.

48:52 Who?

48:52 I'm an owl, honey. I'm training to be an owl. Who?

48:54 Oh, shoot.

48:55 He's locked in. And then you say, I've got a boyfriend. And if you don't accept that, you're going to miss out on the special important parts of my life. And I want you to be a part of those, but I will not tell you about them if they happen, if you cannot get on board.

49:07 Very easy.

49:08 Yeah.

49:08 I know you don't like relationships, dad, but if you want to continue this relationship with me, he's a part of that as well.

49:13 Yeah, you could even be like, one day I'm gonna get married and you might not know if you keep acting like that that's sad yeah you gotta lay down the law yeah it's kinda guilt tripping but like in a way that like is good for.

49:25 Him we have an update so it's been two months since I posted here since then I've had several more talks with my dad I would try to get through to him I would ask him point blank why he wouldn't acknowledge my boyfriend and each time He would just get quiet, then give a snarky response, then find a way to change the subject. I'd originally asked my significant other to hold off on the proposal until after he got a chance to really sit down and get to know my dad. But with your help, and hopefully our help, I came to the realization that since we gave my dad plenty of chances, we shouldn't just put everything off just to accommodate to him. So I told my significant other he should propose whenever he wanted to. And he did.

50:07 Heck yeah!

50:09 He proposed today in the most awesome, hilarious, and wonderful proposal I could have ever imagined. I may post the video. It was just amazing.

50:18 Please do. You can't just tell us that not.

50:21 Yeah, and says, I think Reddit would appreciate it. And we would.

50:24 I would appreciate it. Thank you.

50:26 And I immediately called and told my mother, who was so happy for us. But again, she's always been so supportive. So this was no surprise. And then, after taking a few hours to muster up the courage... I told my father.

50:40 Oh, boy.

50:41 Oh, boy.

50:42 Crossing my fingers.

50:43 How do we think Papa is going to take this?

50:46 I don't want to hear it.

50:47 He'd be like, who?

50:49 Who?

50:50 Who are you talking about? I'm cantankerous.

50:52 You can't marry yourself. That's weird. And he took it better than I ever could have imagined.

50:57 Oh, wow. I did not expect that.

51:00 Me neither.

51:01 Love to see it.

51:02 Maybe he was just like pushing you to the like. Yeah.

51:05 He just likes being a curmudgeon, but underneath the surface, he's a really good guy.

51:10 Yeah, he was just like, I was just waiting for you to do the final push, and you did it.

51:14 I just wanted to make sure he wanted to commit to you, but now that I know that he's committing to you, it's fine.

51:19 He's a big softy.

51:20 A little bit left here. What do we think, Sophia? Anything else?

51:23 I mean, I don't know how it went exactly, but it seems we've got some positive signs on the horizon.

51:29 You probably went, I can't stop you.

51:31 Yeah, he said, okay, when? He said, who?

51:35 Oh, a little bit left here. Let's finish it up. So my dad was a little upset that I had told him over the phone. But since he is a working case and lives kind of far away, I would have been able to keep it from him without risking someone else telling him. Since a lot of people were involved in the planning process, he would have been really offended if he had found out from someone else. Pick a lane, dad.

51:58 Yeah, I don't know what you want, dad.

52:01 Plus, I was excited and wanted to tell everyone. I did want to tell him because I do care what he thinks, even if he is a little difficult to deal with sometimes. But then we talked for a while. He told me that he had thought of my significant other as just some goofy guy who might not stick around.

52:15 I knew it. He just wanted to make sure that your boyfriend was going to be committed.

52:19 By not talking to him whatsoever and saying passive aggressive remarks about him.

52:25 Yeah, I wasn't going to look into it at all.

52:28 The math, not mathing, but you know what?

52:30 He was right.

52:31 We can do this. I think he was very surprised, but I think the reality of an engagement really brought things into perspective for him. He said after hearing how happy and excited I was, and how much thought and time and effort must have gone into the proposal, he knew it was time to start taking my now-fiancee seriously.

52:47 Heck yeah!

52:48 I mean, he's still a goofy guy.

52:49 Yeah, but he's a goofy guy who loves you.

52:52 Yes.

52:53 Be serious about his love.

52:55 So my dad congratulated me and seemed genuinely happy for me. I'm happy. He's happy. I'm so lucky.

53:01 Aww.

53:02 I'm so lucky I'm a star. I'm glad my dad came around and made it this far. And that's the end of that story.

53:11 That was really beautiful. Did you just come up with that?

53:13 Yeah, my big brain did that.

53:15 Wow!

53:16 Wow! But yeah, dad came around and said, sure.

53:23 What more can a girl ask for? But that's the end of that story. And we got another one coming right up.

53:29 Yes, we do.

53:30 Hey, it's Angie, your favorite Riley's girlfriend host here. We're going to get back to the stories, but here's three minutes of ads from our sponsors.

53:39 My boyfriend's best friend keeps touching him and she's exactly his type.

53:44 Start touching her.

53:45 My boyfriend, Justin, 26 male and I, 23 female, have been a couple for just over seven months. Let's start a dating a couple months before that. So in all, I, 23 female, have known him less than a year and I'm already head over heels for him. I know it's still our honeymoon phase, but I've genuinely never felt this strongly about another guy before and I've never thought as long term as I'm thinking with him. Justin is confident, charismatic, passionate and driven, intelligent and emotionally mature, values his family, is especially kind to children and elderly people, and just has a presence that lights up the room. Anyway, the only real problem in our relationship from my point of view is his friendship with Olivia, 24 female, who he

54:30 has known since her first year of university for about six years. Justin is smart with women, used to attention, and doesn't cross boundaries with them. The only time he comes close is with Olivia. And even then, it's mostly her initiating things. But the way she behaves around him is honestly the number one source of conflict in our relationship.

54:50 I'm quite friendly with Justin's circle of friends now, and I hang out with them at least once per week. So things can be pretty uncomfortable for me. By the way, this comes from Throwaway S-O-S-T-L. And if you want to submit your own stories, go to the r slash OK Storytime subreddit. I'm Sophia.

55:06 I'm Keon.

55:07 And I'm Savannah. And we're here to give good advice goofily. But we don't have all the answers. We only know what we do. So let us know what you would do in the comments. And Opie says, things that make me uncomfortable. She is exactly my boyfriend's type. Not really her fault, I know. I've seen a few girls that my boyfriend has been with from his social media. And they all look more or less like Olivia. She's 5'8, athletically built, has cat eyes, and a pouty mouth. And just gives off a schmacksy aura. I'm 5'3, in shape, and have a decent face, but one, it bothers me that I'm nothing close to Justin's type, and two, that Olivia is his type. Olivia has always been nice enough to me, but when I first met her, she gave

55:50 me an eyebrows raise, let's see how long you last kind of look. I admit, I could be overthinking this one. She's always finding excuses to touch Justin.

55:58 In what way?

55:59 An example is brushing food off his clothes and face. Hello, that's my job. Or fixing his shirt collar.

56:06 Ugh.

56:07 I'm on your side there. She also likes to give him back hugs. She hugged him from behind and I overheard her saying, how come you never give me back hugs anymore? Ew. Okay. And now I'm on your side, OP. We should have started with this stuff.

56:19 Yeah. Why didn't, why did we start with the stuff that wasn't confirmed?

56:23 The way she said it was low and whispery and rubbed me the wrong way. When I brought it up to Justin, all he said was, yeah, that was weird. I guess. Wake up, dude. She has this cute act that she does for Justin when he doesn't want to do something for her. Sometimes she'll ask him to buy her something, like an ice cream. And when he says no, she'll stand in front of him and pout and make deer eyes. Or sometimes she just grabs him and pushes him towards whatever she wants, points to it, and does the cutesy act. She greets him by saying, hey you, and winking and pretends shooting him. Justin only listens to Olivia.

57:01 He's a pretty stubborn guy and doesn't really follow others, unless it's Olivia.

57:05 That's weird.

57:06 That is weird. One incident that bothers me happened in a club. Justin and I were drinking with his friends when another group got in an argument with some of his guy friends. Justin tried to defuse it at first, but the other guys were extremely disrespectful, and he was on the verge of fighting three guys at once. I kept telling him to leave them alone, but he wouldn't back down, even after the bartender threatened to call the police.

57:30 Then Olivia walks over, pulls him by the arm and yells, stop, you're acting stupid. She dragged him to the bar and they talked there alone for 15 minutes. One of Justin's friends noticed me watching and told me, don't feel bad. It's always been this way with them, which obviously made me feel worse. This is weird.

57:48 Yeah.

57:48 I'm calling it out. I'm like, dude, dude, I mean, I don't even know if you want to date me. It feels like you want to date Olivia.

57:56 Or at least you guys seem like it.

57:58 Yeah.

57:59 Like, this is what you're doing to make me feel that way. And, you know, if there's anything there, we gotta end this. Yesterday, we went to dinner with his friends. The day was warm, so Justin was only wearing a t-shirt. But by the time we finished, it was windy and colder. We decided to take a walk along the riverwalk, and Olivia suddenly wrapped her cardigan around my boyfriend's shoulders.

58:24 That's not her job. That's your job.

58:26 I'm taking that off. I'm going, this is yours.

58:29 Yeah, that's yours. Here, Justin, wrap me around you.

58:33 Yeah. He started joking around and posing like a model before giving it back. But I kind of wish he would have just given it back right away. There are a lot of these kinds of instances where Olivia will do small, caring things for him. Things that a girlfriend does. My women's intuition just tells me that Olivia wants more from Justin than he's giving her. When he's not paying attention to her, I sometimes catch her stealing glances at him.

58:59 You know what this is?

58:59 Yeah.

59:00 This is where he got friend. No. So Justin's into Olivia for sure.

59:05 Oh, you think Justin's into it?

59:07 I think he was. Friend zoned her.

59:10 Oh, friend zoned her.

59:12 Or no, Olivia friend zoned him or in some way. And now that you're in the picture, she's like, I'm going to give more attention to Justin.

59:22 See, I was thinking the opposite. I was thinking that Olivia had feelings.

59:26 For Justin.

59:27 Yeah, Justin kind of said, hey, not interested. And then she's still, you know, trying. Because that's, I don't know. But I think one or the other.

59:35 I think one or the other. I mean, makes sense. But this is all bad.

59:40 I don't like it. I don't like it. Sometimes she looks smitten. Sometimes lustful. Sometimes sad. I think it's obvious she has feelings for him. But when I brought it up with my boyfriend, he told me they were just close.

59:51 Okay, well.

59:52 Stop.

59:53 Don't be close anymore.

59:54 Too close.

59:55 Too close.

59:56 I'll just end with this. I understand some people are natural flirts, but Olivia doesn't act like this to any other guy in the group. She's sarcastic and relentlessly teases them, but no touching, no cutesy act, none of the small thoughtful stuff, and definitely none of the misty-eyed gazes. Some of the guys even jokingly complained that they're jealous she only acts like a girl to Justin. Yesterday after the cardigan thing, when Justin dropped me off, I asked him to talk because I've been growing more insecure about his friendship with Olivia. We talked for around an hour and didn't really make progress. Basically, he agreed not to meet Olivia alone, but said she was important to him, told me some things they helped each other get through in university,

1:00:41 and that he wanted her in his life.

1:00:43 Okay, you can still have her in your life, just a little bit further.

1:00:46 Yeah, just like say, hey, don't put a cardigan on me when my girlfriend's around. Don't do this.

1:00:51 Or why do you always listen to her.

1:00:53 And not me? I tried to initiate spicy sleep with him after that, but he said he was tired and left. Oof. I mean, also maybe not the best time after emotional conversation.

1:01:02 After a very heavy talk, yeah. Where you're kind of accusing him of.

1:01:04 Like, rightfully so, but kind of accusing him of, you know, being, overstepping boundaries with another girl. Maybe not the best time. I cried and called my older sister. She told me that since Justin hadn't done anything to break my trust, I should continue trusting him and that there's a reason he's with me and not Olivia. She also said that if he crosses the line, I need to be strong enough to leave him. I also called my best friend this morning and she, on the other hand, is convinced that Justin and Olivia were or are more than just close.

1:01:37 She thinks I need to give him an ultimatum, choose the friendship or the relationship. Basically, I'm at a loss for what to do now. I love Justin and really think we have a future together. But this friendship with Olivia is driving me crazy. Is this just jealousy or my insecurities? Or do I really need to give my boyfriend an ultimatum? And we do have an edit. In reading your comments and my own post and some self-reflecting, I realized that a lot of the issues had to do with my insecurities and fears about what could be happening or what may happen in the future. That said, there are still several things that Olivia does with my boyfriend that I'm personally not okay with. I understand it was wrong of me to even entertain the thought of

1:02:19 asking Justin to distance himself from her, but if they really are that close and nothing farther than platonic feelings are being shared... Then one, my boyfriend shouldn't have a problem establishing reasonable boundaries with a female friend whose behavior makes his girlfriend uncomfortable. And two, that female friend should understand and respect those wishes. I think it's within reason for him to ask that she cut out the intimate physical stuff like the back hugs, grabbing his arm, brushing his hair and face, clothes, etc. I'm meeting him later tonight and I will tell him exactly this. I'm not going to ask him to stop being friends with her.

1:02:56 I'm also going to ask him to clarify some things, like the extent of their physical relationship, and if there's any romantic history between them that I'm not aware of. Good on you. I think this conversation will help me decide whether a compromise can be made, or if I will have to do the hard thing and walk away, which I really don't want to do, and we do have an update. What do you think Opie's going to do?

1:03:19 I mean, obviously going to have that conversation, but... When you asked, oh, is this just like my insecurities or like, should I give that ultimatum back to that previous question? I think it was a mixture of both. Yeah, I agree. And again, 10 months in, you're still trying to establish yourself into the relationship and his friendships and all this stuff.

1:03:37 So you're getting used to it. But seeing that does not help. It doesn't make you feel good. No, and he really should.

1:03:43 I think, I don't know. It is a little concerning to me that he's not really making any attempt to.

1:03:50 Um, compromise or understanding like Opie's like place of like, Hey, I feel uncomfortable about that. And you're like, that's just how it is.

1:03:58 Yeah. Cause I feel like it's seven months. I mean, my boyfriend and I have had conflicts and like little things, you know, like you do when you spend a lot of time with someone, uh, platonic or romantic. And we've like found ways to talk to each other and like compromise on things and just communicate.

1:04:17 Yeah.

1:04:17 And it doesn't seem like there's any of that happening.

1:04:20 It's the give and take or take and give kind of thing. And all Justin's doing is taking.

1:04:25 Take and take.

1:04:26 Yeah.

1:04:27 I think OP see what happens if he can't. Again, you should be like, hey, I'm uncomfortable with that. Why aren't we doing those things? Or how can I be on that level? Or like, why does it have to be her? Why can it be me? We're in a relationship.

1:04:43 But we got an update. I met Justin the night after I added the edit with the intention of telling him I was wrong for wanting him to distance himself from Olivia. But I wanted one for him to ask that she toned down the physical intimacy and two for him to disclose the extent of their relationship in the past.

1:05:00 That talk didn't go as planned at all. I thought he was going to be understanding and honest, but he stonewalled me and was an all around a-hole to me. As soon as I brought up Olivia, He laughed and shook his head and asked me if I was really going to do this crap again. I tried not to get emotional and just explained my point of view. The whole time he was leaning his head against the wall, not making eye contact, playing with his earrings.

1:05:26 What does he look at?

1:05:28 I know exactly what this guy looks like now. I can see him in my mind. When I asked if he understood my feelings... He smiled sarcastically and said, of course, honey, immediately breaking up.

1:05:39 Yeah, I'm breaking up.

1:05:40 Oh, my God.

1:05:40 If someone said, of course, honey, when I was.

1:05:42 Like being emotional and serious. Yeah. Bye.

1:05:46 He was extremely angry when I asked if they had hooked up before.

1:05:49 Oh, why are you angry about that question?

1:05:53 His exact words were, you haven't even been my girlfriend for a year. If you think you're entitled to know every little detail from my past, F you.

1:06:01 Oh, did I touch a soft spot?

1:06:04 Oh, and you know they hooked up. And you know they hooked up. So that's a yes. Yep.

1:06:11 I'm sorry, what? Either A, they hooked up for sure, or again, one of them wanted to. And it seems like he wanted to more than she did.

1:06:19 Yeah, that's, oof. Yeah, no, that's crazy to be like, at seven months? To be like, no, you can't know about my past relationships.

1:06:28 What?

1:06:29 He walked out after saying that, and I cried. He'd never talked to me like that before. Obviously, he was hiding something. I messaged him telling him I wasn't trying to make him mad, but that I felt like we needed to talk again. Oh, no. He's going to be like, stop.

1:06:43 You're doing this again?

1:06:45 He didn't reply that night and still hadn't the next morning. I never thought I would do this, but I sent Olivia a message asking to meet for a coffee. Huh.

1:06:56 Was that like, I'm surprised we're still giving this a chance, you know, like, oh.

1:07:01 Yeah, the second that he says that to me and then doesn't respond, I'm like, hey.

1:07:05 Negates your feelings.

1:07:06 We're done.

1:07:07 Doesn't care if you're crying. Yeah, we're done.

1:07:10 Yeah.

1:07:10 Yeah, I don't know. I'm not going to coffee with the girl who I think you're crushed on. Yeah, what's she going to tell you?

1:07:16 I don't know.

1:07:17 He's the best. Oh, he just gets that way. The way to stop that is just by jumping on his back and rubbing his head.

1:07:23 You know, it feels like he has anger issues based off the fight that he almost got in. And Olivia's like, no, no, no. You just have to like walk up to him and be like, this isn't you. Surprisingly, she answered almost immediately.

1:07:36 Oh.

1:07:36 And agreed to meet in the afternoon. When we met, I told her about my feelings, how Justin had reacted the other night, and straight up asked her if there were any romantic feelings between them. She admitted that she has feelings for Justin. Wow. But that it was complicated.

1:07:51 What does that mean?

1:07:52 She said she loves him and hates him at the same time.

1:07:55 What does that mean?

1:07:56 She told me I should leave him. Of course she said that. And that she wasn't just saying that because she wants to be with him instead of me, but because Justin has always been a player, charming and leaving girls for years. She said she's waited for him to change, knew she could never be truly happy staying by his side as a friend, and that she should leave him too, but couldn't. She seemed very sincere.

1:08:18 What the heck?

1:08:20 I mean, like, I kind of believe it, but also I don't trust her.

1:08:23 But yeah, I'd be like, hey, why didn't you say this at the beginning when I first met you?

1:08:27 I mean, why would she?

1:08:29 Why would she? I asked what the extent of their relationship was in the past. She told me she was attracted to Justin at first sight when they met in university, but he had a long-distance girlfriend at the time. Justin broke up with the long-distance girlfriend. They got closer. Justin had some problems, she wouldn't tell me what, that he confided in her about, and this led to them kissing one night and having spicy sleep. That was her first time.

1:08:54 Oh, wow.

1:08:56 She confessed feelings to Justin, but he said he didn't want their friendship to be affected if the relationship didn't work out.

1:09:02 So why did you guys do that in the first place? This guy sucks.

1:09:06 They were on and off, friends with benefits throughout college.

1:09:09 Oh.

1:09:10 I feel bad for this girl now. Justin had a handful of short-lived relationships during that time. He cheated on one of his girlfriends with Olivia.

1:09:17 Oh.

1:09:19 You know, this sounds like a great compatibility test for them.

1:09:23 Yeah. She claimed they haven't had spicy sleep since he's been in a relationship with me. I don't know what to believe. When they graduated, their friend group rented a vacation pension on an island. And one night, their friend Ashley walked in on them in the bathroom. Justin told Ashley it was a wasted mistake. Olivia was extremely hurt and refused to see or speak to him for weeks.

1:09:44 After being ignored, Justin apologized. Told her he had feelings for her and they went on a few secret dates, but he never committed and then backtracked, saying he was confused and not ready for anything serious. From that point on, they went back to being friends with benefits until Justin met me. I was skeptical as to why she told me all this, so I asked if she had proof.

1:10:05 She searched chat logs and showed me multiple messages of him booty calling her. She started getting emotional and told me that Justin has amazing qualities. but some deep personal issues he refuses to work on that prevent him from being a good partner right now. She's been single this whole time.

1:10:24 So she's just waiting for him. Yeah.

1:10:26 Oh, girly pop. Girly pop, get out of there. There were likely many opportunities for her to end up in a happy relationship, but she turned a blind eye to them all for Justin, who can't even admit he has feelings for her. Even though I didn't like some of the things she did before, I actually sympathize with her a lot. It sounds like Justin put her through a ton of crap, gave her false hope, and took it away. After, she told me not to worry about throwing her under the bus because she was going to tell Justin herself that she told me about them. She said she wanted him to be mad at her. Later that night, Justin called me trying to explain himself. Oh, now you want to talk about your relationships. I thought you'd... I thought

1:11:07 we weren't at a stage in our relationship where you felt ready to tell me about them.

1:11:12 Here, OP, you just sit on the wall, put your head on the wall, start playing with your earrings and go, no, it's okay, honey.

1:11:18 No, I don't want to hear about this. No, I don't think I'm ready to talk about our relationship.

1:11:22 You should be like, you're bringing her up again?

1:11:24 Yeah, yeah. Later that night, Justin called me trying to explain himself, but I broke up with him.

1:11:30 Nice.

1:11:31 Nice. Because he's a freaking liar. I was crying on the phone. I really didn't want to break up, but I knew it was the right thing for me. Regardless of what was true or false about his past, it was just too much drama. And the way he reacted to me when I had originally wanted to talk scared me. He didn't try to fight me or ask me to stay.

1:11:50 We just kind of sat in silence on the phone for a while before we hung up.

1:11:54 Walk away from this, Opie.

1:11:55 Call it a day.

1:11:56 We're done here.

1:11:57 Why did no one in the friend group bring this up to you? You know what?

1:12:02 I don't think they like, I think they're all too loyal to Justin or whatever.

1:12:06 They also probably were like, well, you know, like he'd get mad.

1:12:09 If we said something. Yeah, none of our business.

1:12:11 Probably.

1:12:11 Because he has a temper. It's been about two weeks since then. I know Justin was probably a bad boy and it was only a matter of time before he broke my heart. But I feel devastated. I'm just starting to get back into my normal routines. But even then, sometimes it's hard to get out of bed. I think about Justin every day. It's like the more I'm away from him, the more I think about the good things we had. Part of me hoped he would reach out, but he hasn't. I met Olivia last week and she told me Justin wasn't talking to her anymore and that it was probably a good time for her to move on from him. Last night, I saw Olivia upload a couple-y picture of her and Justin on Instagram in a nightclub.

1:12:53 He had his arm wrapped around her with a drink in that hand and she was sipping from the straw.

1:13:00 I'm going to tell you right now.

1:13:01 You little snake.

1:13:02 She's very conniving, but you know what? She's in that trap. Yeah. That Justin's like, yeah, yeah, you know what? Yeah. You're just going to be my rebound friend. Forever. Forever.

1:13:11 Like, I don't even, I don't believe that. Like, I think she was telling the truth.

1:13:17 She was. 100% telling the truth. For some parts of it, you know? She showed you the truth. Yeah. But she wants Justin.

1:13:24 Yeah.

1:13:24 And Justin only wants her around for just a backup.

1:13:26 Yeah, literally.

1:13:27 Literally.

1:13:28 I guarantee you, they're like, okay, now can we start dating? And Justin's going to go, no, not yet. I just got out of a relationship.

1:13:35 He just likes that she wants him.

1:13:36 Exactly.

1:13:37 After I saw that I blocked and unfollowed them, that was kind of what inspired me to post an update. I don't know if Olivia played me or if Justin's working his magic on her again, but I just feel crappy all around. It hurts now, but I know these people would have been toxic for me if I had stayed. It just hurts so much more than I had imagined. Yeah, I don't really think it matters if she played you or not, because I think overall, she did you a favor.

1:14:02 She's playing herself, actually.

1:14:04 Yeah, for real.

1:14:06 Justin and Olivia are doing the giant revolving doors, and then Justin will hop out, but just watch her do the door still, and then you hop back in. It's an endless cycle for them, and it sucks that she won't leave it. He just sucks in general. I think you're going to be okay, OP. I know it's going to be hard to move on from this. It takes time.

1:14:25 But you'll be okay. You'll be all right.

1:14:28 Yeah.

1:14:28 But that is the end of that story.