Dear Prudence,
I am in my 40s and never thought I would fall in love until I met my fiancé. He is divorced with three adult children. We announced our engagement at the beginning of the summer and are planning our wedding now. It will be small but I still want a real wedding and don’t want to just pop into the courthouse. The problem is that his 23-year-old daughter announced her engagement a month after ours.
Her father wrote her a check for $10,000. The money is already gone. And she keeps asking for more and tries to guilt my fiancé by saying he doesn’t care about her big day. He is firm that he gave her enough money.
So now she makes snide comments and acts shitty toward me if our wedding plans come up or if anything is posted on social media. I am trying to be the bigger person here, but it is tiring having to tiptoe around an adult woman throwing tantrums like a toddler. I avoid her when I can, but that isn’t going to work as a long-term strategy. We already have made compromises like a church wedding with a buffet reception in their recreation hall. I got my dress from JCPenney. We all live in the same small town. I need some back up. Please!
—Wedding Blues