The day of my rehearsal, I wasn't feeling well. All day, I felt icky, and my tolerance for every day crap was diminished greatly (lady troubles).
The rehearsal was a little stressful, and not helping the situation was my mother-in-law who wouldn't be quiet. She is a very dominate woman, and always finds a way to make things about her, or just gets to the center of attention. No matter what was going on at the rehearsal, she had to make her critiques and comments known. By the end of practicing the ceremony, I felt like crying. But I did all I could to keep it together, but anything would of sent me over the edge. My drink order being wrong would have made me cry at that point.
On the ride to the restaurant, I told my fiance how I was feeling, and he tried to comfort me and perk me up so I could make it thought dinner. He got me to smile, but I was still on the verge of tears.
Then at the rehearsal dinner, across the table, my sister asked my a question, and we started bickering a little (as sisters do), because we were misunderstanding each other. It was no big thing, and was over in a minute. Unfortunately this exchange with my is what finally made me start crying, which I immediately removed myself from the table, trying to not to cause a scene. Only five people saw me leave- my mother, my fiance, my sister, and my in-laws.
While I was out of the room being consoled by my mom and fiance, my mother-in-law started talking with her husband (sitting across the table and next to my sister) about how rude and disrespectful my sister is. That turned into my mother-in-law yelling at my sister, and saying things she shouldn't have been saying. My father-in-law chimed in telling my sister to"Get out of the f**king restaurant. We're not paying for your dinner." My sister, being ganged up on, tried argue back, but it only antagonized my in-laws to keep attacking my sister, and my family.
As soon as I heard that this scene was going on in the restaurant, I stopped my crying and ran back in to help/defend/protect my sister. She was not the reason I started crying, and I wanted everyone to know that.
I then talked with my sister, we cleared up that my tears were not her doing. I then I sad down, and quietly, so the whole table couldn't hear us, told my mother-in-law that my sister was not why I started crying, and yelling is not the way to handle the situation. My mother-in-law continued to go on loudly about how terrible she thinks my sister is.
The night was tense from there on. Nobody on the other end of the table knew what the whole scene was about. I didn't sleep well worrying and thinking about that dinner.
Luckily, everyone played nice at the wedding, but the drama from the rehearsal remained unresolved.
Now it is after the wedding. My family is deeply angered with my new in-laws about how they acted at the rehearsal dinner. My in-laws don't think they did/said anything wrong, and want my sister to apologizes for the drama at the rehearsal dinner (there have even been so mean text messages from my in-laws further attacking my sister, and even attacking me). My husband and I are caught in the middle.
I feel that nobody should have gone attacking my sister until they had talked to me, and knew what set me off. I feel that people should have played nice and held their tongues for the rehearsal and wedding. I fear if this is how my in-laws are going to act with my sister (who is barely in her 20s), what will that say and how will they act when there are babies, and the babies misbehave?
I need input about this. Talk to me.