Sveta and Denis planned their wedding concept themselves. They chose the perfect venue, a beautiful date, and invited a large number of guests and relatives. Svetlana was an idealist and wanted to have the best celebration possible, and her fiancé did not argue with her.
“Knowing your mother and her impulsive nature, I don’t want her to be involved in planning our wedding,” Sveta reasoned. “She will definitely mess something up, and that kind of help will only end up costing us more.”
Denis was a bit hurt to hear such words from his fiancée, although she was mostly right. Lyubov Petrovna was indeed a bright and active lady, always pushing her ideas onto the youth. She suggested Sveta buy a short dress with open shoulders, but the girl preferred classic styles. Then Lyubov thought it normal to have the celebration at a country house, which started causing Svetlana nervous tics. Denis already understood that there would be no special friendship between his wife and mother, so he didn’t try to change anything.
“Alright, let our wedding be just as you want,” Denis agreed. “From what parents say, I know that their whole village gathered for their celebration back then.”
“It used to be customary: gather a horde of guests, celebrate for a week and arrange mass performances,” said Svetlana. “Our celebration, however, will be in the European style. I want everything to be dignified, cultured, and beautiful.”
Denis did not place as much importance on the wedding itself and was more concerned with immediate problems. These included the need for renovations in the recently purchased apartment and a desire to go abroad to the sea soon. The man also didn’t attach much importance to signs, omens, and other trifles.
“I understand that mother is preparing some kind of surprise for the wedding, but I don’t know the details,” he told his fiancée. “She hinted at it strangely, and I didn’t understand.”
“I think we should start getting scared,” Sveta immediately became wary. “I need to find out the details of the possible disaster myself.”
The girl tried to inquire from her mother-in-law, who neither confessed nor stopped intriguing the future bride.
“You’ve chosen a wonderful date for the wedding, it’s right on target,” she said mysteriously. “Ah, those were the times, thirty years ago I was also a bride.”
Sveta had many cares and problems requiring solutions, so she had no particular desire to delve into the puzzles of her future mother-in-law. She anticipated that Lyubov Petrovna might try to perform a song or give a pompous toast, so she discussed this moment with the wedding host in advance. In case of a clearly unpleasant scene, he was to take the initiative into his own hands and divert the guests’ attention to other moments. Just in case, Svetlana even calculated options with possible unexpected guests invited by her mother-in-law. In such a scenario, the staff was to provide extra chairs and tableware. Only during the preparation stage, Sveta could not assess the full scale of the tragedy invented by Lyubov as a surprise.
“What is this?” Sveta tried not to cry, seeing her future mother-in-law in a wedding dress with bare shoulders and a veil to the ground.
“This is our surprise,” Lyubov Petrovna proudly twirled, having just emerged from the car. “It just so happens that exactly thirty years ago today, Aleksei and I got married. It’s our anniversary today!”
“And that’s wonderful, but what does your outfit and this blatant provocation have to do with it?” the girl didn’t understand.
“It turns out that today we’re not only celebrating your wedding but also our anniversary, so I decided to try on the bride’s image again,” Lyubov happily explained.
Svetlana nearly had a nervous breakdown, and she fundamentally forgot about the reasons for gathering guests and plans for the day. While Lyubov Petrovna twirled in front of the guests and the silent Aleksei awkwardly shuffled near her, Sveta’s parents and friends tried to calm her down.
“I’m not going to put up with this and endure this disgrace,” she told Denis. “Your mother has turned this into a real circus just to draw attention to herself.”
“What do you suggest I do?” Denis didn’t understand. “I really didn’t know about such a stunt by my parents and completely forgot about their wedding anniversary.”
“Only part of the guests are here now, and before this disgrace fills the entire space, let Lyubov Petrovna just dress normally,” Sveta said through gritted teeth.
“I already tried talking to her and expressed my dissatisfaction to my father,” Denis said. “Only my mother thinks that today is her celebration too, so she’s also ‘the bride.'”
What followed resembled a farce that Sveta desperately wanted to escape from. All guests present at the party casually dropped a few words to the newlyweds and tried to learn the story of the groom’s parents. Lyubov Petrovna willingly told stories, joked, danced, and kept pulling attention to herself. Even after the host announced the first dance of the newlyweds, Lyubov Petrovna dragged her husband to the center of the hall.
“You have your whole life ahead and will have many dances together, but today we are having our second wedding, and there might not be a third,” she said in response to Svetlana’s displeasure.
“If you ever ask why I consider your relatives inadequate, just remember today,” Sveta hissed to her fiancé. “We spent so much time and money organizing our perfect wedding, not for your inadequate mother to ruin it all.”
“Try to take it with humor,” Denis tried to smooth things over. “Don’t take everything so seriously.”
“All our friends and colleagues are looking askance, and behind our backs, they will definitely discuss the behavior of your parents,” Sveta couldn’t calm down. “Even in the wedding photos, your inadequate mother will be more visible than you and me.”
Denis understood Sveta’s displeasure but couldn’t do anything. He tried to reason with his mother, but she got even more heated and considered herself the main star of the celebration.
“So that’s it, I’ve had enough of this circus,” Sveta told her mother-in-law, leading her to another room. “You’ve already ruined most of the party, the script is all messed up, and all the guests think we’re fools.”
“I’m not to blame if your boring friends have no sense of humor,” Lyubov Petrovna countered. “I think everything is going well, and if there weren’t a second bride at this wedding, it would have been bland.”
“Either you behave properly and act appropriately for the rest of the evening, or you come up with reasons why you urgently need to go home,” Sveta said decisively.
“So you’re kicking your husband’s parents out of the party?” Lyubov Petrovna was clearly ready for a conflict.
“I’ve said everything, now you decide,” Sveta declared and hurried back to the banquet hall.
Lyubov Petrovna initially planned to be offended and even loudly slammed the door as a farewell but then changed her mind and stayed. She didn’t change her outfit either, which finally drove her daughter-in-law to a nervous breakdown. Sveta asked the host to bring out the cake early, then she and Denis gave thank-you speeches, indicating that the celebration was over. But Lyubov Petrovna had other plans and invited all the relatives to move to their place for further celebration of the anniversary. Some agreed, and they took taxis to Aleksei and Lyubov’s to continue the banquet.
Svetlana was beside herself with anger, forbade her mother-in-law from even appearing on their doorstep, and warned her husband that his relatives would not have access to their children in the future. Denis remained silent, not quite understanding how to act or what to say in such a situation. Formally, Sveta was right, and he didn’t know how he would have acted in her place.
But on the other hand, even with all her quirks and unpredictable antics, Lyubov remained his mother, so the man was to navigate between his wife and relatives, keeping them off the same territory for everyone’s safety.