Bride Backed for Refusing to Cancel Wedding Over Sister-in-Law's Divorce

A bride-to-be has received widespread support for refusing to cancel her wedding after her sister-in-law announced she was getting a divorce.

She shared the bizarre situation to Reddit, under the apt username Notcancellingwedding, as she explained that she and her fiancé are due to tie the knot in September.

But the pair were under pressure to cancel the nuptials from his family, after the groom-to-be's sister discovered her husband was cheating.

She wrote: "My fiancé's sister just found out her husband and father of their three kids was cheating on her for the past 2 years and he left the house and they're getting a divorce. My SIL is very distraught by this of course since she's been with him since they were 19 (they're 34 now).

"Since they're getting a divorce, now everyone from my fiancé's side of the family demands that we cancel our wedding to show solidarity and support to my SIL.

"They also believe it would be improper to celebrate while my SIL is getting divorced and left alone with three kids. My SIL also demands it and says there's no ifs and buts and the wedding is getting cancelled and it's the respectful thing to do."

Two Separate Things

While she acknowledged attending a wedding might be hard emotionally for her sister-in-law, she failed to see how their union needed to be canceled as a result of the breakup.

"While I truly feel for her and her situation I don't understand what our wedding has to do with it and how cancelling it will help her feel better.

"I understand being at a wedding is going to feel bittersweet but her divorce and our wedding are two separate occasions and I don't feel like we should cancel anything.

"My fiancé agrees on everything and was the first one to say how it's completely unreasonable to cancel our wedding," she added.

In light of the decision to press on with the marriage, her future in-laws thought they were being "extremely selfish and inconsiderate."

But after asking for opinions, the post, shared on Sunday, amassed more than 12,000 upvotes, and can be read here, as Redditors overall felt the pair were right to continue with their wedding as planned.

Prosemortem jokingly advised: "Or telling the inlaws it's really VERY improper of SIL to be getting a divorce during their time of celebration and perhaps she could cancel it."

MonAmourAster thought: "NTA Don't let her unreasonable demands destroy your moment. Also if your fiance's entire family is demanding to cancel, ask them to not attend your wedding."

Ok-World-4233 asked: "So the world is supposed to stop revolving because she is getting divorced? This is one of the most ridiculous things I have seen on here. So stupid."

Oneeyecheeselord said: "NTA at all. If SIL is that distraught over someone else getting married then I think she needs therapy."

RiverSong_777 commented: "Erm ... Was she married to her brother/your fiancé? Because that's the only way your wedding would have anything to do with her divorce."

Tedious_Grafunkel pointed out: "Sounds to me like you have plenty of space to invite people that actually want to be there."

Woooozywoz joked: "Or just simply uninvite them all! Then they can all be together in their misery and not ruin OPs special day!"

The chart below, provided by Statista, shows the age at which people get married around the world.

You will find more infographics at Statista

While KnottaBiggins added: "This may be the one time where going "total bridezilla" is the right thing to do!"

While the bride-to-be didn't specify where she's based, in the U.S. in 2020 there were 1,676,911 marriages, compared to 630,505 divorces, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.)

That equates to a marriage rate of 5.1 per 1,000, with a divorce rate of 2.3 per 1,000.

The marriage rate has dipped slightly, from 6.1 in 2019, and 6.5 in 2018. While the divorce rate has also slowed, from 2.7 in 2019, and 2.9 the year before.

Newsweek reached out to Notcancellingwedding for comment.