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Bride Learns Mother-In-Law Wearing White On Her Big Day
What would you do if someone did this at your wedding?
Cedric Jackson
07.01.19

Jimmy Fallon’s Hashtag challenges have proven hugely popular, and what’s more, they’ve taken personal stories and broadcast them all over the world. In one recent Hashtag Challenge, #WeddingFail, one woman tweeted a story that just begged for details.

“My mother-in-law wore a wedding dress to my wedding,” she said. “So, yeah, top that one, Twitter.”

Amy Pennza also shared a picture of herself and her mother-in-law on the day of her 2004 wedding. In the picture, Pennza looks less than thrilled. In fact, she looks like she’s ready to start a fight.

Twitter
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Twitter

“My fist is clenched, my back is really rigid, you can see the bones in my spine,” she said. “I got ready at the church in this little room, and it’s almost burned in my memory. The door opens, she walks in, she’s lit by sunlight behind her and she looks like an angel. Only not.”

Thankfully, the two of them managed to avoid a fight.

By the time Pennza confronted her mother-in-law, Terri Pennza, someone else had already gotten to her.

“I do remember saying, ‘You could be the bride,’ and she cringed a little and said, ‘I know’,” said Pennza. “So, I think someone got to her before me and said, ‘Terri, what are you wearing?’”

Cafe Mom
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Cafe Mom

Even though wearing white — forget a whole bridal gown — to a wedding is a major faux pas, Terri Pennza actually wasn’t meaning to offend.

She simply wasn’t thinking.

“It’s flabbergasting to me that she wore that but it just didn’t come from a place of malice — she’s a huge thrift person, so she saw it on clearance and just bought it,” said Pennza. “She maintains that she just didn’t think about it.”

Evoke
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Evoke

Fifteen years later, the story has become a running joke in the family, so all’s well that ends well.

Whenever there’s a family wedding, Pennza says, she teasingly reminds her mother-in-law not to wear a literal bridal gown to the ceremony.

Metro
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Metro

But on the day of her wedding, Pennza says her sister and friend were running quiet but frantic interference to ensure that nobody made a fuss and embarrassed either of them during the party.

Pennza says her mother-in-law’s personality can often come across as her sticking her foot in her mouth. She’s a member of Weight Watchers even though she’s extremely slim, and often asks restaurant servers to return coupons to her so she can reuse them. But Pennza has learned to roll with the punches and laugh about the whole thing.

“It’s funny stuff that is borderline offensive, but taken as a whole you can’t be angry,” she said. “We love her.”

USA Today
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USA Today

People on Twitter responded explosively to Pennza’s tweet, which quickly pulled in more than 55,000 “likes.”

Twenty-Two Words
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Twenty-Two Words

These days, Terri Pennza is passing on her thrifty side to her four grandchildren, and she’s on good terms with her daughter-in-law — but she’ll never wear white to a wedding again. Lesson learned for the rest of her life.

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