Bridezilla Lives

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS SUPERFICIAL TOPICS AND EXCESSIVE FAMILY DRAMA.

I'd heard of the bridezilla phenomenon before, and I believed it was possible...but somehow I never thought it would affect me.

Alas, my sister has lost every last shred of her sanity, and we've just had a family meltdown that started at David's Bridal and ended in my parents' living room. All over bridesmaid dresses!

She's always been this way--prone to hysteria and out-of-control drama. And she's always viciously resented me for being the older sister (the older sister, I might add, who always got stuck babysitting her mean little ass). So naturally, everything that went wrong today was somehow my fault.

We were making final decisions on the dresses; I was the last one to try them on, and it took me a few tries to get the exact size and style that worked for me. That's when my mom decided to tell my sister that she and several other ladies (none of whom are bridesmaids) were concerned about the clingy fabric.

My sister didn't freak out immediately, just seemed to start considering other options. She had to leave to run a quick errand, so I scrambled around looking for similar dresses and tried them on as fast as I could while she was gone. My plan was to present her with some options when she returned. But instead, to my dismay, she came at me with another armful of dresses. I was exhausted by this time, and I could see my sister getting into that state of mind where she can't be reasoned with.

About this time my mom had to run home to meet my grandma's nurse, so she left us at the store with no car. She was hesitant to leave, but she had to. And I couldn't go because I was up to my neck in taffeta. I asked her to come back as soon as possible.

I tried to talk to my sister about the dresses I'd picked out, and she wouldn't listen. So I told her I couldn't talk to her when she was upset, that I was really tired, and that we should do this later.

She insisted that we were going to make a decision then and there, and I calmly told her I was through trying on dresses. She asked me why I couldn't just go along with the dress she had chosen, and I reminded her I wasn't the one who had a problem with it. She asked why I was being so difficult, and I maintained that I hadn't done anything wrong. She said she didn't understand why I was being so bitchy, and I told her I was not going to argue with her. She declared me no longer a bridesmaid.

Then we sat, stewing, texting and waiting for my mom to return. The poor sales ladies went about their business, tip-toeing carefully around us. They were infinitely wise not to get involved.

I don't know how I kept my cool, but it worked so well I couldn't even get mad or cry after we got home. I locked myself in my room while my sister and my mom continued to argue...until my sister said "screw you..." and was told to leave.

I'm not trying to be a martyr here, but I'm recovering from some sort of stomach flu and don't have the strength to deal with this shit. And even if I did, my family is not capable of handling this kind of meltdown. They just feed off each other, getting madder and madder until they start saying things they don't mean and it gets really ugly.

I won't do that anymore. Not even when I'm at the top of my game.

I'm no saint, and I don't claim to be the perfect sister. But I am genuinely trying to help with this wedding and don't deserve the abuse. This is the second time in two weeks my sister has called me some variation of "bitch," and I don't care how stressful weddings are; that's out of line.

If she wants to talk to me after she calms down, I'll talk to her--if I'm ready.

But I won't fight.