Having second thoughts about saying "I do" is perfectly natural. It's a big deal. And there are also various reasons you might want to call off your nuptials entirely — like not seeing eye-to-eye on big picture values. But facial hair doesn't exactly fall under that umbrella. And that's why a bride on Reddit is being skewered for threatening to call off her wedding if her husband-to-be doesn't shave his beard.
The woman shared that she has been with her fiancé for over three years.
"We have been engaged for one of those years," she explained. "Our wedding is set for September 6th. My fiancé has been growing a beard ever since like March or so. I haven't thought anything of it since I've seen him with a beard plenty of times before. I'd say since I've known him it's been about 50/50 between him clean shaven and him having a beard. I jokingly brought up his beard and our wedding the other day. I said, 'You ready to have a clean face for our wedding?' He looked at me and was silent for a few seconds. He finally said 'Um, I was going to leave my beard for the wedding.'"
That's when the OP lost it.
She recalled giving him a "pretty gross look" and saying, "No, you are not. That is not acceptable. I will not have that."
She continued, "He got mad that I was telling him what to do and said that I can't tell him what to do with his grooming preferences. I said that I have the right to since it is my wedding and I am marrying him. We kept going back and forth about it until I said that I would cancel our wedding if he doesn't shave. He didn't budge. He ended up getting really mad by that comment and left shortly after."
The OP shared that her husband-to-be has "barely texted her since that happened."
"I've told my friends and family about the situation and part of them agree with me while some say that I had no right to tell him to do that and that I was being a jerk for doing so," she elaborated. "Just to clarify, I don't hate his beard, it's fine. I think at times that it can be attractive. I just don't really like the idea of him not being clean shaven on our wedding day. I feel as though the pictures will not be as classy and nice."
She then turned it over to Redditors in the Am I the A–hole subreddit for their opinions.
Redditors quickly piled on the superficial bride, racking up over 2K comments, the majority of which asserted that yes, she's an a--hole.
"As a woman, you should understand the concept: My body, my choice," wrote one top commenter. "The fact you are denying him the right to choose what he wants is messed up. It would be the same as him telling you what to do with your hair. If you are that petty, just let the poor man go so he can find someone else. And BTW, the wedding is about both bride and groom. I hate women like you who think the wedding is only about them. Sorry to break it to you but it's not."
Another noted, "How would you feel if he told you how you had to style your hair, wear your makeup, etc? Stop thinking of this as 'your personal wedding.' Its 'you and your husband's wedding.' Its not about you, its about both of you."
A third quipped, "Sounds like OP wants a wedding, not a marriage."
One Redditor summed the eyebrow-raising situation up perfectly: "If that's enough to call it off, he shouldn't be marrying you anyway."
Clearly, there's a lot more going on beneath the surface here. Here's hoping the OP finds it in herself to grow up and apologize — or else learn a tough lesson that a relationship is a two-way street.
These stories are based on posts found on Reddit. Reddit is a user-generated social news aggregation, web content rating, and discussion website where registered members submit content to the site and can up- or down-vote the content. The accuracy and authenticity of each story cannot be confirmed by our staff.
