Rules of Pre-Engagement

A week had passed since our dinner at my daughter's boyfriend's parents house when my work phone rang and it was Mimi. How unusual, since I gave her my private cell number to contact me. And how surprising since we had only first met a week before and our children weren't yet engaged. Kimberly had apparently told her that I was considering paying for several items in her wedding, including the florist, photographer, band, invitations. Mimi asked me if I mentioned those things based on real numbers. I told her I hadn't and that I would be investigating prices. She told me that a photographer alone was $6,000! I expressed surprise and said that I knew several photographers and their prices would not be that high. She told me that was the price for a person experienced in shooting Orthodix Jewish weddings. When I told her we could get the price down much cheaper, she said it had to be someone experienced because she didn't want to spend the wedding directing the photographer. I told her we could brief the photographer and it would be fine but she would have none of it. She then demanded to know how much I was going to spend on the wedding. I told her that I didn't know. She then blew me away by saying, "Why don't you just concentrate on Kimberly and pay for her hair and nails and you can be a guest at the wedding." She also said I would have to cut my guest list (of about 30 people) down!! Can you see me blowing my stack at that moment? I told her I would not be a "guest" at my own daughter's wedding and there would be no way I would cut down the number of guests I'd be having. We hung up and I called Kimberly and told her what happened. She, of course, went ballistic, blamed everything on me and wrote the most insulting e-mail to me, Mimi and Zach demanding I tell Zach's parents how much I'd be spending on the wedding. I wrote her back telling her she was being very disrespectful and that neither Mimi nor I are required to pay for her wedding so she better appreciate what we're doing. All this and Kimberly and Zach were not even yet engaged. Little did I know that this was just the first of many run-ins with Zach's bossy, pushy, arrogant and nasty parents. Hold on, it's going to be a bumpy ride!