I (28F), am getting married to my fiancé (29M), in March. When we first got engaged, my fiancé and I decided that we would pay for the wedding completely. Since I wanted to save some money, I decided to wear a second hand wedding dress. I was having a lot of trouble finding a wedding dress that I wanted to wear in my price range, so I decided to wear my mother’s old wedding dress.
On a phone call, my fiancé mentioned to *his* mother that I had struggled to find a dress, she suggested that I take a look at her old one. I didn’t take the suggestion seriously at first but decided that I should take a look anyways. The dress was absolutely *gorgeous*. My fiancés family has a significant amount of money, and the dress perfectly fits the whole "old money wedding" aesthetic, it’s also excellent quality and was probably very expensive to buy. My future MIL insisted I take the dress for free since she’s never going to use it again.
I was ecstatic and immediately called my mom to share the good news. I expected her to be happy that I had found a beautiful dress while also saving money. Instead, she was furious. She feels insulted that I chose my future MIL’s dress over hers and accused me of using her dress as a “backup” until I found something better. She’s upset that I would allow my MIL to provide such a sentimental and important item, rather than having it come from her.
It was never my intention to offend my mother in any way I simply fell in love with my future MIL’s dress. My dad thinks it would make everyone’s lives easier if I simply apologize to my mom and wear her dress. I’m also now worried that my mother may try to retaliate in some way, and I certainly don’t want to ruin the friendship that she has with my future MIL. AITA?