At my wedding, just as the officiant asked if anyone objected, my mother stood up with fake tears, trying to stop my marriage. But my fiancé, Brian, had the perfect response.

I met Brian unexpectedly on the metro after a long shift at the hospital. He was reading The Great Gatsby, and we struck up a conversation. We didn’t exchange numbers that night, but fate brought us together again when Brian saved my purse from a thief. A few months later, we were in love, though my mother, Juliette, disapproved. She thought Brian, a librarian, wasn’t wealthy enough for me, despite our upper-middle-class lifestyle.