I think my situation was a bit different because it went more like "Mom, I've bought a plane ticket to Australia....to meet a guy I met online. " I was 20.
I get the most horribly rude reactions from people!! When I was in America and we were only engaged, people would ask about the wedding and, inevitably, it would come out that he was in Australia. Then they ask how we met and I brace myself for their reaction as I spout my well-rehearsed, "Oh, we met online actually; a couple years ago. " Sometimes I got an anecdote about how they know someone or another who met so and so online. Usually I got rude comments like, "Oh....well, good luck with that." "How do you know he's not pretending to be someone else" and the ever popular disgusted "Ohhhh."
Idiots. I'm so over it. I feel like I've had the same conversation a billion times and I'm tired of explaining our relationship to people!!!