It is likely that disputes and drama may come up at some point while you are planning your wedding.
The pressure to keep everyone happy and make everything perfect can take an emotional toll on an engaged couple. “It’s easy to lose sight of what this day is really about, and that’s true love,”
We’ve all heard about family drama overtaking weddings and throwing the spotlight away from the happy couple. It’s actually sadly common, but that doesn’t mean it has to happen to you. Here are some factors that can lead to conflict while planning your wedding
- Who’s paying for the wedding
- Deciding on the guest list
- When you come from a large and blended family
- Difference in religion or denomination
- Not including all the parents in the planning process.
- Not taking the family seating arrangements seriously.
The first thing you need to realize is that your situation isn’t unique. It’s very common for conflicts of this nature to arise when you’re in the process of planning a wedding. If there’s any tension at all present in your family relationships, you can expect it to come to the surface at a time like this. As you say, it’s a potentially explosive scenario, and it needs to be handled with care.
Perhaps it would be helpful to remember that while this is undoubtedly your wedding, your parents also have a large vested interest in it. Traditionally, a wedding and the following reception have been viewed as a celebration put on by the parents of the bride – the father in particular – in honor of their daughter and her new husband. That’s why it’s been standard procedure, at least in the past, for them to cover most of the expenses. It stands to reason that whoever pays should also have a significant say in the way the wedding is conducted.
Deciding who is contributing to the wedding budget can be one of the most awkward aspects of dealing with family while wedding planning
The truth is when you accept a contribution towards the wedding budget from other members of your extended family asides your parents, you are giving them power to make decisions and have opinions about the wedding. Most of the time when someone contributes to a wedding budget they are expecting to have a say in a few decisions and rightfully so.
Though keeping everyone in the loop is important, it is equally (if not more) important for you and your partner to set boundaries with your family about the wedding. It’s important to decide how much (or how little) you want to share with certain family members about wedding details.
Setting boundaries is very important when dealing with family while wedding planning. Reserve the two tables closest to the front for your respective families. Keep them exactly level. Even if they insist that it’s fine to be further away, your guests will notice and it can potentially cause some embarrassment.
