How to deal with challenging family dynamics at your wedding

It never ceases to amaze me how people behave when it comes to a big family event such as a wedding.

It can bring out the best and the worst in people. Opinions about your plans, your choices, family dynamics etc. are more than a little overwhelming at times.

I experienced this when we got married. My biggest worry wasn’t whether the dress fitted (which it didn’t quite!) – it was dealing with my divorced parents and where to seat various people who weren’t talking to each other. Sometimes I just wanted to bang everyone’s heads together and tell them to sort it out themselves. Yet, I wanted everyone to have a great day so I went out of my way to try and make things easier for everyone.

In the end, there was a mess up with the table plan and the people who weren’t talking to each other were sat next to each other. I was mortified!

It took me a long time to realise that YOU CAN’T PLEASE EVERYONE.

A lesson I wish I had learnt BEFORE the wedding because it would have made life so much easier. I bring this up because when couples work with me to plan their ceremony, as we build our friendship, I often get asked how to deal with some of these issues.

You can only do your best!!

Remind them that this is YOUR day and you are doing the best you can. And if that’s not good enough for them, maybe your wedding isn’t where they need to be!!

So dear reader, if your wedding is coming up and you’re sweating buckets over family politics, warring friends etc – don’t fret – it’s their problem – not yours!