Common Family Conflicts and Resolutions When Planning Your Wedding

By: Alexine

There are many different issues that can surface for brides planning their wedding. Whether it is a divorce in the family or refusal to travel, the conflicts can show themselves in any area of the process. Hopefully by the time you’re planning the wedding you know what your issues are and just need to figure out the resolution. Here are some of the most common conflicts when planning your wedding with easy resolutions.

Divorced Parents
If both of you and your fiancé have divorced parents the resolution is quite simple when it comes to seating arrangements. If the divorced parents get along than you can still have a table for parents of the bride and another table for parents of the groom. On the other hand if you have two sets of divorced parents that want nothing to do with each other than you can make a mother table and a father table. This ensures that the two that don’t get along will be far enough away from each other for comfort. Also at the church you can have the front row reserved for parents and do the same sort of division.

The splitting up of mothers and fathers also works if one set of divorced parents does get along but the other does not. Although one set of parents can be civil it is better to keep things calm by doing the mother and father table.

Widowed Parent
If one of you has lost your mother or father then it is a nice gesture to make a parents table at the wedding so they all sit together. This ensures that the widowed parent is surrounded with loving family. Also if the other parents are divorced then you can always fill the table with close relatives to the widowed parent. Then at the church you can use the same seating arrangements. While this may seem confusing, making sure that your immediate family is taken care of gives you a rewarding feeling when it is all said and done.

Wedding Location
If it becomes a battle of where people will go for your wedding and too much input is being brought to the table, take a deep breath and remember this is your wedding. If you and your fiancé want a large wedding then having the wedding close the majority of your family and friends would be preferable. However, if you both would like something small than choosing a location further away from the majority of family and friends would be better. This would ensure you didn’t make people felt left out.

Another common problem is scattered families. If his family is in California and your family is in Florida than more of a middle ground like Texas would be a fair place to have the wedding. I’m sure you see where I’m going with this. Also there could be one set of parents paying for the wedding which is a nice gesture if you try and hold the wedding close to home for them. This ensures they don’t have to pay for additional hotel and plane tickets on top of the wedding expenses.

Grandparents Who Won’t Fly
If you have grandparents who refuse to get on a plane then there are other traveling options available. Try and keep the wedding location in a place where they reach by bus or train. This would prevent the burden from being on your parents or other relatives. Sometimes other family members will drive to the wedding which is also an option for getting the grandparents there. Do not feel obligated to arrange everything around one or two grandparents if they are putting up a huge stink. While it may be important because you are close with them, if you try and make it work than you have done your best. Sometimes the elderly people are stubborn and you just can’t please them.

Staying Calm
While each of you will have your own specific dilemmas when planning the wedding, it is important try and enjoy the whole process. Dealing with multiple people who want input is one of the most stressful parts to planning you wedding. To avoid this problem, talk to your fiancé and parents about the budget. Then once you have determined your budget you can get into more details with your fiancé only and everyone else will choose to go along with the plans or not. It is difficult to please everyone so be sure and concentrate on what the day is about instead of who has a problem with your details. Good luck with your conflicts and hopefully you can reresolve them with little stress or heart ache.