How to Cope With Complicated In-Laws on your Wedding Day
We have all seen Monster-In-Law…oh wait? WE haven’t…are you sure? The one with J-Lo and her character is allergic to peanuts and yada, yada, yada. Well, what you could probably already gathered from the title, the movie highlights a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law to be feuding over their impending relations. But, good news is and SPOILER ALERT they end up resolving their differences as their one commonality (the love for a son and soon to be husband) helps them put things into perspective.
SO…how does this relate to today’s blog? Well, if you’re one of the lucky ones that has managed to avoid any and all conflict with ANY of your spouses’s family members then you can kindly click away from this blog, or you could stay that it totally your prerogative.
The I&B teamed up and answered YOUR questions about complicated, messy, uncomfortable relationships with soon-to-be family members on or around your wedding day so sit back, relax (because we know you’ve been stressing over this) and let I&B take the wheel.
Disclaimer: We know not all in-laws are stress-inducing, we are just here for you on the off-chance that they are!
“What do I do about seating arrangements if my husband’s family (for the most part) really doesn’t like each other?”
Avoid a seating chart at all costs! That way, it is up to your guests to choose where they sit, taking the burden right off of your shoulders. If you really want a seating chart, just be mindful. Don’t stress because you will most likely never be able to make everyone happy BUT you can do your best and at the end of the day it is your wedding day so worrying about others should be a bit lower on your list.
“How do I NOT stress about the fact that my husband’s mother and I don’t get along in my wedding day? Does she have to be included in the day’s activities?”
One way to combat the discomfort is to only keep your circle as big as your partner’s. By this we mean if you have your mom two aunts and a cousin participate in your getting ready activities, have your your partner’s mom, two aunts and a cousin there (we get that this is not always realistic but try to keep things as even as possible!)
“My husband has 7 sisters..some of which I like and others not as much…do I have to have them included in my wedding party?”
Your bridal part should be the people you want standing up there with you, they should mean something to you and they should bring every bit of positive light they can to your special day, unfortunately, someitmes fulfilling those needs gets a bit tricky when it comes to family. WE reccomend avoiding your partner’s family IF there are some you like and some you do not get along with as well, it may be sad to leave out the few that do mean something to you but it just makes things so much easier when it comes to not hurting anyone’s feelings.
“My husband’s family is HUGE…some of them are great and other’s are kind of trouble makers (drinking, have been arrested, etc.) how do I make sure they keep it together for my wedding day without offending them?”
We understand that this doesn’t explicitly have to do with alcohol but we answered it as if it did because typically when you say “troublemaker” the first thing that enables that trouble is alcohol. We reccomend three things to combat any potentially trouble: 1) an alcohol free wedding, you could always have the rehearsal dinner be the party time with tons of alcohol and have your actual wedding day be dry, 2) have tokens for alcohol to make sure that no one individual can get too intoxicated and 3) only serve beer or wine at your wedding, typically this will ensure that no one is getting too drunk too quickly.
Check out our YouTube video where we go more in-depth on each and every one of these questions!
