4 Tips for Dealing with Wedding Advice

Weddings are an exciting time! As a bride and groom-to-be, you will find yourself a magnet for opinions on how your wedding should be planned. This most often comes from immediate family and friends who are excited for you. In past decades, tradition determined the planning from the wording on the invitation to the style of dinner that was served. More recently, the freedom to create a wedding day that reflects the personality of the couple has become more accepted. Despite this shift, you’ll likely still hear input on “how things should be done.”

You and your fiancé are the two people whose tastes and preferences matter most, but since there will be other opinions to work through, here are some courtesy tips to employ:

  1. Start by defining your boundaries early in the process of planning your wedding. Use wording like “[Fiance] and I have chosen xyz…” Be confident yet kind.

  2. Communicate. When it comes to questioning your choices, respectfully communicate why you are choosing the particular path in question.

  3. Remember that those who are financially invested will likely expect to be consulted on decisions. I highly recommend that your financial contributors give a specific dollar amount towards the total wedding budget rather than “sponsoring” a budget category to avoid conflict over specific details.

  4. Find the points that you’re comfortable with delegating. Often, I find that loved ones simply want to be part of the process. One of the best ways to allow them this honor is to assign a specific detail to them. This could be something simple like giving them the job of ordering/creating/setting up favors or hospitality baskets in the restrooms. (I don’t recommend assigning aspects of the planning to multiple parties since that can easily become a source of cross communication and confusion.)

    Remember, you and your fiancé will set the tone for the planning process and the wedding day. Your initiative in making decisions calmly and definitively will allow those around you to relax and celebrate with you instead of feeling the need to make it happen themselves. Most of all, remember to enjoy the fun of planning and celebrating!

Ria HyComment