Family politics can be a challenge when you’re getting married and you often have to find (make up!) roles for family members in order to make them feel involved and keep the peace.
That’s why we’ve put together our top tips to help you know what to say when Auntie Susan rings you to ask if you could find something for little Jonathon to do on your Big Day.
First thing’s first: there are of course a huge number of different roles with fancy titles to choose from in a wedding. But aside from making someone you don’t like your maid of honour, what can you do to keep everyone happy?
Fortunately, there are many things that need to be done to get a wedding off the ground, so there’s no shortage of jobs you can hand out. Just think of it as free labour in the battle to complete your enormous wedding checklist! If you need something collecting and dropping off at the venue, candles, and decorations for instance, then delegate that task to someone. It’ll save you time on the run up to the Big Day and will make your family feel involved.
The word ‘delegate’ is certainly key to this issue and to minimising stress when the day arrives. Knowing that you have every conceivable eventuality and task covered by other people is a huge relief. The brilliant thing about getting married is that so many people offer their help.
Decorating the venue is a huge job that needs as many hands as possible in the hours right before the wedding takes place. Not to mention weeks beforehand if you want anything crafted for your Big Day, like photograph bunting. Getting some extra help in this area will mean that you’ll be able to pop in to supervise everything and check it looks the way you always imagined before swanning off to get your hair and nails done. At fabulous venues like the exquisite Holmewood Hall in Cambridgeshire you get plenty of help decorating your venue, but many hands make light work as the saying goes!
If you get Auntie Susan’s call weeks before the wedding, then you could even ask for some help putting together the save the dates and invitations or preparing your favours. If all else fails, then remember that there all sorts of roles that you can add to.
For example, there’s no limit to the number of ushers or bridesmaids you can have. Your personal wedding manager can announce your arrival into the room and even introduce the speeches so you won’t need to worry about who’ll take care of this for you if you’re struggling to choose
Another way that you can get your family involved in wedding planning is to get them to organise the seating. This takes a lot of work, especially if you have family politics to contend with, and it can be good to ask certain people to take charge of family logistics. Making sure your guests all have somewhere to stay and know how to get to your wedding venue is a huge responsibility that you’ll be very relieved to have taken off your shoulders. Planning a wedding can become hugely stressful, so share some of the burden with your loved ones and, if you’re still feeling somewhat frazzled, then @theknot says that ‘Meditation can help de-stress you while wedding planning’.
