Future In-laws and your wedding

You want your wedding to be perfect, but then there are the family issues. His parents are divorced and can’t stand each other. Her parents want to run the show—after all, they’re paying for the wedding. What’s a couple to do?

Sometimes, what should be the happiest day of your life ends up one of the most stressful, all because people can’t get along. As the bride and groom, you feel you have to dance the careful dance of not offending but not being caught in the middle.

Our advice is to decide what’s best for you two first, being careful to balance the complexities of your family situations with reality and what’s right. The Bible says to honor your father and mother, and you need to figure out how to do this without being caught up in drama that shouldn’t be happening.

If one side is just being childish and the other controlling or manipulative, well, you may have to make some tough decisions. Should you set boundaries and tell them, strongly yet respectfully, how you’d like your wedding to be? Should you have a smaller wedding and pay for it on your own so you can have the wedding you want?

Try your best to find that respectful balance yet not to get pulled into other people’s control, and, if you can’t figure out how to do that, get a counselor’s or pastor’s advice. Then, create the memory you want.