So my parents recently decided it was in their best interest to announce that they're getting a divorce the week beforethis past Christmas. While my siblings and I saw this coming, it’s gotten ridiculously ugly. As my mom and I have never been on good terms, I had originally decided not to invite her, and call it a day. Recently she’s been reaching out to me and seems to be trying to make a connection, and since announcing my wedding, and I’m willing to give her a shot, keeping her from helping me plan and etc but she’s insisting that she be allowed to bring her new sugar daddy. I want to say no, but how do I do that politely?
In terms of family and seating issues, my mom’s family has never liked my dad. After my parents got married my mom’s sister and my dad’s brother got hitched and are still married so it makes for an awkward family dynamic. My dad’s brother actually hates his brother (my dad) but I really do have to invite them since they still send money and gifts each Christmas. (Granted the gifts are obviously re-gifts, not inviting my aunt and uncle would pretty much be baaaaad.)
The amount of people coming from both sides of my family is so small the only obvious solution is to put them at the same table, but if I did that, there would be bloodshed at the wedding and I have already decided that I'd kick out trouble makers, because I am not having it. How on earth do I do this? If I seat them at the same table it would be a table of about 8, but separately, I risk having too many tables in a small-ish space on an already tight budget and I couldn’t afford the extra rentals and centerpieces. To add to that, everyone else who has agreed to be there are already seated and are much younger than my family and none of them want to deal with either side of my family because the drama would be overwhelming, hence seating them at different tables.
For the record we’ve chosen round tables that will seat around 10 or 8 people depending on how we play it.