I need some advice on how to seat my FH's parents during the ceremony or how to tell his mom what we are doing without offending her. FH's parents are divorced (his dad has remarried) but can act civil towards one another so we were going to have them sit in the first pew at the church for the ceremony. Our original plan was to have his Dad walk his stepmom down the aisle during the processional, followed by his sister and then his mom would get escorted down the aisle last for his side. Both the FH and I liked this idea and thought it would be the perfect solution.
The dilemma is that the other day his mom called to tell him that she wants his sister to sit in the second row and then to let her boyfriend sit in the first row with her. Our issue with that is that we aren't that close to her boyfriend and would rather have his sister in the first pew. The other thing is then his mom either would not be seated by her boyfriend (because we would make him be seated before the processional start...he has no reason to get to walk down the aisle during that part of the ceremony in our opinion) or he would have to stand up and get out of the aisle when his stepmom and dad got to the pew to let them in so the boyfriend could sit by his mom (and we think that will just be distracting). Our original plan was to let him sit in the second pew, so right behind FH's mom. Does this sound ridiculous or are we okay in saying no to his mom and telling her the boyfriend can sit in the second pew?
Ideas/thoughts?
Re: FH's parents and seating questions
Each parent should be escorted and seated with their dates, whether they are married or not. Seat them all in the front row, along with the sister and her date, if she is bringing one. These parents are civil toward each other, so I don't understand why anyone would make an issue of it.
If for some reason, there is not room for all in the front row, seat the sister and her date in the second row.
An easy solution would be to have the BF sitting one spot away from the aisle (obviously to save room for FI's mom), and then instead of having FI's dad and stepmom scoot in around him, have them walk up to FI to give him a quick hug, and then they can walk around the other end of the pew and sit next to the boyfriend.