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Wedding Etiquette Forum

what would you do? will she be in my wedding party or will she not?

I have a destination wedding planned (it is now less than 6 months away) I have 3 of my friends/bridemaids already planning to come to my destination wedding and share our special day...they in turn will all be wearing the same dress and sitting at the head table at our reception we are having back at home 2 weeks after our wedding.  My other friend has been telling me she may go/she may not be able to afford to go.  I need to KNOW SOON if she is coming or not because my fiance would need to ask his brother-in-law to be his 4th groomsman, problem is we have seen him twice which would have been a great and appropriate to ask him in person, now we may not see him until the wedding and if my friend says she'll go we have to ask him on the phone which isn't so appropriate and "will look like he was a second thought"...I told my fiance it won't appear that awful to him when we explain the situation, but he is pretty mad that we're sitting around and waiting on my friend.  He also says if she is not going to be at the wedding why would she be sitting at the head table at the reception?  She ended up buying dresses with all of us even though she can't give me an answer on going.  If she says she can't come to our destination wedding would you still have her at the head table?  What do I say to her so we don't start a war, It's fine if she can't come, I understand finances, but I just don't know how to do the reception.   

Re: what would you do? will she be in my wedding party or will she not?

  • You know you can have uneven sides right?

    Oh, you didn't.. Well here is the news flash.  Have uneven sides.






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • Well if you asked her to be a bridesmaid and she bought the dress, she is your bridesmaid and she should be at the reception wearing the dress and sitting at the head table.  It's pretty mean of you to hold it against her that she can't afford to go to your destination wedding. 

    As far as asking the other guy, you don't have to have even sides.  If your FI wants him in the wedding, just ask him whether your friend can go or not.  We had one extra guy on the groom's side and everything was still wonderful and the wedding was still valid. 

    You need to lighten up a bit I think.
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  • and for the reception.  Well I think head tables are dumb anyway.  But if you have one, I would still have her sitting with you.






    What differentiates an average host and a great host is anticipating unexpressed needs and wants of their guests.  Just because the want/need is not expressed, doesn't mean it wouldn't be appreciated. 
  • Dude, head tables ARE dumb!  And Dani's right.  You really need to lighten up.  Have a couple of xanax or something.  Sheesh. 

    My H had five on his side, and I had three on mine.  The world did not end. 
  • I just cringe whenever someone says "Our special day". Gagggg.
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  • Just have uneven sides.  Problem fixed.
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_would-will-she-wedding-party-will-she-not?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:06737888-a2ec-47ad-af65-0f90be587bb0Post:aacb82e6-1127-4b55-802e-a4f7af9d701f">Re: what would you do? will she be in my wedding party or will she not?</a>:
    [QUOTE]I just cringe whenever someone says "Our special day". Gagggg.
    Posted by salt78[/QUOTE]

    i2i Salt.  Every time someone sent me an email, or made a comment to me about "my special day" I wanted to poke my eyes out.
  • Ditto Dani and lynda.  It won't look that weird to have uneven sides.  Save yourself the hassle (and your sanity), by just asking the BIL and letting things unfold.
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  • Also, if you kick her out of the wedding because she can't afford to go to the destination ceremony, you really do risk ending the friendship.  I know personally I would be so hurt and offended if my friend kicked me out of the wedding party because I didn't have enough money to go to the ceremony.  When you choose a destination wedding, that's the chance you take - that not everyone can afford to attend. 
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  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_would-will-she-wedding-party-will-she-not?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:06737888-a2ec-47ad-af65-0f90be587bb0Post:aacb82e6-1127-4b55-802e-a4f7af9d701f">Re: what would you do? will she be in my wedding party or will she not?</a>:
    [QUOTE]I just cringe whenever someone says "Our special day". Gagggg.
    Posted by salt78[/QUOTE]

    This.

    But it's a good warning that the rest of the post is going to be ridiculous beebee crap.
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  • I would chastise how stupid this is, but basically reread what has already been posted, but pretend I posted it.  
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  • wow...thanks for the responses...too bad you were not in my situation to see how "upsetting" this is to my fiance...I too have no plans of "kicking" my friend out of the wedding, I have already said that she is my friend, I want her in my wedding party, I want her at the head table even if she can't make it to the wedding....I think my perfectionist fiance would just feel he needs a 4th person on his side too. I'd have no problem with uneven sides, but apparently he does.   He thinks he will look like an idiot asking his brother in law after the fact we've seen him twice in person.  Yes I am uptight about this because he is upset, I think it's a stupid think to be fighting about, but I was trying to get some advice about how to handle it.  I guess I thought others may have had some issues picking their wedding party too and would share some advice.  I will talk with my fiance again tonight and explain that if "uneven sides" are the issue then we can ask his BIL right away and solve this.
  • If you ask this guy and explain the circumstances, yes, he WILL feel like an after-thought because he IS an after-thought.

    Just have uneven sides, maybe get rid of the head table (seriously, I hate sitting up there and having people watch me eat.  Feels like punishment) and POOF!, problems solved.
  • Your FI needs to chill out.  Uneven sides are fine.  I'm having 3 on my side, FI is having 2 on his.  And, skip the head table and either do a WP table with SOs or a sweetheart table for you all and seat your WP with their SOs and friends. 
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  • Well, I have been in this situation.  H wanted to have even sides, but I didn't have enough people that I wanted to ask, and I wasn't going to ask someone randomly to be in the wedding.

    At the end of the day, H asked those who he wanted to be in the wedding, regardless of how irregular it ended up.
  • I have been in the situation, too.  My H wanted 9 groomsmen.   I tried repeatedly to explain to him that he didn't have to have everyone who had ever had him as a groomsman in his wedding be in his wedding, and I tried explaining to him that I didn't have 9 super duper close friends and that I wasn't going to just pick people to make sides even.  At the end of the day, I told him to pick who he wanted and I'd pick who I wanted, and it didn't matter that the sides weren't even.
  • I assume that if your FI truly wanted this guy in the WP, he would have already asked him.  You asked your friends, if even sides are that important to him, why didn't he ask this guy when your girls were buying dresses and such?

    Don't let FI use people as props for perfect pictures.  You should have the people closest to you standing up there with you. 
  • You're my favorite.
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  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_would-will-she-wedding-party-will-she-not?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:06737888-a2ec-47ad-af65-0f90be587bb0Post:aacb82e6-1127-4b55-802e-a4f7af9d701f">Re: what would you do? will she be in my wedding party or will she not?</a>:
    [QUOTE]I just cringe whenever someone says "Our special day". Gagggg.
    Posted by salt78[/QUOTE]

    Ditto.

    We have a woman at the resort coordinating some of the details for our DW, and while she has been awesome she initially would make promises of ensuring a perfect "special day". We nixed that pretty early on (both the promises of "perfect" and the use of "special day") as it was driving me crazy!!!!
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_would-will-she-wedding-party-will-she-not?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:06737888-a2ec-47ad-af65-0f90be587bb0Post:2f57134c-93ed-4b0d-87e1-7c0278886b23">Re: what would you do? will she be in my wedding party or will she not?</a>:
    [QUOTE]I assume that if your FI truly wanted this guy in the WP, he would have already asked him.  You asked your friends, if even sides are that important to him, why didn't he ask this guy when your girls were buying dresses and such? Don't let FI use people as props for perfect pictures.  You should have the people closest to you standing up there with you. 
    Posted by Moneypenny424[/QUOTE]

    ITA.

    And, I personally would be insulted to be asked to be in someone's WP just to make sure the sides were even of the pictures had some sort of symmetry. I'd be more honoured to be a guest in that situation.
  • Thank you for the responses....I feel better about telling him to chill and let the the wedding party turn out how it is..he already asked his 3 favorite friends and my number came to 4...so what!! Let's just have fun! 
  • So, your fiance figures that there is a price of entry for appearing at the head table?  Either pay for the trip to the DW, or you're out?

    Nice, stand-up guy you have there.

    "You can take your etiquette and shove it!" ~misscarolb
  • We're doing a DW too.  We've asked our WP already, but we're probably going to have uneven sides also because not everyone will be able to make it to Hawaii.  For our reception in MN, we're not doing a head table, so no problems there.
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_would-will-she-wedding-party-will-she-not?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:06737888-a2ec-47ad-af65-0f90be587bb0Post:fef6bc6d-f860-43fd-a8bf-b16585c5e52e">what would you do? will she be in my wedding party or will she not?</a>:
    [QUOTE] I need to KNOW SOON if she is coming or not because my fiance would need to ask his brother-in-law to be his 4th groomsman, problem is we have seen him twice which would have been a great and appropriate to ask him in person, now we may not see him until the wedding and if my friend says she'll go we have to ask him on the phone which isn't so appropriate and "will look like he was a second thought"...I told my fiance it won't appear that awful to him when we explain the situation, but he is pretty mad that we're sitting around and waiting on my friend. 
    Posted by mercedesxx[/QUOTE]


    There's nothing wrong with asking somebody over the phone. Lots of people do it that way.

    However, that whole "It won't appear that awful once it's explained" crap <strong>will</strong> "appear that awful" since your "explanation" is <em>"Well, we wanted to ask you, but since we were afraid of uneven sides, we needed to wait until we definitely had the right number of bridesmaids to include you".</em>

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  • I'd nix the head table and making the BMs wear their dresses at the AHR. It looks a bit cheesy, IMO. They can be witnesses to your actual marriage ceremony and wear the dresses and take pictures then. Show the pics and any video at the AHR. Problem solved.
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  • Ditto meg.

    Here's a really simple way to look at it:
    Does your FI want his BIL standing up with him at your wedding? If so, then ask him.

    Do you want your BM standing up with you at your wedding? If so, then let her sit with you guys (even as an honorary BM) at your AHR. I think the wearing of the dress thing is what's making this seem weird for you.

    This should be the reason for having people in your wedding party, and nothing else. And I was in this situation, as H was really bugged by uneven sides, so we each picked 3 and then his friend later dropped out because he was overseas. H was totally not thinking of uneven sides on the wedding day. And actually, in pictures it looked neat because there were three tuxes, three BM dresses, and one white dress. It looked fine anyway.



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