When planning a wedding, brides have a multitude of challenges to face. I surveyed a group of recent brides and below are the top issues that drove them nuts during the wedding planning process.
5.) Lack of Timely RSVPs
When planning a wedding, guests are traditionally notified of the date six months in advance by a save-the-date. By the time the invitation arrives, guests should know if they will be able to attend to the event or not. It is very time consuming and frustrating for the bride to have to hunt people down for a response. To add to the frustration, some guests will RSVP that they are attending and then back out or simply no-show to the wedding. On average, brides should expect about 13 percent of invited guests to not attend the wedding. However, as a guest, it is common courtesy to let the bride and groom know by the requested deadline whether or not you will be attending their wedding. The guest count applies to everything needed for the big day, including food, beverage, table decorations and most importantly, could end up costing you your friendship.
4.) Self Invited Guests
As soon as a bride-to-be announces she is engaged, friends and family start coming out of the woodwork expecting to be invited to the wedding. Not only is it completely rude to invite yourself to a wedding, it also places both you and the bride in an awkward situation. In all likelihood, the bride will not want to hurt your feelings as there could be multiple reasons why someone would not be invited. If you haven't spoken to the bride or groom in months, outside of social media, do not expected to be invited to their wedding. You will just have to wait for the pictures to be posted on Facebook. Sorry.
3.) Unsolicited Advice
When getting married, everyone seems to have an opinion on how, what, when and where your wedding should take place. In most cases, people are just trying to be helpful; however unsolicited advice can be very overwhelming and frustrating for a bride. Every wedding is different and the bride and groom are entitled to plan for a wedding that suits their personality on their special day. Unless requested, your opinions and suggestions should not be expressed. As many brides I spoke to mentioned, it's their day and their money so unless you want to pay for it, keep your opinions to yourself.
2.) Family Feuds
Survey says? Just missed being number one. It seems like almost every wedding has some level of family drama involved. From divorced parents not wanting to sit together to estranged family members requiring their table be moved to a different location, family feuds creates a unique challenge. Several brides mentioned that one parent was upset that the other was invited and further, caused a commotion about who would give the bride away. While family feuds are understandably emotional, everyone should be able to put their issues aside for the sake of the bride and groom. After all, it's only eight hours out of one day where you're being asked to put your feelings aside.
1.) The Battle of the Bridesmaids
Every bride surveyed mentioned that their bridesmaids where a huge headache. The most common issue was bridesmaids not liking the dress the bride selected. Additional issues included lack of responsiveness, missing the dress order deadline or even bridesmaids making radical changes to their hair shortly before the day of the wedding. When selected as a bridesmaid, your job is to make the wedding easier for the bride and support her vision for the big day. Frequently, bridesmaids make the day all about themselves and how they will look and feel resulting in the bride having to make difficult decisions that could affect her friendships for the rest of her life. My best advice to bridesmaids is to everything in your power to make certain the bride has a seamless, beautiful and stress-free day and wait until after the wedding to alter your appearance.