Tips For Dealing With Wedding Day Family Drama
Dealing With Wedding Day Family Drama
So, your wedding day is finally just around the corner, and you can’t help but be so excited for the new chapter you’re starting with the love of your life. Dealing with wedding day family drama though is weighing on the back of your mind as you know not everyone sees eye to eye with you.
Now that you’re well past the planning, hiring, and spending on vendors, there isn’t anything else to worry about and you’re probably spending far too much time wondering about about family drama during your ceremony or throughout the day.
Why family drama?
Let’s face it: no matter how much we’d like to believe that we came out fine regardless of how crazy life was growing up, the fact is that our families have their fair share of drama. Every family is different of course, with varying degrees of issues, but it’s important to think about dealing with wedding day family drama beforehand to that none of it ruins your day.
If you’ve searched the web for “best recommendations” and wedding day tips to put your mind at ease with your big celebration coming up, then you probably heard and read some family drama horror stories. In fact, watching a bit of reality TV may have opened your eyes to the fact that having a brawl, shouting match, or lots of tension break out during a special occasion can become reality. Although those TV shows are absolute trash…
I personally have covered weddings as a photographer where receptions have been shut down due to rowdy behaviour, or the bride and groom has enlisted the services of a security guard – so they certainly can happen.
Common wedding day family drama problems (and how to fix them)
Although we’d all like to think that our relatives love us so much that they won’t let pettiness drive them to ruin our special day, the fact of the matter is that there’s no such thing as too safe. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as immunity or full prevention for problems like these because you can’t really tell whether or not they’ll come up. This is why you’ll have to know how to effectively deal with wedding day family drama problems before they snowball into bigger ones that can ruin your day.
If you’re looking to ensure that the biggest moment of your life isn’t shadowed by wedding day family drama, here are some potential problems you can prepare for (and how you can solve them):
You have an overbearing parent or sibling in attendance
One of the most common problems that soon-to-be-wed couples end up struggling with is an overbearing parent or sibling that can’t seem to keep themselves together.
While your frantic family member may have the best intentions for you in mind, the fact that this is a day that’s also special for them may be causing them some excitement as they strive to make sure everything goes well. Fortunately, you can prevent your family members from pushing the boundaries on your wedding day and messing things up by setting them aside somewhere private and asking them to calm down.
A common way this rears it’s head as a photographer is the family friend who has a camera who loves to take photos, but don’t really realise that the official photographer is there for a reason.
All that needs to be done is before the wedding gently remind them that they are paying for the photographer to be there – draw on the fact that they want the guy with a camera there as a guest and not to worry about working too hard. This way it wont hurt their ego so much.
You have family members that share a whole lot of family history
Whether it’s in the context of divorced parents who aren’t on good terms or an uncle that hates another uncle over something they said once during Christmas, feuding family members essentially present an imminent threat. Considering that family beef can bear so much tension during your big day, it’s important that you diffuse a potential bomb before it blows up.
When it comes to preventing family members from feuding and turning your reception or wedding into an untimely boxing match, the key to success lies in learning how to separate them. Separation mostly involves doing everything to keep people with beef far apart from each other—something that can manifest itself in the form of special seating arrangements, timed sections, and the like.
One example of effectively separating feuding family members to avoid drama is to tell your photographers about such situations so that they can take the necessary precautions to avoid accidentally grouping them together!
It’s one reason why making a list of family photo groups is so important – as your photographer will not know any family history and has to rely on your direction on the day to capture any desired family groups.
Dealing with family drama is never an easy task, especially when it happens during your wedding. Through this guide’s help, you won’t have to worry about these certain scenarios of wedding day family drama having problems bulldoze through your day and end up cutting your special day short (which can surprisingly lead to more problems in your own marriage)!
Sven Studios is a team of Australian wedding photographers that you can rely on to have your priceless memories immortalised. If you’re looking to not only manage your potential family drama and have some amazing pictures to boot, get in touch with us today!
