Smoothing things out with families

Hi..I am sure many of us have lots of different types of families.my parents divorced while i was young, mom and step dad raised me then divorced recently and both have remarried. Basically I have three sets of parents. I love them all and want them to be included in our big day.
What have people done or plan to do to help smooth things with the parents or make it more comfortable for everyone..I have a year to go but see how much this is going to be an issue! You girls are great so i thought this might be a helpful topic for many!

Re: Smoothing things out with families

Does everyone get along enough to be in the same room? That will help alot.

Re: Smoothing things out with families

Yeah i think everyone will be able to be civil..I guess it worries me alittle because we booked on a three day weekend excited to have a sort of long weekend feel to it with activities on sat but now I am thinking i am crazy and it might be too much time together....I know it will all work out in the end. I am wondering how other people are handling things like..seating etc.

Re: Smoothing things out with families

My FI and I both have 'multiple' parents also. Although we're paying for the bulk of the wedding, we're debating putting 'together with their parents' on the invititation and not naming everyone (there are too many names!), and we're giving all moms the same clutch of flowers to carry and all dads the same bouts. Thats all I can think of right now.

Re: Smoothing things out with families

Matts parents are divorced but are civil. Since we are inviting people from his mom and dads families it makes the seating thing easier. The funniest part is that Matts mom is very close to Matts dads sister. So they will sit together. Matts dad will sit with his brothers and people from his side.

Even with the weekend long event your sets of parents will spend time with the people they are close with. And if they are adults and have your and your FI best interest at heart they will all 'behave' themselves so to speak. I think it will work out fine.

Re: Smoothing things out with families

We don't have a problem with parents, I have an issue with fh not wanting to invite his brother who he has had some problems with. I feel like I am in the middle although all the problems started before I came into the pic. But I really like the family including the brother and sister in law and feel very embarrassed and bad that he doesn't want to invite them. The first set of invites went out last week so now I am going to try again this weekend to get him to change his mind and invite them. It is so frustrating!!!

Re: Smoothing things out with families

that is tough..this is a time about bringing people together and putting past things behind. I hope it all works out for you! Crazy what comes up huh!

Re: Smoothing things out with families

I have a mom & a dad and stepmother. I consider my stepmother a mom and my 'real' mom a mom too. What I did was cut out ALL introductions so that no one is upset about the order and how they are introduced. Also in my program I will list
Parents of the Bride
my mom's name
dad and stepmother's name

That way I am not picking one 'mom' over the other.

Re: Smoothing things out with families

I have a mom & stepfather, a dad and his wife (too young to be a stepmother). I was going to have mom & her husband announced together and dad and his wife to be announced together. Unfortunately my father is too ill to come so him and his wife will not be there.