It goes without saying that marriage is a major life event. This is true not only for the bride and groom, but for their immediate families as well. Marriage, after all, means welcoming a new person into the family. This is an especially significant event for parents, who’ll be looking forward to seeing one of their children start a new family. Understandably, parents will take a certain pride in such a milestone. More than likely, they’ll want to participate in planning the wedding. This is only natural and should be welcomed, however it can also be challenging and a potential source of stress.

We all know what it’s like to clash with our parents. Many of us are especially prone to doing so during stressful times, and planning your wedding can certainly have its stressful moments. Your parents only want what’s best for you, of course. However, there may be some disagreement about what that actually is. While your parents’ opinions should be valued, arguing with them during the wedding planning process is bound to be a source of unnecessary stress. In this week’s blog post, we’d like to offer some tips for including your parents in planning your wedding, while avoiding any discord.

Listen to Their Input

One of the best ways to avoid conflict with your parents is to let them know how much you value them. As with anyone else, the best way to make your parents feel valued is to listen to them. You should actively seek input from your parents, and attentively listen to any suggestions or opinions they offer. Of course, you may not agree with all of these, but the important thing is that you listen to them with an open mind. Doing so will let them know that you want to include them in your plans.

Give Them Some Responsibility

Another great way to let your parents know you value them is to delegate a wedding-related task to them. Choose some aspect of the wedding and give your parents responsibility for it. This can be anything you like, so you can choose something that you know they’ll do well at. Of course, this also makes your life easier, as it means you’ll have one less task on your plate. As an added bonus, if you assign this task to both sets of parents together, it’ll give the new in-laws an opportunity to get to know each other.

Maintain a Sense of Humour

Many of us finds that disagreements with our parents can get heated very quickly. The best way to defuse situations like this is to maintain a sense of levity and humour. If you find your discussions with your parents are getting tense, make a joke or change the subject to something lighter. Avoid pursuing disagreements until they become arguments. After you’ve changed the subject, you may be able to return to the same topic later, and approach it a little more carefully.

Stick Together

Ultimately, this is your wedding day, and you should have the final say on any important decisions. If there’s a particularly thorny disagreement between you and your parents, remember that you and your partner should always be able to rely on each other to back each other up. This doesn’t mean that you should draw your partner in to any discussions that become heated, of course. Rather, it means that together you should be able to gently but firmly explain that it’s important for your wedding to be the way you ant it be.

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