Is It Rude To Ask If People Will Really Come To Our Wedding?

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Q: Hey APW, can we talk about what makes someone willing to be a destination wedding guest? I’ve fallen in love with a wedding and reception venue that is in Los Angeles, which is where I live now. Unfortunately, most of my family and friends from college are on the East Coast. I want them all to make it to my special day but they’re so far away! Is it rude to ask people to be a destination wedding guest?

I absolutely want to be considerate of my guests and would hate to inconvenience them… however, now that I have discovered this perfect venue, I can’t imagine marrying anywhere else. When we send out invites, I know people would enthusiastically say yes, but things will come up last minute and they will cancel.

How can I ask people if they are really going to show up and not cancel the last minute?

Answer From the Editor:

Before booking your venue, make sure that the people that really matter to you (close family and friends) can actually make it. You might need to ask yourself if it’s more important if you have your dream venue or your dream guest list.

If you know it might be hard for some people to be a destination wedding guest, do your best to provide options and flexibility when it comes to accommodations to make it easier on everyone involved. And if some guests can’t make it, they should be able to respectfully decline in a timely manner.

Did you have a destination wedding, or have a wedding location that’s far away? How did you do it? Were there a lot of last-minute cancelations?

If you want the APW community’s two cents, send it to QUESTIONS AT APRACTICALWEDDING DOT COM, and we’ll do our best to crowdsource you some answers!

Stop Telling Me Wedding Planning Is “Supposed to Be Fun”

View of bride's dark green, bejeweled shoe, walking away on paved path

This is supposed to be fun. The florist might as well have said, “What is wrong with you?” and handed me a wearable sandwich board reading “DEFECTIVE BRIDE/WOMAN/HUMAN.” I was sitting across the table from her, my mom on my left, talking about flowers for my wedding—and I was in tears. I was ashamed of my emotions, which, as usual, only made it worse. If the florist thought her comment was going to help, she was delusional.

Why was I crying, you ask?

Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because I am a persistently anxious person prone to depression. Or because we were about to spend a bunch of money on me for a day when I would be the center of attention I didn’t want or feel I deserved. Or because I had to make decisions. Or because I was about to have my period. Or because I had to communicate my wishes to a stranger. Or because I was about to go through a huge life transition in a year that had already had too many of those. Or because I’d had a bad day at work. Or because my friends were getting divorced, and I was sad for them and terrified of that prospect for myself. Or because I worried people would judge my choice of flowers. Or because I hadn’t been feeling very good about myself. Or because I was convinced I was incapable of being a good wife and mother. Or because I was in the process of going off one of my antidepressants. Or because I hadn’t gotten enough sleep the night before. Or because I had stopped drinking coffee four days before that. Or because I have an utter lack of self-confidence. Or because I’m marrying a man whom I love deeply but who is in recovery, and the possibility of relapse, though rarely at the front of my mind, is agonizing when it crops up. Or because wedding planning makes people crazy and emotional. Or because I’d been “trying” (not very hard) to lose weight and failing at it. Or because I was hungry.

Or, you know, because all of those things were happening inside me at once.

Perhaps the most difficult part of wedding planning for me has been that at times there has been a conflict between how I feel and how I think (or others tell me) I am supposed to feel.

How I think I am supposed to feel: constantly happy, giddy, exuberant, and mushy-gushy romantic; blushing at every mention of my wedding or fiancé; always more than happy to gab about the details of my dress or decor or wedding party (oops, don’t have one of those); forever smiling, laughing, and being generally bubbly about wedding plans and the sure expectation of marital bliss.

How I actually feel: excited, nervous, happy, sad, energized, depressed, productive, paralyzed, thrilled, terrified, confident, uncertain, quick to laugh, quick to cry, giggly, deer-in-headlights, loquacious, tight-lipped, open-hearted, closed off, beaming, withdrawn, bouncy, frozen, effervescent, flat, overjoyed, overwhelmed, calm, stressed, relaxed, tense, eager, anxious, romantic, frigid, gregarious, antisocial, encouraged, disappointed, idealistic, cynical, cheerful, frustrated…

Well, you get the picture.

My emotions have been all over the map during our engagement and especially since we began planning the wedding in earnest. And I’m finally realizing… that’s okay.

Because the truth is, although many parts of wedding planning are fun for me, there’s plenty about it that just isn’t. And being told it’s supposed to be fun just doesn’t help.

People, especially men, feel they have the right, even the obligation, to tell women to smile. Women get criticized for being afflicted with RBF (Resting Bitch Face). Women are expected to be happy, upbeat, and agreeable. Having a bad day, being angry, or just having your face in a neutral position demotes you on the beauty and desirability scale.

Sometimes, questions about wedding planning (and especially comments like the florist’s) sound a lot like someone telling me to smile. Now, I don’t blame people for asking me about wedding plans in a way that tells me they expect a bubbly, positive answer. I’ve done the same to countless engaged women, and I know folks are excited for me and just want to connect.

But I’m thinking about it a little differently now that I’m in the thick of it myself. I’m going to adjust how I approach those conversations in the future. I’m not going to assume that everything about wedding planning is fun or exciting for the woman I’m talking to. Maybe it is, and that’s great. But maybe it isn’t, and that’s okay, too. It doesn’t mean something is wrong with her or with her relationship. It just means she’s approaching a huge life transition marked by a high-pressure event, and she is largely responsible for the story, script, production, direction, and starring role, all of which are expected to win metaphorical Oscars by votes cast in likes on Instagram and Facebook. For some women, these things are energizing; for others, they are incredibly draining.

My fiancé has encouraged me to let go of some of the junk related to wedding planning and focus on what really matters: our relationship and our soon-to-be marriage. It helps that we have an amazing honeymoon planned, that we are already building an incredible life together, that we have plans and hopes and dreams for ourselves and for the family we’re forming. Because these are the things that really matter.

This is what it really boils down to when it comes to being told to smile, or that wedding planning is supposed to be fun: no one can tell me my emotions are right or wrong—including me, because that’s not how emotions work anyway. The majority of my wedding anxiety has been about the fact that I’ve been anxious and I think I shouldn’t be—it’s anxiety about anxiety. Now that I’ve named that, my anxiety levels are way down, and when they spike, they’re more manageable.

So don’t tell me to smile, and don’t tell me this is supposed to be fun—but give me space for both. Depending on a zillion factors big and small, I might be jumping-up-and-down-excited about my wedding one day (or minute) and ugly-crying-anxious about it the next. But I’m learning to accept that and go with the flow, because when I let go, what is fun is the ride.