Although weddings are meant to be built around love, trust and togetherness, they can also be tremendous sources of conflict. And while your wedding day is something you’re unlikely to ever forget, there’s a possibility you’ll remember it for reasons other than the ones for which you’re hoping. As such, it behooves all soon-to-be newlyweds to get out ahead of potential wedding-related conflicts and ensure that they don’t place a damper on their special day. In the interest of achieving this goal, you’ll need to familiarize yourself with some of the most common – and avoidable – causes of wedding-based conflict.

Feuding Family Members 

It seems like every family has at least one or two long-standing feuds. In some cases, the individuals who participate in these feuds are easily able to set their differences aside and agree to temporary truces. Other times, however, people are far less amenable to placing long-held beefs on the backburner. This is why it helps to be mindful of any outstanding feuds in your or your partner’s family before proceeding to send out invites. 

Fortunately, there are a number of ways to deal with this issue. First off, if the family members in question are willing to play nice for one day, no special arrangements should be necessary. However, if you don’t believe one or both parties to be capable of adhering to a truce, you should consider seating them far away from one another at both the ceremony and reception. Alternatively, if the feud is particularly ugly, you can nip things in the bud by not inviting either participant. This is a day that’s all about you and your partner, and you shouldn’t have to spend it worrying about whether certain wedding guests are behaving themselves.  

Toxic Friends and Family Members 

If any potential guests are a thoroughly toxic presence in your lives, you and your partner should sit down and discuss whether it’s truly worth inviting them. For example, if either of you have a friend or relative who’s deeply opposed to your coupling, why invite them and risk the creation of unnecessary drama? After all, if someone has made no bones about their opposition to this marriage, there’s no reason they should attend the ceremony – or expect an invitation.    

Dietary Restrictions and Food Allergies 

Depending on the size of your guestlist, you may be responsible for feeding upwards of 100 people. However, since every guest has different dietary preferences and some may suffer from food allergies, it’s imperative that you be made aware of any restrictions prior to setting the menu. So, when putting together your invitations, request that any special dietary considerations be brought to your attention posthaste. This will help ensure that guests with dietary constraints get plenty to eat without placing themselves at risk. Additionally, in cases of severe food allergies, you may need to alter the entire menu. Some food allergy sufferers can’t even be in the vicinity of certain foods, and the last thing you want to be dealing with on your wedding day is a health crisis. 

Inconvenient Venues 

Wanting to tie the knot in an exotic locale is perfectly understandable – especially if you and your partner pride yourselves on being adventurous. Still, regardless of how intent you are on having a destination wedding, it’s important to understand that many of your guests aren’t going to share your enthusiasm. After all, depending on the destination you select, getting there is liable to prove both pricey and inconvenient for a lot of guests.

While this is indeed a day that’s about you and your partner, this doesn’t mean that it’s okay to inconvenience the people with whom you want to share this occasion. So, when considering prospective destinations, make sure to take accessibility and affordability into consideration. For example, Marylanders who will soon be joined in holy matrimony should scope attractive wedding venues in Annapolis, MD.  

There are a variety of reasons for which weddings can turn into hotbeds of conflict. Disagreements over venue, longtime family grudges and last-minute additions to the guestlist are just a few of the things that stand to ruin your special day. Fortunately, by recognizing some of the most common causes of wedding-related conflict and taking common-sense measures to avoid them, you can effectively keep your big day conflict-free and ensure that it’s remembered for the right reasons.