Family, Friends & Guests Etiquette
- Question:
- My fiancé's parents went through a bitter divorce and his dad has since remarried. What's the best way to seat them at the ceremony?
- Answer:
Have them sit in separate pews—with a buffer row in between—to avoid an uncomfortable situation. The parent who was mostly responsible for raising your fiancé should sit in the front pew with his or her escort.Siblings and grandparents sit in the row behind them. The other parent and hisor her escort occupy the third pew along with family and honored guests. You'll want to seat them at separate tables at the reception, too.
- How do we seat my divorced in-laws?
- Do I have to invite my five co-workers?
- Should we invite a recently divorced couple?
- Should I invite my fiancé's outcast aunt?
- Must I invite my practical-joker cousin?
- Should we let one couple bring a kid?
- Can I invite dad's parents, but not dad?
- How do we announce our two weddings?
- Should I invite my ex-husband to the wedding?
- Can kids be excluded on the invite?
- Must I invite my bad dad?
- Do I have to invite distant relations?
- Can I exclude my in-laws' pals?
- Do I have to invite my co-workers?
- Should I invite people who can't come?
- Should my in-laws have unlimited invites?
- How can I uninvite a guest?
- Must shower guests get wedding invites?
- Should I invite a jailed relative?
- How can I divvy up the guest list?
- Can I exclude stepparents from my wedding?
- How do we handle uninvited guests?
- Must single guests get a date invite?
- Does dad have to be my aisle escort?
- When must I send thank-you notes?
- How should I handle a forgotten thank-you?
- What should I do about forgotten invites?
- Should we ditch a nervous toast-giver?
- Who should propose a wedding toast?
- How can I seat remarried parents so that everyone feels equally important?
- When should we give our parents their gifts?
- I want a large rehearsal dinner and my fiancé's parents don't. What can I do?
Submit Your Own Etiquette Question
Have an etiquette question you'd like our editors to answer?
- How do we ask the in-laws to pay for the rehearsal dinner?
- I've been snubbed—what do I do?
- Is a small reception, big ceremony OK?
- How can I prevent my cousin from upstaging me at the wedding?
- How can I convince my fiancé's sister to accept me as his wife?
- Can I tell my cousin to stop seeing my married bridesmaid?
- Do I have to invite my cousin's boyfriend?
- How can we prevent our friends from playing a practical joke on our wedding night?
- Should I invite my fiancé's ex-girlfriend?
- How can I get my grandfather to behave at the wedding?
- Do I have to send invitations to everyone I verbally invited to the wedding?
- How can I make sure that my fiancé's mom will be on time?
- How should I handle guests who RSVP with their kids when children weren't invited?
- Do I have to call my fiancé's mother "mom"?
- Will we get divorced because our parents did?
- Should I change my wedding date so that my grandfather can attend?
- Who should initate the get-together between our parents?
- How should we handle complaints about our Friday night wedding?
- Can I ask a friend to help things run smoothly on the wedding day?
- Can I ask my close friend why she RSVPed "No"?
- Do we have to serve food at our wedding rehearsal?
- What do I do about a Facebook wall post about my wedding?
- Do I have to invite my sister's soon-to-be inlaws?
- How can I avoid fighting with my engaged friend over our wedding plans?
- How can I get his mother to back off?
- Should I allow one person to bring a guest?
- Should I plan extra activities for out-of-town guests?
- Can we ask our guests to give us cash gifts?
- Which side of the aisle do guests sit on at a same-sex union?
- How do you prioritize your wedding guest list?
- How do we let guests know what our Plan B is?
- Should I invite my boss's boss?
- Should we allow my friend to bring her one-month-old to the wedding?
- Should I warn my divorced friend that her ex husband is bringing a date to the wedding?
- Should you mail a wedding gift?
