Planning a wedding for your child as a single parent has it’s own special set of challenges. Who knew that a divorce really would affect everything?
With the current rate of divorce and remarriage just the names on the wedding invitations could cause it to be more than a page long. Then you get into who pays for what. The brides family traditionally pays for the wedding, but what happens when you are divorced and you and your ex can’t agree on what constitutes the wedding of your daughters dreams?
A fairy tale carriage ride, every little girls Cinderella dream can seem like a necessity to Mom, after all, she’s a girl too, but Dad may think it is a frivolous waste of money. If you don’t have a good relationship with your ex this could turn into just one more power struggle over money. Not a very good way to spend the time leading up to the wedding.
Who to invite? If you are divorced and remarried, and so is your ex, and then if child’s future in laws are in the same situation, there are a whole lot of sticky situations to deal with for your child’s big day.
Who sits at the parents table? The original parents, or all the parents and their new spouses? If your daughters step parents have played a huge part in her upbringing, how do you honor everyone?
I remember when I first got divorced and I couldn’t wait for Hailey to get older so I didn’t have to deal with her father. Now I know better. There will never be a time when I don’t have to deal with my ex husband or see him on a regular basis.
One day your children will get married, bring your ex husband and his family into your world again. Then there will be the birth of grandchildren and birthday parties for those same grandchildren.
If you thought you were getting rid of your ex by divorcing him, you were mistaken. Better start getting along now, there is a whole lifetime of things the two of you will share, like it or not.