Hi everyone so I’m getting married March 2027. I had picked my MOH and bridesmaid back in 2025 when I first got engaged. My MOH is my childhood best friend from highschool. The last few months I have been feeling stressed/anxious and having her as MOH. She struggles financially and I made it clear from the start if it was something she couldn’t handle I would completely understand. I’m paying everything for her (as I should) apart from wedding night accommodation. Every conversation we have weather that be about the wedding or just life in general is always negative. Any time I have a problem or vent to her she always turns the conversation around to be about her every single time. I don’t know if she realises she does it or if she’s jealous I’m having a wedding (she’s been engaged for 10 years). She also has a partner coming and made a massive big deal about him not staying the pre wedding night with everyone as she was worried about him being alone for a night.. (he’s not part of the wedding party nor one of the girls so why would I want him to?!) am I wrong for feeling like I just don’t want her to be my MOH anymore? I love her but I just feel like now I won’t be supported properly by her on my big day or she will be too focused on her partner.. (he’s a grown ass man!) I’m so lost as to what I should do and need some advice please.

PSA to American Brides
Please be aware of Private Equity harming the U.S. wedding industry and its impact on your wedding. Today, wedding giant, The Knot, announced its plans to buy its largest competitor, Zola.
The Knot has been facing allegations of fraudulent and deceptive business practices and a monopolistic position in the US Weddings services industry. It has driven up rates on the wedding industry drastically since 2019 under private equity ownership. If this deal with Zola goes through, the consequences may be further pricing pressures on already struggling small businesses and weddings as a whole.
If you would like to support these amazing mom and pop creatives that care passionately about giving you the wedding of your dreams, would you consider signing the industry petition calling on Congress to hold a hearing into the allegations against these massive private equity firms that own and control these wedding platforms? Link to the petition here and you can find out more about the allegations and the class action lawsuit that vendors have brought against the company claiming they were defrauded. The private equity firms are trying to have the class action tossed out, denying these small businesses their constitutional right to their day in court. You can read reports on our website, The Knot Whistleblowers, about the matter as published in outlets such as The New York Post, The New Yorker, Forbes, Newsweek and others and quotes from the company’s own employees detailing what they are doing to harm these small business owners can be found on our website.

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/the-knot-advertisers/

https://theknotwhistleblowers.com/

https://nypost.com/2026/10/14/business/wedding-planning-giant-the-knot-worldwide-acquires-rival-site-zola/

Feeling really frustrated looking at our seating chart thinking, who is going to get along with who. We are doing a small 50 people ceremony and then having a dinner/drinks reception, nothing crazy just dinner and drinks with our loved ones. You’d think that’d be super simple and chill. But I have essentially 6 parents (steps and non steps), my future family does not speak the same language as my family, and then our friends. Our friends are super easy and chill and I have no doubt they can all get along. It’s our family that I can’t figure out.

I thought this would be easy because it’s not a “real” wedding, but now i’m worried someone is going to draw conclusions based on their seating. I know none of this REALLY matters but i’m about two weeks out and I feel stuck. Maybe everyone can just sit wherever and figure it out.

Thanks for listening to my rant!

Getting married in February. We wanted to do something a little different.

hopefully a link is okay, i have been struggling with this for awhile now and not sure if its too white. My sister is saying its more of a butter yellow but my partner and MOH say its too close to white. My initial response was kinda a sad “what the heck” moment but also my mom seemed so excited about it. A little time has passed, when she showed it to me she said she hadnt ordered it yet, but with time passing i am wondering if i am being dramatic. a lot of people around me say its too close but im so unsure (and of unsure what to do)

edit: just for reference she told me at first she wanted to get a dress that matched the colours of the wedding (purple out of the purple and green colours we are doing) i thought thats what was going on until we facetimed last week after my first wedding planning app for her to be so excited about the dress she found.

i dont really know how to address it, i have already asked about why she switched up and she said that this colour just matches her skin tone and hair much better. she is really sensitive and sometimes i feel like i cant be honest with her because i dont want to hurt her feelings lol.

Does anyone have pricing/ packages pdf or deck or anything from sobre mesa in Mexico City. Getting in touch with them has been a challenge.

I’m thinking I want to wear a black wedding dress but I’m worried about others reactions. I feel like it may look like I’m trying too hard to “be unique” but I genuinely hate white. I’m as pale as they come, I wear self tanner (still pale unfortunately) that satins everything light, and white just highlights all my biggest insecurities. But at the same time I want to fulfill that girl hood dream of being married in a pretty white dress and I KNOW my family is going to voice their opinions loudly on it. I feel like black suits me much better than white ever could- both visually and personality wise. Has anyone regretted going for a black dress? I’m stuck trying to find a happy medium

Any recommendations on what guests actually ate and didn't eat at your cocktail hour? Wondering whether to keep or skip basic things like the veggie and fruit displays or at least limit the amount so a bunch doesn't go to waste. Thanks!

Hey, I'm currently working on my vows and just looking for some guidance. I'm a pretty poor writer at least with emotions.

We've decided 2-3 minutes so I'm not close to done yet but I want to get some critics on what I've started with. Thank you for you help.

Today, I stand before you {NAME}, ready to give you my heart and pledge my love to you. From our earliest dates playing putt-putt and endlessly talking in the car to this very moment, our wedding day, I have known that you are the person I want to spend the rest of my life with. 

I feel so blessed to have found you, to call you my best friend, my girlfriend, and my fiancée. I hope you know how grateful I am for everything you are and for everything you do. You are the most compassionate person I have ever met, and your loyalty to your friends and family is one of the many reasons I admire you. You aren’t afraid to stand up for what you believe in no matter the push back, and you are so protective of the people you love. Anyone would be lucky to call you a friend, and I feel even luckier that I get to call you my wife.

Over the past six and a half years, you have shown me so much about life. You've shown me that no matter where life takes us, what matters most to me is getting to share it with you. Someone who will continually challenge me to think and to strive to become a better version of myself. Someone who will encourage me to step outside of my comfort zone, even when I really don’t want to. Someone who always finds a way to bring excitement to the mundane, and someone whose sense of adventure drives them to try every new experience life has to offer.

I vow to laugh with you on the good days, to give you a reason to smile on the bad, and to remind you that you never have to face life's difficulties alone. I vow to hold myself accountable for my faults, to learn from my mistakes, and to be worthy of the love you have always shown me. I vow to never stop dating you, to never settle, to take you on adventures from traveling abroad to the local movie theater when a new horror movie comes out.

I plan to add more to the vows section, just haven't got there yet.
The second paragraph I feel is repetitive with the loyal to people then protective. Let me know if you also think that.

Some other lines I'll re-word and add when I find a spot:

As long as you are by my side I know nothing else matters. 

I will continue to choose you {NAME}, to love, to adore, and to protect, For and Ever 

For and ever is something we say and Nothing else matters is our song for context

Just found out I’m pregnant and I’ll be 29 weeks pregnant for my wedding.
I have such conflicting feelings because yes, I’m so excited that our family will start sooner, but I’m also a bit sad because of the vision I had for my wedding.
I had expectations of losing weight and looking a certain way for the day, having an extravagant first dance (I’m a former dancer), and just partying and having the energy to celebrate with my family.
Now all that is kinda taken away-I will most likely have a noticeable bump that even my ball gown won’t be able to cover; we may have to replace the lifts in our dance and maybe make the moves simpler bc of how pregnant I’ll be; and I might not even have the energy and kinda worried that I’ll just be miserable the whole day because I would be so tired.
I’m not wishing for things to be any other way because I would absolutely be devastated if anything happened-so for the brides that were pregnant on their day, how did you feel? Am I alone in feeling this way? How did you cope with these conflicting feelings? Did it even make a difference?

My fiancé and I have been together for 5 years and engaged for almost 2. We chose a long engagement on purpose. He had just finished school and needed time to save money and find a stable job. It’s worked really well for us, and we recently set the date for about 3 years after we got engaged.

The problem is his family. Since the beginning, I’ve gotten snarky comments about why it’s taking so long and offering a lot of judgement that we're not getting married fast enough for their beliefs, even though they understand our reasoning. Instead of being excited when we announced the date, they just asked why so long again. Someone even asked when we were planning on having kids then, which I'm sorry, is just always rude, because I can’t even biologically have them.

Meanwhile, my parents just aren’t wedding people. They aren’t unkind, they’re just not very emotionally involved. I don’t really have any friends right now. The one friend I used to be close with has drifted away as life got busy, and she's been in and out of an abusive relationship, so while I've tried to support her, I don’t feel right asking her to be part of my wedding.

My fiance and I are pretty introverted and want something small and intimate, maybe a tea and cakes reception after a short ceremony. But now I’m second-guessing even that, because I’m worried his family will judge the small guest list or the food or make comments about who wasn’t invited. I don’t want to spend money feeding people who don’t support us.

I guess I just want someone to be excited for me, but I don't have a big social circle so I don't feel like a bridal shower or bachelorette party or any of that stuff is in the cards for me, and it feels kinda lonely.

If you had a small wedding, or dealt with unsupportive family, how did you handle it? And how did you deal with feeling like you have no friends and nobody in your corner?

I'm getting married in about a week. My dress fit well at my last fitting two weeks ago, but it's strapless so its fitted pretty snuggly. I've been having this constant anxiety since then that its not going to fit on my actual wedding day and that it'll be too tight to zip.

Has anyone actually had this happen to them? How'd you fix it?

My best friend is getting married in San Jose next year. What should she plan ti spend in a sweetheart table like this in California plus centerpieces for a 100-120 people wedding?

Bonus points if you know of any wedding florist you recommend!

Its almost a month before my wedding and my MOH never knew what to do about a bachelorette party, and kept asking me if I thought about what I wanted to do. She doesn't have any PTO to take a day off so it would have to be a weekend but the schedule is tight if we were to travel. I just settled and said let's iust do something small here and mentioned what I want to do like a spa day and a movie or something. Im planning the day and where now, and paying for myself. Is this normal? If its not normal should I just go do these things by myself? I mentioned i wanted a surprise but she never knew what to surprise me with

for context, my fiancé and i will be getting married after 3 years of dating and 2 years of living together. As a hispanic woman it’s normally not traditional to live with a man if you’re not married so you can see why my parents were not happy. after constant pressure and long conversations about marriage ny family finally stepped back from trying to pressure us into marriage…now my fiancé and i feel ready to tie the knot but no here’s where the issues start, my fiance and i conversed to christianity after leaving the Catholic Church, my mom was NOT happy about that but that brings one of the wedding issues up, she wants us to have a catholic ceremony, we do not as that is not our faith

she kept saying that my family wouldn’t want to participate if our ceremony is christian, and saying that we probably wouldn’t receive a lot of help financially from any family members since it won’t be a catholic wedding…after a lot of mental manipulation we folded and started looking into the catholic wedding process we began it but now realized this is not want we wanted at all not to mention they literally made you jump thru hoops to have a catholic wedding

another issue is we wanted a smaller wedding 200 guest max, yes i know 200 seems like a lot but for a mexican wedding it’s not much… but my mom decided to take the reigns and start to plan a 400 person wedding at some fancy ranch venue…first of all she’s expecting us to pay for the venue…the venue is close to 10K and that not something we were planning to do let alone spend, like i said small but nice wedding. how do i even begin to tell her she killed all my excitement for this wedding that turned huge. this is not what we wanted at all and now feel obligated to invite everyone to our wedding and spend more then we expected. and these are not the only issues arising :/

sorry if this was all over the place but I just feel since it’s gonna be our wedding we should be the ones being catered to and not us catering to everyone else. does anything by think i’m maybe not being considerate, my family will be helping us pay for the wedding but they are a lot more financially stable then we are and have a bigger budget and we do not hence why we were opting for a smaller wedding. any advice is welcome and appreciated:) and please delete is this is the wrong forum for this story

Just got engaged!

So exciting! Just got engaged in NYC. We’re thinking of doing our wedding out in Montauk. I’m 32M and she’s 31F.

I proposed to her in Central Park after 5 years of dating. We’re both VPs at large tech companies so our schedule is going to be pretty hectic as we try and plan this thing.

I’m doing an engagement party next month at The Plaza which I’m super excited about. It’s going to run us back like $20k cuz of all the guests and it being the Plaza but you only get married once!!!!

All week I've been calling, and I would choose "Call me back." Wait literally all day, then another day, and still no call back. Then I start the process over. I'm currently just sitting on hold this time (at 25 minutes), but saw someone was on hold for 4.5+ hours. Has anyone actually got a call back recently?

Wedding is saturday. Its an outdoor ceremony (with tent now) and outdoor reception.

Reception area will have a fire pit, heaters, a covered pavilion with optional sides that come down, a covered bar also with optional sides and a partially minimally covered dance floor surrounded by a rock wall.

The weather every single day around (before and after) the wedding day is beautiful. Low to Mid 70s to highest low 80s. My day is a high of 58 and low of 38. Im in the south.

Ive bought blankets for folks, a week ago I texted people to tell them the weather could go cold or wet and its outdoor. Im asking the venue if there is anyway for us to serve hot drinks to folks, but not expecting a yes this late.

I know this is super not logical.....but ive planned this entire wedding and it all feels like a failure because I grabbed an outdoor only venue. It is a themed place that we really wanted and is special, but boy do I feel like a fuckin failure host and planner. The guilt im feeling is immense and im so concerned my guests will get sick or leave early or resent me for this decision.

Does anyone have the magic words to help me stop feeling like this? My therapy appt isnt until post wedding for a couple weeks >.< anyone had this happen with no inside alternative?

Edit: 3:30pm ceremony, 3:45-9pm cocktail hour and reception.

My fiancé and I have been engaged for a little over a year and we are just under one year until our wedding! We have a decent amount already planned and booked at this point.

I’ve always dreamed of a “traditional” wedding: ceremony, reception, father daughter dance, first dance, speeches, dancing the night away, etc. My fiancé didn’t really care if we had a “big” wedding, but wanted to do it since it’s something I’ve wanted for a while.

Since we’re having a long engagement, financially we are in a pretty good spot. Saving for the wedding and making payments as we save up. We are getting help from both of our parents also.

With that, my MIL and FIL are covering the venue and the bar tab. They mentioned having an open bar all night, and we pumped the brakes on that. Now, on the year out anniversary, my MIL tried to have a conversation with my fiancé and I about it again. She made some good points and I was considering everything she said but still said I was unsure if this is something I wanted. She kept drilling into me and trying to pressure me to change my mind and give her an answer then. Things got a little out of control and my fiancé stepped in and said something along the lines of it’s our wedding and our choice and we just kind of abruptly ended the conversation.

Fast forward and there was a phone call and it did not make the situation better. She basically said “sorry if I came off that way” and was not taking accountability at all for blowing this out of proportion.

Now my fiancé and I are considering just doing a ceremony at our church with our already selected bridal party, immediate family, and aunts/uncles/cousins. After the ceremony we are playing with the idea of just having cupcakes and basically a social hour and then leaving for a private dinner and then meet up with the bridal party later.

I’m really struggling with coming to terms on not doing the “whole” thing. I know it’s not needed, and the most important part is we’re married in the eyes of God and proclaim our love and vows, but I can’t help but grieve the loss of the “party”.

This whole dynamic is also tricky because the venue is my MIL and FIL’s and we all work in their family business together. The last few days have been extremely awkward and I’m having terrible anxiety everyday. No one is talking about it and my MIL and I have barely talked at all.

Would love any advice and wisdom - just really struggling mentally with everything.

So I’m torn on how to wear my hair. Intuitively it seems like a low chignon with a couple pieces in front would be the best looks, but my mom and stylist didn’t love that idea because you won’t see the pretty styling of the bun at all from the front. I do agree that it might be nice to look more feminine with my hair flowing a bit in the front, but I also think it might mess with the look of this dress, covering the high neck detail.

What do you think? We ended up trialing out my hair pinned to the side, and I like it…but I don’t know if I love it

I JUST got married last Sunday (10/11) and thought I would provide my financial breakdown as someone who married someone who does events so most vendors were friends that gave us discounts. Highly recommend lol. This is for 115 guests. I know it isn’t realistic, but here we are. I put a star on things we got a lower price through connections. 

Officiant- FREE because his brother did it.

• Venue- $8625 Originally $5995 but we added animal encounters- it was a ranch sanctuary, $350 to go past 10pm, and $200 for the campfire because Los Angeles was struggling last weekend.
• *Bar- $1350 + $100 in tips. Groomsman owns the bar business and just charged us cost for an open bar (beer, wine, 2 signature cocktails). 
• *Food- $3100 + $300 in tips. We did tacos (chicken, carnitas, fish, and potatoes) and lomo saltado. As well as an equites bar, mini empanadas, and caprese skewers for cocktail hour.
• Dress- $4700 including alterations and veil
• 2^nd Veil- $147 because we lost the first veil ☹️
• Jewelry- $387 Necklace, earrings, hair pins
• Shoes- $180 I loved but were sooooooo uncomfortable (customized so I couldn’t return)
• Shoes- $120 New shoes I loved and were very comfortable
• Suit- $500
• Rings- $1000
• Hair/Makeup- $2030+ 300 in tips. For 8 people plus bride
• *Photography- $2700 + $200 in tips
• *Videographer- $500 + $100 in tips
• *DJ- $1100 + $100 in tips
• *Photobooth- $350 plus $50 in tips. She also threw in a guest book and printed 2 of each pic so people can put it in the guestbook. I bought scrapbooking supplies for guests to decorate their page. Most people utilized them and now our guestbook is a wedding scrapbook. I love it.
• Dessert- $1300 for a churro cart instead of cake plus $100 in tips. Bonus: they buy their churros from the same vendor as Disneyland does
• Invitations- $650 through minted
• Airbnb- $1700 to have a space to stay night before/night of and get ready day of for Bridal party
• Plates/Cutlery- $175. I did palm leaf disposable plates and gold plastic cutlery
• *Tents- $2500 last minute white tents since it forecasted rain (it didn’t start until almost the end thankfully)
• *Coordinator- $750 plus $200 in tips (this was my one connection as my cousin has her business doing this)
• Florals- $1300 for Costco flowers
• Centerpieces- $1598 I did Star Wars Lego centerpieces, but I did have about $400 of them already
• Favors- $220 I did customized Lego mini figures and ordered bulk ones to customize. It was like $50 more than what I wanted since I had to order a few minifigs from eBay and Mercari for the skin color (if anyone goes this route- just do the traditional yellow ones)Also- guests LOVED these. I am still getting messages or posts about these. Huge hit. Very time consuming. 
• Place cards- $112 to do laser cut wood name plates
• Candles for Tables- $300 but half of that was bought for the engagement party and I reused them. I did an outdoor Los Angeles wedding, so all candles must be fake
• Table covers and napkins- $330. $120 for the napkins and $110 for twelve 132" table covers bought on prime day, plus $100 for 4 we had professionally ironed, but I ironed the rest- would not recommend.
• All the other decor- $1500 including wood risers for centerpieces, signs/banners, welcome table, sweetheart table, seating chart, etc 

TOTAL- $40,274

What I took away:

• Time goes by SO FAST. Ceremony was great, cocktail hour was great, but after that was like on fast forward. 
• Little things that didn’t go to plan didn’t matter.
• I do not know how people get drunk at their own wedding- I couldn’t even catch a buzz. I’m a lightweight but my adrenaline burned through the alcohol apparently. Thank goodness for edibles. 
• Rain does kill the vibe lol.

Sorry, didn't know how to title this.

My fiance and I are looking at booking a boutique hotel an hour and a half from where we live that can sleep 32 people for a wedding weekend and having the ceremony and reception on the premises. My parents are paying, but the hotel gives us the option of offsetting the cost by setting a room rate for guests, the hotel will handle the booking. We're inviting close family and friends only, about 40-45 people. My friends will all be coming from our city whereas his will be coming from some very far distances.

I guess I'm just feeling anxious about how to handle the logistics if everyone RSVPs yes and am looking for reassurance or guidance. We aren't allowed to have more than 32 people overnight, but are allowed to have up to 60 guests for the event. The area has plenty of other accommodations, but then I'd feel the need to provide shuttles as well. Not sure how to make the assignments fair for all involved, have everyone pay a rate including the people staying in the hotel? Have only family in the hotel and have friends pay their own way? Prioritize housing his friends because they are travelling from so far away? Suggest he cover the accommodations for his friends travelling? Cheat the system and have extra people stay the night? No staff will be present for the duration of the weekend to notice the extra guests.

Help?

I live on the east coast of the US if that is relevant

Hey everyone! I have a quick question about wedding dress shopping.

I have 1 appointment booked to go dress shopping & invited some close family & friends. To get the most out of our time i’m considering booking multiple appointments for the same day. Would that be doing too much? If not, how many should i book maximum? I was thinking 3 places but i worry that’ll be too tiring. I guess i’m not really sure of what to expect! Any advice is helpful! Thanks!

Hi just have to vent and see if anyone else felt the same way on their own bach. I was very overwhelmed at times - everyone wants to talk to you at the same time, there's a lot going on, people are telling you what to do, expectations are high for you to have fun. I hit some low points of frustration, and I'm worried it came across to my friends. Overall, I had a really great time and it all went as planned. But I can't get past feeling like I ruined some moments with this feeling of overwhelm. Did anyone else feel this way?