Conflict resolution

When you know 1000 people getting married (or at least it seems that way) and there are only 52 weekends in a year, wedding conflicts are inevitable. Nonetheless, they are a pain for all parties involved. Even the possibility of a conflict can be a cause of great stress. I was talking with a friend who has two sets of recently engaged friends now considering the same exact wedding date. On one coast her best male friend from high school is marrying one of her best friends from business school. On the opposite coast her oldest and dearest family friend is getting married. What to do?! (Besides pray that one couple budges and settles for a different, equally spectacular, fall weekend.)

If you suspect a potential wedding conflict, I say address it right from the start. Kindly ask the bride-or-groom-to-be to take your sanity into consideration before signing the dotted line for a venue. Attempt to take control of your social calendar. *Warning* Approach doesn’t always work out as planned. Those of you who know me well, know that I am slightly bitter to be missing an all expense paid trip to Hawaii to attend a wedding. I tried to get the wedding changed, I really did! Se la vie.

Remember the days of bat/bar mitzvah conflicts- when we spent weekends being caravanned from a luncheon at Temple Beth El to a dinner party at the Hilton? I thought that was bad. These days we catch the red eye from a Saturday night L.A. wedding to make sure we’re in Maryland by noon for our old friend’s Sunday affair. But we love our friends, so there ain’t no mountain high enough.

I currently know of 2 weddings on my wedding day. There was talk of a potential third but luckily, due to a little lobbying by my pal MB, a crisis was averted. But hey, I’m getting married in June, in the height of wedding season. Maybe what I’m trying to say is: Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock are a really thoughtful pair. By having multiple weddings in multiple cities all of their nearest and dearest had a little attendance flexibility. And nobody had to loose sleep over a conflict!