Weddingbee Blog

My sassy friend/wedding planner Magic Alie and I were discussing the Waffle wedding and some other weddings she is currently handling when the topic of overbearing and opinionated mothers, mother-in-laws and bridesmaids came up. You know the type. The ones who insist on making decisions for your wedding. The ones you don’t want to upset by saying “NO” to their requests of inviting all of their dear friends you’ve never met to your wedding. They may also be the ones insisting it’s not a real wedding without x, y, or z. Most brides have an encounter with someone of this persuasion at least once on their journey to the altar and Magic Alie’s advice is this…

“They get to have three, and only three, things that are important to them for the wedding and that’s it. If you don’t have the guts to tell them they can only have three things, then you might as well go get yourself a bottle of vodka.”

As a person who has a hard time saying “no” to people and asserting myself, this could be a daunting task if I’m faced with it. However, at the end of the day, would I rather be enjoying this journey and give up three things or be miserable, fighting and drown my sorrows in a sea of martinis? I think I’d rather say “you get three choices” and call it a day, no matter how hard it may be to say it.

Alie says she often has to ask MOBs who have been told this rule, “Is this really one of the 3 things you want to fight for?” She says, for most people, that it really puts things into perspective and they typically step back and realize that maybe monogrammed towels in the reception venue bathrooms really aren’t worth the stress you’re causing your daughter. The rule of three is a good safeguard for brides to keep their sanity, have less drama and not lose nights of sleep on tedious decisions that others are trying to force them into.

Are you a bride that needs to enforce the rule of three?