Weddings and Politics

It's election day in America, a day that to some means victory, to some means defeat, and for the rest of us means that those mudslinging political ads will finally be off the air.

As people across the country are heading to the polls, I couldn't help but think about how much politics is involved when you're planning a wedding.

(And I don't mean those politics)

A lot of times in the wedding planning process, there tends to be two parties vying for control. Sometimes it's the groom's family versus the bride's family, sometimes it's the bride versus the groom, sometimes it's the bride versus her parents - but the us-versus-them mentality can really complicate the planning process.  Weddings, like politics, are meant to be about two sides coming together and making decisions to achieve a common goal.  So how and why do things get so desperately out of hand?

It seems to me that both weddings and politics share one key component: ideology.  Both sides feel very strongly about "the way things should be done" and achieving a compromise can seem downright impossible.  Extreme points of view from both sides drown out the voice of reason coming from the middle.  I realized very early on in our planning that weddings and family politics go hand in hand, and will be the most stressful component of the process by far.  As we hit the campaign trail that is our wedding planning journey, I'm just praying B and I can hold true to our own ideologies without letting the politics get in the way.

Have you had to deal with politics in your planning?  What worked for you - and what didn't?