seating divorced and remarried parents in the same row
I know that usual proper etiquette for seating divorced parents is to seat the mother and significant other in the front row and to seat the father and significant other in the third row. However, my fiancee and I are not comfortable with that and are looking for another acceptable solution.
His parents were divorced several years ago and his mother recently remarried. The family is not amiable with her new husband and while his mom and dad might be willing to share a row if they were not next to each other, it would not be comfortable for them or for the family. We really don't like the idea of "demoting" his father to the third row, because he is very close with his dad and while he's also close with his mom, because of the current family feelings towards her and her new husband, seeming to rank one above the other isn't a good idea. His mother is also rather sensitive... should we just bite the bullet and seat them both in the first row? Maybe seat siblings and cousins or something between them? Is it ever kosher to have both the bride's family and the groom's family on the same side? Perhaps we could seat my parents between them and then all grandparents in the second row... most of our siblings will be in the wedding party.
(This post was
edited by TWQadmin on Aug 23, 2006, 2:45 PM)
Etiquette Now
WEDDING ETIQUETTE EXPERT
Aug 23, 2006, 3:45 PM
Post #2 of 2
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Re: [rubychild] seating divorced and remarried parents in the same row
[In reply to]
Dear Bride,
The third row 'rule' is just to keep the peace, because it is usually best to keep divorced parents apart. It may not be easy to seat your mother and father in-between your parents because both mothers will be seated specially. Your mother would lose her 'special' seat.
If you must seat all of his parents in the front seat, you could place other family members in-between.
seating divorced and remarried parents in the same row
