If you are having to contend with a friend or family member prying their way into your wedding planning and getting upset that you aren't listening to their advice, here's a quick way to deflect their energy without hurting their feelings.
It's YOUR wedding!
Most of the time when there are people meddling in the planning of your wedding, they're looking for validation. They're looking to feel important. And they have opinions - boy to they have opinions. None of them have learned the notion that "You have to" and "You need to" are not good ways to start a sentence. Our own psychological resistance to such threats to our autonomy might result not only in us not taking helpful advice, it might make us actively resist that advice.
There are frequently friends or family members who insert themselves into your planning. They've had experiences that they want to help you avoid, or they have regrets about things they did or didn't do, and they want you to benefit from their sage wisdom and their impeccable taste. Well, it's your wedding, not theirs. So, how do you prevent their interference turning into a point of stress for you?
Redirection
Talk to your future spouse about your wedding plans, and see if you can find one or more pieces of the puzzle that you don't actually care about. For example, neither of you might not care about the seating chart. In that case, the "very important" (note the quotes) job of designing and facilitating the seating chart should be given to that person who insists on being helpful.
Maybe neither of you care about the table favors. Give that "really important" job to the person who just won't seem to take no for an answer. Make them feel like their contribution is really needed and really important.
If at this point you still have problems and they're just interfering to the point where it's causing you stress, remind them of one simple thing: your officiant (Michael) is 6'7" and you hired him to be both your Officiant and your bouncer. All kidding aside, a simple "Thank you so much for your advice and for caring enough to share your feelings. I promise I will consider your thoughts and ideas in my decision making."
