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Agony Aunts > Bridesmaids & Best Man

trying hard to stay friends
I recently graduated from gradaute school where I made 4 spectacular friends (3 girls, 1 guy). I got engaged at the end of graduate school and will get married next year. I am an only child and have always been the youngest person in my class by a couple of years in school. My fiance and I would like to have 3 wedding attendents each which means I have 3 "spots" for 4 people. My fiance has a good female friend of several years that he would like to have in his party, so I have decided to have my male friend in mine. As for the ladies, because of my age, I have always witnessed all of my friends getting engaged, getting married, and having children which has made me feel a bit left behind, though I am extremely happy for them all. As a result though, I would like to have the women in my wedding party look like "maids", which really only means not being "as big as a house pregnant". I don't care if they are pregnant or if they are married. Of my 3 female friends, one of them is trying to have kids - she had been unsucessful after about a year of trying. I know that this is a sore point for her, but because of this, I asked my other two friends to be bridesmaids. I explained my reasoning to my 3rd friend, and asked her to be an usher and to do a reading, both of which are important duties to me (which I have told her; she is the only person doing a reading and has interacted with most of my family). She was clearly upset, saying that she felt I did not want her to be involved, but agreed to do these things for me anyhow. I even asked her to help with favors, asked her opinion on various aspects of the wedding, etc. to make sure she was more involved. Now, she is acting very aloof and angry every time the wedding gets mentioned. She doesn't want to have anything to do with the rest of the wedding party and has even asked me to do things like "e-mail her separately" from the rest of the wedding party, even if I am passing along the same information. When I ask for her opinion on something she tells me that I am that is something a bridesmaid does, not an usher. She says now that my involving her in the wedding is "rubbing salt in the wound" and I am just "trying to have my cake and eat it too." This of course hurts me, but I believe that it is her anger and frustration talking and am in hopes that she doesn't really mean it. I understand she is hurt, and would understand if she wanted to step down because of it (which I have offered for her to do repeatedly), but she won't step down and anything I do now is a lose-lose situation. She is an important friend to me and I would like to remain friends with her, but I feel like I am overextending myself for nothing positive in return. My fiance and I have even talked about all the events of the day and for those aspects that we are OK with several different possible outcomes (does she want to be announced with the other usher, does she want to attend the rehersal dinner, etc) have asked



Liz
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Oh dear what an unfotunate situation to be in! I can appreciate that you do not wish to intentionally upset your friend or make her feel alienated, but you need to remember that this is your day and the most important thing is your happiness. You should not have to be worrying about how one of your friends is feeling about the arrangements. You have tried to accommodate her in other ways and in my honest opinion doing a reading at your ceremony is a very generous alternative option. Clearly you have tried to discuss this with her and explain your feelings and reasoning and I assume she has told you hers. If your friend cannot accept this then the only option that I can see is to be firm and say that if she is not happy with your offer then perhaps it would be best if she were not involved at all. It may be easier if someone else could talk to her about this, someone who is not directly involved in the arrangements and could therefore give an unbiased viewpoint to your friend.

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