Everyone has suggestions. Why don't you have a big family picture table at the entrance to the reception? Why don't you have a Belgian waffle bar? Why don't you get an ice cream cake that the kids will enjoy?

The idea of changing anything about your wedding day plans can wind you in knots, especially if you'd like to include family suggestions but all of your plans are set. And you're very attached to them. Yes, you want others to be included, so you don't want to be the Queen of No.

Here's your solution...

Bring all of those ideas into the many other wedding weekend events that will take place. You might be so focused on the actual wedding day that you forget the many, many possibilities open for:
* Bridal showers
* Bridesmaid lunches
* Wedding weekend dinners and cocktail parties, picnics and parents' friends' get-togethers
* The rehearsal dinner
* The after-party
* The morning-after breakfast
* And now the new trend of the day-after socializing. After the early-morning breakfast, out of town guests may choose to stick around and not rush home, in order to spend more time with family and friends.

So, your response to that flood of great ideas: "That sounds terrific....let's figure out which event it will be best for. That Belgian waffle bar would be terrific at the after-party." Or "Ooooh, even better...let's have the family photo table at the couples shower so that we don't have to worry about shipping all those family photos home after the reception." With your enthusiasm going strong, you find a solution, the suggestion-maker beams at becoming a part of the wedding weekend, and you don't have to sacrifice any part of your wedding day dreams.

And for those ideas that are *so* not you, encourage the suggester to use that great idea at her own upcoming family celebration, or during the family holiday dinner.