Normally, it's a great thing when a bride has a lot of engaged friends...everyone can share their research, recommend vendors, suggest ideas, vent to each other. But when you become the only one who's giving, with a friend always asking for help or stealing your ideas for her own wedding, that's an imbalance than can really upset you. Give-and-take isn't there...it's just become Take and Take on her end.

My best advice for returning to peace is to make your change in silence. Don't announce, "I'm not sharing ideas with you anymore!" since she'll turn the issue around on you and hold up her two suggestions as evidence that that's not entirely true. It can be maddening when a debate breaks out and the real issue is clouded. Instead, just stop offering ideas. Don't put yourself out there to be used as a source. These are all grown women who can navigate the wedding industry without your help, so take off the People Pleaser hat! And don't feel guilty about not helping a needy friend -- most of the time, that neediness is just well-crafted manipulation. You'll enjoy your own planning process so much more when you're not being used as a free wedding coordinator!

It doesn't make you a bad friend. It makes you a wiser, more peaceful bride...one who can enjoy the excitement of sharing ideas with friends who DO give back.