This happened because of the wedding, but DH had close family friends who didn't talk to him or his parents for almost 2 years because we sat them at a table underneath a vent.

I'm sure there's more, but that's the story they gave us.

My MIL is still a total psycho about my FIL 20 years after the divorce.... they were about 10 years divorced at our wedding and he's mostly disdainful/dismissive whereas she's just nuts. We sat them far apart and had no joint photos. We did photos with FIL and girlfriend and separately with MIL and her husband. FIL was in the wedding, so to placate MIL, SIL sat with her.

It was mostly drama free other than MIL talking about FIL being an asshole to anyone who would listen (not many takers), attempting to give 'advice' to FIL's girlfriend (also not interested) and allegedly sobbing through our first dance because that's something she and FIL should have been watching together. Not that we noticed - she told us later "I'm sure you noticed that I wasn't at your first dance...". Riiight...

Good luck OP!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My SIL got (re)married last fall. She sat her somewhat recently divorced parents (and mom's boyfriend) next to each other for the ceremony. At the reception, it was SIL's son, FIL, DH, me, MIL, and MIL's boyfriend at a table.

It. Was. AWFUL.

My FIL damn near had a panic attack and went back to his hotel room partway through the reception.

And of course this was at a small resort, so FIL and MIL kept running into each other all weekend. MIL is pretty oblivious to how much the divorce hurt FIL and says things like "why is he avoiding us?" and "Why doesn't he want to get drinks with us?"

This makes me feel so sad for FIL

My FIL is a wonderful, if somewhat reserved and stoic, man. The whole divorce was gut wrenching (MIL walked out one day and filed for divorce the next "but without any hard feelings!") and incredibly painful for him. For his own daughter to be so callous and force him to be in such close proximity to his ex and her boyfriend...well, that pretty much sums up my selfish, thoughtless twat of a SIL. The less said about MIL, the better.

Meanwhile, I was 7 months pregnant and bitter as all get out that I was at the damn wedding in the first place. SIL gave us 10 weeks notice about this destination wedding. DH insisted we HAD to attend despite the fact that we already had a trip planned. It's a miracle I didn't murder somebody that weekend.

My horribly hostile divorced parents behaved themselves at my wedding. A bit of sniping during the week, but nothing bad on the day.

Anonymous wrote:My SIL got (re)married last fall. She sat her somewhat recently divorced parents (and mom's boyfriend) next to each other for the ceremony. At the reception, it was SIL's son, FIL, DH, me, MIL, and MIL's boyfriend at a table.

It. Was. AWFUL.

My FIL damn near had a panic attack and went back to his hotel room partway through the reception.

And of course this was at a small resort, so FIL and MIL kept running into each other all weekend. MIL is pretty oblivious to how much the divorce hurt FIL and says things like "why is he avoiding us?" and "Why doesn't he want to get drinks with us?"

This makes me feel so sad for FIL

My brother is getting married this fall, and is the first sibling to be married since my parents extremely acrimonious divorce. My mom has already threatened not to come a number of times. We have no idea how we will get them in the same room, not to mention the same photo. My mom is mentally ill and prone to cause scenes. We are all dreading it.

Hopefully the couple will try to work some of that out with the seating chart. We had some bad blood between wedding guests for ours, we made sure they were seated well away from each other but all in equivalent positions relative to the front/our table so no one could objectively perceive it as a slight, kept the bar to wine and beer because hard liquor was not a good mix for that group, and everyone managed to behave themselves. I'm sure there were tensions, but if anything happened, they all had the good manners not to let DH or I know about it.

My SIL got (re)married last fall. She sat her somewhat recently divorced parents (and mom's boyfriend) next to each other for the ceremony. At the reception, it was SIL's son, FIL, DH, me, MIL, and MIL's boyfriend at a table.

It. Was. AWFUL.

My FIL damn near had a panic attack and went back to his hotel room partway through the reception.

And of course this was at a small resort, so FIL and MIL kept running into each other all weekend. MIL is pretty oblivious to how much the divorce hurt FIL and says things like "why is he avoiding us?" and "Why doesn't he want to get drinks with us?"

I am headed to a family wedding next weekend. It will likely be very uncomfortable and awkward due to a nasty divorce several years ago.

The groom's family is torn apart - people not speaking to each other, avoiding each other, saying nasty things behind their backs, etc. The bride's family is lovely. I don't think there will be any over the top behavior (fist fights), but I do wonder about how it will all end up.

I am a neutral party but I do think it will be uncomfortable for everyone.

Does anyone have any awkward wedding/reception stories to share related to family fallouts, divorces, etc?