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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To want to be involved in my only brothers wedding?

50 replies

Stigaloid · 15/06/2010 14:05

My DH has been asked to be an usher and my DS is a page boy, but I have not been included at all. AIBU to want to be involved in some way in my only brother's wedding? My dad died 5 years ago and i had my DB give me away on the day so he was very integral to my wedding. I don't know whether i should say anything or just accept not being involved. I have dropped hints asking who is doing readings and being witnesses etc but he say the wedding is going to be done completely how his fiance wants it and that is fine with him. Feel a bit blue about it all TBH.

OP posts:
LoveBeing34 · 15/06/2010 14:06

Tell him how you feel, not in a ranty way just that you are hurt. I wish i had.

singsinthebath · 15/06/2010 14:07

Maybe your DB feels that by involving your DS and DH he is involving the whole family?

GloriaSmut · 15/06/2010 14:09

Agree with singsinthebath.

GeekOfTheWeek · 15/06/2010 14:10

What role were you thinking op?

Not sure if there is anything you can do about it. I would enjoy the day as a guest.

Lonnie · 15/06/2010 14:11

YABU they have involved your dh and your ds showing you how important your family is to them both

Stigaloid · 15/06/2010 14:12

I appreciate that and think it sweet that he involves my DH and DS, but I'd rather be involved than DH. He is my one and only brother and this is (hopefully) his one and only wedding. I do see is as lovely that he includes my DH as he is most certainly family to my DB, i just wish i was included too.

I will leave it as i always believe that a wedding is the affair of the bride and groom - i am just a little hurt and feeling left out. Just want to see if i was being unreasonable to feel this way or not in other's opinion.

OP posts:
singsinthebath · 15/06/2010 14:13

Could you ask to be an usher instead of DH? (And would DH mind?)

I had 2 male bridesmaids bride's blokes at my wedding.

HousewifeOfOrangeCounty · 15/06/2010 14:14

Don't leave it, it will fester. Contact DB's fiance and say that you'd love to be involved in some way and was there anything you could do on the day.

YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 15/06/2010 14:15

Stig there're no roles that he can give you if it's a traditional wedding. He can only choose his best man and his ushers. It's his DF that chooses the bridesmaids.

When my DB got married I was very involved in helping set things up for the day. Is there anything like the flowers which you could volunteer for?

Given that he has given 2 of the roles he can choose to your family it sounds like he very much thinks you are involved.

LadyBiscuit · 15/06/2010 14:16

I think singsing's idea is good - you should ask to be an usher rather than your DH. I do understand why the bride wants her friends/family as her bridesmaids (if that's what role you were hoping for - are there any others for women to play?) so I can see your point but I can see hers too. Unless you are really close to her?

more · 15/06/2010 14:17

What would you like him to ask you to do? Remember it is not just him getting married and usually it is the bride that takes over most of (if not all) the wedding planning

Stigaloid · 15/06/2010 14:20

No wasn't hoping for bridesmaid - just a reading in the service or something similar. I don't think i could do flowers etc as my DB and his DF live quite a while away surrounded by her family so think they will be helping out as closer to hand. Same with making favours or cakes (although she makes cakes so think she has that one covered!) Have offered to be her something borrowed if she needs anything so maybe she will take me up on that. I agree it is her choice to include whom she wants, i just feel a little gutted that she hasn't thought of a role to include me in as it is only my mum, my brother and I in his immediate family and she has lots of family who are giving her away, being witnesses, bridesmaids etc etc

But shall be grateful that my DH and DS are included and look on the bright side of not having an official role other than ensuring DS has no accidents on the day!

OP posts:
YouKnowNothingoftheCrunch · 15/06/2010 14:25

That's the way to look at it, Stig It'll be a lovely day and I'm postive you will feel included (you'll have plenty to do running around after your page boy during the ceremony ).

pointissima · 15/06/2010 14:25

not unreasonable but perhaps a bit childish. It's just one day, they're involving your family and it's the ongoing relationship that matters

GloriaSmut · 15/06/2010 14:26

It is difficult to step back from these things when closely connected but actually, you are, as a family, very considerably involved in your DB's wedding. Plus you'll need to be rehearsing your ds's role with him and being very much there on the day.

You've mentioned that his DF has lots of family and this means she'll already have a much harder task involving all of them in a way that ensures feelings aren't hurt. Give your DB a break, eh? He's already given two important roles to your side of the family.

bunkers · 15/06/2010 14:30

How old is your ds and what will be required of him as page boy? Perhaps they think that you will need to help him in his role, so will be tied up with that and not available for other duties?

LoveJules3 · 15/06/2010 14:34

I'm in sort of the same situation, my DB gets married next year with my DH as usher, My dds as bridesmaids, and me and my ds have nothing to do! Granted Ds will only be 18m old but i'd still like to do something!
On the other hand i've been dress shopping with Dsil2be and helped choose her bridesmaids dresses, so i sort of feel like i have a stake in the day already.

It can be very awkward to bring up that you feel hurt, but maybe they'll ask you to do a reading nearer the time? Somethimes they don't think about readings till someone points it out to them though

diddl · 15/06/2010 14:46

TBH I think YABU.

Perhaps if you lived closer you could help out somehow, but do many brides involve their future SILs?

Helokitty · 15/06/2010 14:49

Just to give another perspective - but I wonder whether you are projecting your ideal of what a wedding is about onto their wedding, and maybe your ideal of a wedding is not shared?

This always seems to come up in weddings thread. Some people seem to think that weddings are about the uniting of two families (as is referred to in Christian marriage ceremony), but others see this as an outdated notion, and see weddings merely as a contract between two people (as is the focus in the modern secular marriage ceremonies). I think both views have validity, and neither one view can claim to be 'correct', but I see that they cause problems when different people hold different views.

I personally, see weddings as being about the couple - not about the joining of two families. Therefore, I wouldn't think to necessarily include all of mine or my husband's family in the events. Neither would I expect to be included, or be hurt by not being included in the wedding ceremony when my brother gets married. I'd see it as a lovely gesture, but would not think that I should have any involvement simply because they are family. To me, this would be expecting too much. But obviously, you hold a different view of marriage - and that is fine too.

I hope explaining a different view of marriage helps you to see that it is not a slight or rejection of you, and I hope that helps you not to feel hurt, because I really do not think it is as such. It did not occur to me to think you must involve family, just because they are family.

GeekOfTheWeek · 15/06/2010 14:52

My friends just got married and the grooms sister was just a guest. Her dh was usher and her ds was pageboy.

There doesn't seem to be a role for the grooms sister.

Maybe they are not having readings etc.

NorbertDentressangle · 15/06/2010 14:59

Maybe your brother wants you to enjoy the day without piling stress on you (although, depending on the age of your DS, monitoring his role could be stressful enough ).

Also, like others have said, there are only so many roles and I presume they have other family and friends to consider.

When my DB got married my DD was a bridesmaid (DS wasn't a pageboy but as he was only 3 at the time I think he was probably too much of a loose cannon to put in such a role ) and DP ferried the bride and groom from church to reception in our knackered old VW Beetle classic car. I didn't have a role as such but was very busy and very much felt part of it.

Tombliboob · 15/06/2010 15:00

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Hulababy · 15/06/2010 15:05

If your DS is pageboy, then won';t you be involved in getting him ready and sored, making sure he is ok, that he knows where to be and what to do, etc?

I do think you are being unreasonable TBH.

My sister has just gotten married. My DD was bridesmaid -- and a fabulous one too . What with sorting her dress, taking her for fittings, arranging her hair to be done, taking her there that day, getting her dressed, keeping her clean and tidy (lol) - well, I just about had enough time to get myself dressed and sorted, let alone anything more. I did take loads of photos for them though.

GavisconGirl · 15/06/2010 15:32

I agree that they will think they have involved you as your family are involved.

When we got married I asked my husband if I should have his sister (who is absolutely lovely) as bridesaid (my sister and bf were already bridesmaids). He didn't want her to because she had just had her first baby and he didn't want her to feel that she had to travel about for fittings and have all the hassle that comes with being a bridesmaid on top of the new baby. My brother was an usher because I insisted he had a role, we didn't even think of having bil as usher! And we really love him. I felt bad that we couldn't have all the siblings on the top table, but we sat my brother and sil with my husband's sister and bil along with our very nicest friends right at the front near us so they could see everything and be close to us.

It is difficult to include everyone and it seems like they have really made an effort to include your whole family so please don't feel bad

nickelbabe · 15/06/2010 16:49

ask to be an usher as well - he probably didn't ask you because he thought that ushers had to be men, but i was an usher at my friend's wedding.