Places Everyone: Seating Divorced and Remarried Parents At Your Ceremony

by Mia Bolaris-Forget (Staff Writer NYCityWeddings)

Traditionally mom and dad had front row seats to the big event. But, today, mom and dad may be separated, divorced and with someone else (perhaps that you don’t even like), and that may make seating both up front, a bit awkward and uncomfortable. So, what’s a couple to do? After all you don’t want anyone to feel slighted or less important.

The most common solution is good old common sense. First consider your relationship with each. And, the parent you are closest to should be the one seating up front (and with his or her new [serious] mate or spouse, even if you don’t like that person), and the other parent (with his or her partner) should sit in the third row, behind the grandparents, typically seated in the second row. If however you get along famously with both (parents) sit the one you lived with and who raised you up front and the other in a row or two behind. Again, where you sit each parent may also depend on how long they’ve been divorced, the circumstances surrounding it, and how well or cordially, “they” get along. Parents who have, despite the circumstances, remained “friends” can both be seated up front , either next to each other or with the grandparents between them. Or they can seat directly behind each other, each with his or her set of parents (your grandparents).