Attend Your Friend's Wedding (Even if You Wish You Were Getting Married)

As wedding season approaches, it is time once again to talk about that dreaded subject: other people's weddings.

If you happen to be invited to somebody's wedding, it might bum you out. Why can't it be mine? Yup.

Feelings of frustration and even envy are valid if you believe you are called to marriage. It may seem as if you pray and pray and work and work and date and date and you have to watch other people make it happen so easily.

First, realize that you are loved.

The couple considered you a good enough friend to invite to the wedding. I have helped four of my daughters arrange weddings and believe me, there is an A list and a B list.

The A list is comprised of the people you invite first. Your parents, your siblings, your grandparents, your close friends, and your long lost relatives from Peoria because they're family after all. If you don't do that, Grandma is going to be mad. But, don't worry. They'll probably send regrets and so will other people.

Then you are free to turn to your B list. The B list is usually the fun people you really want there but ran out of room for.

The C list is the one we don't talk about. On it is everybody you wrote down—like maybe your parents' friends, or your own friends who you rarely see, or your boss and his wife, who got outranked by A and B until there was no room left. These people are going to be hurt but you can't help it. So, if you did get invited to a friend's wedding, chances are, you have beat out some hefty competition.

Second, your friend's wedding is an opportunity.

Weddings are fun—even weddings that aren't yours when you wish they were. Seriously, I think people go to bars on weekends just because they are hoping to recreate the "wedding guest experience." Good luck to them. Weddings are hard to beat. The food, the drink, the dancing. You get to dress up and look fabulous. There's free entertainment, a beautiful venue, and joyful people everywhere.

Third, you get to meet new people.

Interesting new people. Cute new people. This is no time to prop up a wall and hope for "something to happen." Get out there and actively introduce yourself or get yourself introduced. Do you know any couples who met at a wedding? I do!

No matter what happens at the wedding, take a break from all the worries in your life and have a good time. The easiest way to do this is to be happy for the couple, actively happy. Pray for them. Congratulate them. Be a good wedding guest.

Did you ever see a bad wedding guest? I bet you have. They range from people who bring crashers, to people who get wasted and make a scene, to people who grab a microphone and start bragging on themselves. These people all have one thing in common. They're making the wedding about them and not about the couple. They're not having fun either.

So think like Our Blessed Mother at the Wedding Feast of Cana and support the couple. If anything goes wrong—which, with all the moving parts, it does—spare them the annoyance or embarrassment and deal with it quietly yourself.

This is the couple's BIG day. If there was ever a time to practice The Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, this is it.

The awesome thing is that being happy for someone on their wedding day will make you happy as well. So keep smiling. Take a break. Shake a leg. You might just make a good impression on that cute new person you just introduced yourself to.