How to Keep Your Friendships Intact While Wedding Planning

Weddings have a way of bringing pre-existing issues with friends or family members to the surface. Take a peek in any wedding nook of TikTok or Instagram, and you are likely to encounter horror stories of wedding party members experiencing “the maid of honor curse” or watching a friend turn into a “bridezilla” or “groomzilla” during the planning process.

“The incredible thing about weddings is they are such a marker of time, in our personal narrative, in our family history,” said Kara Ghassabeh, a life coach and therapist based in Bethesda, Md., just outside Washington. “But it’s also such a high-pressure situation.”

The stresses are felt by both the couple, whose lives are about to change, and their close friends involved in the wedding.

The friends, said Ms. Ghassabeh, who specializes in counseling women preparing to marry, “are feeling confused, like, where do I fit in?”

She continued: “There are so many sides to it and it’s a very fragile, tender time, especially in female friendships. People panic and get their feelings really hurt.”

Even if the planning process reveals that a friendship has run its course, does the split have to be especially painful? We checked in with experts involved in the wedding process, as well as former bridesmaids and people who’ve been married about steps that can help lessen the likelihood of a relationship deteriorating or, even worse, ending on bad terms.