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"Seems like weddings and family drama go hand in hand ... Writes Save the Date reader Jenny: My boyfriend and I got engaged right before Thanksgiving. I was over-the-moon happy, and a month later we had the venue, date, and attendants picked out and I had already bought my dress. Three months after our engagement, my brother proposed to his girlfriend, who decided she wanted to get married two months before our wedding so she could be a June bride. I&amp;amp;#8217;m devastated. She&amp;amp;#8217;s run their engagement announcement in our local paper twice, so now it seems like everyone in our small town is badgering me. &amp;amp;#8220;How can you have a wedding right after your brother&amp;amp;#8217;s?&amp;amp;#8221; they ask. &amp;amp;#8220;How can you do that to your mother? She must be so busy getting ready for his wedding!&amp;amp;#8221; On top of that, my mother has made my brother&amp;amp;#8217;s wedding her priority. She says this is his time, and after his wedding she&amp;amp;#8217;ll be able to help me. By that point, I&amp;amp;#8217;ll only have a month or so to tie up the loose ends for our wedding! How am I supposed to plan my wedding without my mother&amp;amp;#8217;s help? I&amp;amp;#8217;m so overwhelmed that I can&amp;amp;#8217;t get motivated to do anything! And how am I supposed to put on a happy face and deal with my future sister-in-law when I just want to scream every time I see her? Here are my thoughts: Ugh. Obviously this sucks on several levels, but unfortunately at this point you have to play the hand you&amp;amp;#8217;ve been dealt. You can&amp;amp;#8217;t change your brother&amp;amp;#8217;s wedding date, your mom&amp;amp;#8217;s attitude, or the annoying people in your town. While burying your head in the sand and doing nothing might feel like the easiest option right now, your wedding&amp;amp;#8217;s not going to plan itself. So it&amp;amp;#8217;s time to get to work! First, you need to recruit a team of people you can rely on. Hopefully your &amp;amp;#8217;maids or future in-laws live nearby. I&amp;amp;#8217;d start by writing an exhaustive list of every last thing that needs to get done&amp;amp;#8212;from making table numbers to choosing your cake flavors&amp;amp;#8212;and finding someone who can either help with the job or go ahead and do it for you. For tasks you need to handle on your own (like going to dress fittings), plan a non-negotiable schedule for yourself and vow to stick to it. Don&amp;amp;#8217;t be afraid to give your fiance a to-do list, too. I know lots of grooms are hands-off when it comes to wedding planning, but you&amp;amp;#8217;re going to need yours to step up. Since you&amp;amp;#8217;ll have to be the one organizing your &amp;amp;#8220;team,&amp;amp;#8221; I&amp;amp;#8217;d suggest you try to delegate as much as possible. There is a silver lining to keep in mind here: Lots of brides have tons of time and tons of help, so they wind up over-thinking every last detail and wasting a bunch of time weighing the pros and cons of, say, 42 different centerpieces. That&amp;amp;#8217;s not an option for you, so you&amp;amp;#8217;ll have to make a decision and move forward&amp;amp;#8212;and I don&amp;amp;#8217;t think that&amp;amp;#8217;s necessarily a bad thing! As far as your future sister-in-law goes, I&amp;amp;#8217;d say it&amp;amp;#8217;s probably best to avoid her. Yes, she&amp;amp;#8217;s going to be family, but I think tensions are probably running too high for you to deal with her right now. You&amp;amp;#8217;ll need to be polite when you do cross paths, but I&amp;amp;#8217;d keep your contact as limited as possible. Ladies, who would you rely on if you didn&amp;amp;#8217;t have your mom to help plan your wedding? Does anyone have any words of wisdom for Jenny? And what should she do about her nasty future sister-in-law?! Have a wedding-y dilemma of your own? E-mail me! More reader&amp;amp;#8217;s dilemmas, solved! * Should a Girl Get a Say in What Her Engagement Ring Looks Like? * How Long Is Too Long to Wait for a Guy to Propose? * What if You Know How Your Boyfriend&amp;amp;#8217;s Going to Propose&amp;amp;#8212;And You Hate His Plan?! More Ways to Get Glamour Visit Shopglamour.com for cute stuff starting at just $10! Enter the latest Glamour sweepstakes! Follow us on Twitter Add us to your iGoogle homepage FREE Beauty Stuff! Enter for your Chance to Win a New Prize Every Day! Photo: Jupiter Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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