I have no friends to invite to my own wedding

Question

So I'm hoping to get married soon. My boyfriend has a big family and lots of friends. I don't have any friends (not one). I have a really small family who I don't even really keep in touch with.

He will have his groom's men and best man plus all his family and other friends. I don't have anyone who is close enough to be my maid of honor. I don't have any female friends to be bride's maids. I'm embarrassed. My mom and dad will be there. I'm lucky for that. But I have nobody else. I wish we could just have a private wedding at city hall and get it over with but my bf wants his friends and family to be involved.

I REALLY want to get married but I don't want the service to be so awkward and make me feel like a freak. :( I already feel like one because I have no friends. This wedding is just going to make it more painfully obvious.

Every been in this situation or known someone else who was? What happened?

Answer 1

I feel just as embarassed as you do. I am getting married in two months and have a big, fancy affair planned. I have no friends to invite. I am 42, getting married for the first time. I wasted most of my 20s and 30s socializing with friends who are now gone and working in a competitive career that yielded no true friendships. I feel like a freak for not having friends and I feel angry for being there for everyone else's wedding and now no one's here for me.

I have family, but they are no source of comfort. I also feel like my life is going to be on display for a judgemental extended family who are going to talk about why I don't have bridesmaids or 250 guests. And my MOH/sister who hasn't helped me at all only seems concerned with how she will look and outshining me on my day.

I just typed up a big guest of family on my side, but I don't know who half of them are and my mother has said on more than one occasion that these people don't know who I am and the ones that do will be coming for my parents, not me. My list was a blank sheet of paper. I never felt like such an idiot. I didn't think that planning a big wedding would make me feel so bad about my life.

I would be honest with your fiancee about how you feel and explore your options. In the end I am hoping that the joy of getting married will overshadow these negative feelings because it's too late to turn back and elope—I will let you know! A wedding should really be about the two of you, but unfortunately there are all these other factors that can make it really stressful.