True Friendship Means Being Honest with Your Friend When You Don’t Like Their Partner
They aren’t going to want to hear it, but you need to say it
“Are you sure you want to do this?” These aren’t words you want to hear while wearing a wedding dress and preparing to walk down the aisle in a room filled with friends and relatives. The timing wasn’t just spectacularly inappropriate. It was also too little, too late.
Timing is part of the reason I didn’t listen to that hesitant voice of concern. The other factor is that I didn’t have the kind of relationship with that person to trust their instincts about my relationship. We didn’t have the closeness for that conversation, but there had also been years of criticism of anyone I dated, which made it even harder to hear on the day I was getting married. Furthermore, the person wasn’t exactly a model of healthy relationships herself.
While I might not have been ready or willing to hear the concerns of the people who loved me, I do strongly feel like they should have been voiced long before I purchased a wedding gown. I walked down the aisle, and it likely comes as a surprise to no one that I am divorced now.
