DISCUSSING OUR WEDDING DRAMA: NOT INVITING FAMILY AND WEDDING PARTY FUEDS!

Most people wouldn't be very open about this. I am grateful for people like you.

By my own admission, I'm very bad at handling not being invited to weddings.

Growing up, I heard many times that a couple's wedding day is the happiest day of their life. So I've developed this mindset that equates being invited to a wedding with being valued and appreciated (that's the one thing I want most in life).

I'm on the autism spectrum, and that definitely hasn't helped. The very nature of the way my brain is wired means that I don't always see the perspectives of others, I have very strong emotions and I often interpret things literally. I think that's the problem: I heard that a couple's wedding day is the happiest day of their life, and I interpreted it literally when perhaps I shouldn't have.

Another factor exacerbating this is that growing up, I was always that one person who was never invited to anything (although there were exceptions). But I always put so much effort into trying to change that that I never learned how to be OK with not being invited.

I recognise that perhaps things would be better if perhaps I were a bit better at handling not being invited to weddings. I have given myself until my 50th birthday to get the hang of it. But I am confident that even now, at the age of 24, I could handle not being invited if the couple getting married provide me with some reassurance that they genuinely appreciate me nonetheless.