Guest article by Keely Thompson and Tamryn Lawrence. Image credit Heline Bekker Photography (full shoot here)

Planning a wedding is supposed to be a joyful, wonderful and dreamy time. You should be feeling the love, having fun and generally adoring every minute. However, that’s not always the case. Complicated families, difficult decisions and any number of personal issues can make the build-up to the big day less than easy. 

But planning a wedding when someone is missing can be even tougher. If you’ve lost a parent or parental figure, then the wedding planning process can easily open old wounds and bring back all the grief and emotion that you might have thought had passed.