How to make a wedding guest list
Creating your wedding guest list can be a daunting task- I know this to be true because I just did this!!
Determine Size
You have to know roughly the size of your wedding to find a venue and since approximately half of your wedding budget goes to your guest list (food & drink) it is important to have a general idea so that you can find the perfect venue while staying on budget.
I wrote in my post a while back that I had always imagined a smaller more intimate wedding. Traditionally the couple gets half of the list, and each parent gets a quarter of the final number. We are pretty untraditional so we didn’t to this LOL I did however make a list with Ryan’s mom and with my mom so that we had a list with EVERYONE on it.
Making the Cut
So obviously not every single person that came to mind should be invited to the wedding. You will need to make a cut off. If you are going intimate then the cut off might be immediate family. If you are having a larger wedding you may opt for aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. But you will still need to draw a line. Like of they are estranged relatives, or an uncle who has been remarried’s new adult step-son you have hardly met etc. then it is okay to give them the boot. It’s easier to create cut offs at the beginning to keep things fair and easy. Remember- you can also have a B-List so that you can extend an invitation if you end up having extra room at the end!
Significant Others
Dealing with significant others is another tricky one! Ryan and I dated for 8 years before we were engaged and I knew that it would have been really uncomfortable if we would have received invitations without plus-ones. Like I would have maybe cried and felt like a nothing #cuedramatics
We extended plus-ones to anyone on our invite list who married, engaged, living with their significant other or if they have been dating for a year or longer.
Kid free?
Deciding whether or not to invite kids is another way to cut down your wedding guest list. This one can be complicated because it is always hard to tell other people what they should do with their children. Anything that you read online will tell you that if you go this route you should stick to your guns, and make no exceptions to avoid offending other guests. I absolutely do agree with this advice. That being said, our nieces and nephews are the only children invited to our wedding. Well, for now!
Don’t Dwell
After you created these boundaries don’t dwell. You can love people and still not have them at your wedding.
