Y'all, creating a wedding guest list is hard. I mean, really hard. You truly do not realize how many family members and friends you have until it's time to compile a giant list of them. Here are a few things to keep in mind while putting together your wedding guest list.
Size Matters
Travis (my fiancé) and I both imagined having a small-sized wedding. Then we started making a list and realized how many family members and friends we have. Our idea of small changed pretty quickly and eloping was heavily discussed. While it is wonderful to have such supportive people in our lives, inviting each of them to celebrate with us is impossible. If you want to have a small wedding or cut down on costs, you will have to make tough decisions about who to invite and who to (unfortunately) leave off the guest list.
Establish Rules
Go ahead and create a few rules. Does everyone in the bridal party get a plus one? Are you only going to invite people you've talked to within the past year? Do you want to invite your coworkers? Can your friends and family bring their kids? These are all great questions that you can turn into rules for establishing who makes the cut and who doesn't.
Draft Party
Go ahead and draft up a list of everyone you and your fiancé would invite if venue size and staying within the budget was not an issue. When we did this, we had over 200 guests. Woah. The frugal girl I am, freaked out. I feel like I barely know 200 people, much less want to pay $70 for each of them to eat dinner. This first draft gives you a great starting point for when you have to make decisions later.
When we started going through guests we highlighted their names in specific colors indicating our thoughts. Red was an automatic no, yellow was maybe, and green meant they had to be there. This is the harsh reality of wedding planning. I truly don't want anyone to be excluded but you can't invite every friend you've ever made or your distant cousin you last saw six years ago.
VIPs (Very Important Parents)
If either set of parents plans on contributing to your wedding fund, it is important to ask for their opinion on the guest list. If your parents do not plan on making a contribution to your wedding but still insist on having specific friends or family members there, ask if they will pay the cost for each of those guests.
Do You
At the end of the day, your wedding is about you and your fiancé. If there are people you do not want there, don't invite them. If there are people you want there, put their name on the list and highlight it green. If someone gets mad about not being invited, they probably shouldn't be there anyway.
Have you made a wedding guest list before? Was it stressful? How did you decide who to invite? Let me know in the comments below. I would love to hear from you!
If you want to know more about how the proposal and first week after being engaged went, check out my post here!
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