Creating a Guest List
Creating a guest list, where to begin. So you are engaged, congrasts! You are putting together your priorities for your wedding, budget, who you would like to share your day with, location, date. Consider all of these factors before putting together your guest list. Venues will have a capacity limit, your budget will more than likely also have a limit and more guests could mean spending more of your budget. Have you imagined an intimate wedding with your closest loved ones? Have you imagined a large guest list consisting of neighbors, work friends, cousins, etc.? If you just don’t know yet, that is okay too! Start here:
With your partner only. Start with a blank document. Add your immediate family, your must have friends, must have extended family and their plus ones. Count this list of people, see where you are at, it might surprise you.
Continue to add the people closest to you in your life.
Make a “B-List” that consists of people you have imagined attending your wedding but not necessarily “must haves”
Make a “C-List” of guests who you would not necessarily need at your wedding but would be nice to invite.
Walk away from your list for a few days. Tour some venues, enjoy your time being engaged!
5. Come back to your list and review with your partner. Are these guests all people we would like to have at our wedding?
6. Bring your tentative guest list to parents. Consider that if parents are contributing financially to your day (or even if not) that it would be nice to give them a set number of guests they could invite. This is where it can become tricky. Understand that this day is about you and your partner, also understand that it means so much for your parents to bring people that mean a lot them them as well.
Other scenarios:
“I have a very large family, where is the cut off?”
“Do we invite kids to our wedding?”
“Does this person need to have a plus one? Is it rude if we only invite him/her?”
“My parents would like to invite someone we dont know, can I tell them ‘no’?”
“I was invited to this persons wedding a few years ago, do we have to invite them to ours?”
“Someone asked me if they are invited to our wedding. What do I say?”
In all of these circumstances, they are very situational. What I can tell you without knowing your situation is that putting together and keeping to a guest list requires lost of grace and understanding. Grace to let some things go, and understanding in that you may invite a few people who wouldnt be at the top of your list. It is your day, move with kindness and firmness and call me if you get stuck:)
