Making a Guest List

Making a Guest ListA wedding is a celebratory event that takes months of planning. One of the biggest problems that can arise for soon-to-be newlyweds is how to make the guest list. Many people are unsure how many people to invite, who to invite, and who not to invite. Here are some tips that can help you narrow down your guest list so all the people who matter most will be there on your big day:

How many people to invite

This is all based upon if you want a big or small wedding. Once you figure out if you want to share your wedding experience with distant family members and old college friends or only close relatives and best friends, you need to look at your budget. Weddings can cost $100-plus per head, so how much money you have set aside for the guests will help you decide how many people to invite.

Who to invite

Making a Guest ListIf you have a large budget and want to invite a lot of people, you can add "plus ones" to some invitations. Many people will have their own significant others that they want to bring to your wedding, but you may not know them very well. If you are comfortable with having some guests who you are not that close with, let some people bring a plus one. You can also invite distant relatives you may not see that much to your wedding if you are having a large guest list. This is also a great way to reconnect with those relatives you barely ever get to see.

If you are having a smaller wedding and can only invite a limited number of people, making the guest list can be a little more difficult. Sit down with your fiancé to make one big list of all the people you each want to invite. Then narrow down the list so you can meet the maximum amount of people your budget allows for. You both may have to make sacrifices on certain people to keep it fair. One other thing you can do is to invite certain people to the ceremony only; this way, they get to see the wedding. You can create two different invitations, some which invite people only to the ceremony and others that invite guests to the ceremony and the reception.

Who not to invite

This works on a situational basis. There may be guests you want to invite that do not get along, and you know who they are. You can either make sure they do not sit near each other at the reception or avoid any possible problems at all by not inviting the troublemaker.

No matter how many people you invite, make sure to review your list several times before you order the invitations. Make sure you do not forget any important guests and that both you and your fiancé are happy with who is coming and who is not.