Wedding Guest List Jitters

To help us prepare our budget, my fiancé and I need to have a good idea of how many people we will invite to our wedding. Easier said than done! After 3 hours of writing down names of family and friends the number is surprisingly larger than expected. From attending other weddings we have a number in our head of how many guests we would like to have, but the number of names we wrote down is about 40 people over. What do you do when you have not enough or too many wedding guest list names?

Who can I add to increase the guest list number? 

• Contact your close family members and ask if you have forgotten anybody. 
• Add plus one’s for the people on your list with no known partner. 
• Do up a general schematic of tables and chairs. Who will sit with whom? If you have tables with empty spaces, think of people that would get along with, or already know, those at the table. 
•  Ask your close family and friends if they want to invite anyone.
• If those in your wedding party invite a plus one, who will that person sit with? Perhaps you can invite the wedding party member’s parents or siblings if you know them. 
• Look on your social media friend lists for ideas. 
• Invite past co-workers who you got along with.

Who can I cut to decrease the guest list number?

• Have both you and your fiancé met the person?
• Have they supported your engagement?
• Are they nice to you?
• Do they cause drama?
• Do you know them?
• Plus ones.

Regarding the drama queen or king: Keep the drama out of the wedding! You don’t want to think of your wedding and the first picture you have is of Cousin Sheila asking your father-in-law to do body shots. 

Do you know the person you plan to invite? Remember, you are trying to cut people off the list. Your distant uncle who you knew when you were a child and your family hasn't spoken to since should get cut. And now, with plus ones: Not everyone needs to have a plus one. If there are many other people at the table who that person knows, then perhaps you can cut out their plus one.

Final Thoughts

Sometimes venues require you to have a minimum or maximum number of guests to get a particular ballroom. This happened with us. We had a perfect number in mind, but the venue needed at least 25 more bodies for the ballroom we wanted. So we cut down the list originally, and then added people back. What a rollercoaster - and the venue isn’t even booked yet! 

Also, remember to invite more people than you want as your final number, because it’s likely that not everyone will RSVP yes (more on that in a later blog). These tips helped us out a lot, and I hope they help you too!

To have and to hold,

Elizabeth Honey