Wedding Guest Lists

One of the greatest challenges you'll face in planning a wedding is getting a guest list
size that is manageable for your budget and ceremony and reception site and also
pleases everyone. Here's a few things you'll want to keep in mind as your planning your
wedding guest list.

SIZE CONSIDERATIONS The first thing you'll want to do is figure out approximately how
many people you'd want at the wedding. There are four major factors to consider when
determining an appropriate number of guests: personal preference, ceremony site size,
reception site size, and budget.

Personal Preference-- Have you always imagined yourself getting married in front of a
very large group of people a la The Sound of Music or do you picture yourself at an
intimate beach ceremony with just your immediate family and closest friends? Your
personal preferences for a large or an intimate gathering are important to consider.

Ceremony and Reception Site Size-- Let's face it, you probably can't pull off a 200+
people wedding at a tiny bed and breakfast. If you have the perfect ceremony or
reception site in mind, you will need to limit your guest list to the amount of people that
could comfortably fit at that location and conversely, if you've always dreamed of having
a huge wedding be on the lookout for sites that could accommodate that size.

Budget-- Budget is probably the biggest guest list consideration. The more people you
invite to your wedding, the more it's going to cost you. Not only will you have to pay for a
larger reception and ceremony site, you'll also have to feed all those people, give them
favors, and send them invitations. You may need to consider sacrificing the gourmet
foods in order to have a large guest list or cutting down your guest list in order to have all
the trimmings you desire.

WHO TO INVITE Throughout history many fights have occurred between fiances,
parents, and other loved ones about who exactly should be invited to the wedding. You
want to invite every single one of your sorority sisters and your groom hates them all or
your mother insists on inviting her friends over your own-- these are all issues may
encounter while planning the guest list.

Who's paying-- Let's face it, the person who's paying for the wedding gets the most
control of the guest list. If your parents are footing the entire bill they have a right to invite
some people they like even if you don't like or want all of them; however, you do deserve
to have people who are special to you there too. If you and your fiance are paying, the
two of you will be primarily in charge of the guest list, but do allow both sets of parents
to invite some of their own guests too.

When people don't get along-- It's quite possible that you have friends or family members
that your fiance doesn't like or family members who don't like each other. While your first
instinct may be to demand that your fiance not invite the people you can't stand or those
family members that hate each other, but if you have room on the guest list you should
just suck it up and invite them. In the end, letting those people come is probably easier
than having a full out battle with your fiance or family members and hopefully people will
keep in mind that this is your special day, not theirs.

How to cut down-- Once you have figured out how many guests are appropriate, you
will want to make a list with two columns: guests you need to invite and guests you want
to invite. Definitely invite all the people on the must have list and narrow down the want
list until it is an appropriate size. Some couples mail out invitations in batches starting with
the must haves. Once they see how many people RSVP, they send out the next bach. Be
careful though, some people may be offended if they are not invited in the first batch.

Heather Greene may be contacted at information@weddingwonderful.com.

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Heather Greene is the head writer for Wedding Wonderful, a complete wedding planning
website at www.weddingwonderful.com. You may contact her using the e-mail address
listed above.