The Torturous Guest List

The guest list has been our task of the week. We haven't stuck with a perfect number yet but we are looking at between 180-220 guests. We started by simply writing down, in a perfect world scenario, ever person we would want at our wedding. Be prepared, that number will be massive if you have large families and friend groups. The first round of cuts is easy and yes I know this sounds like a cruel process and for the most part it is, you basically are evaluating all of your relationships and ranking them. We all know that there will be about 20 or so people that you really dont need at your wedding. 

The next steps were challenging our list was at 170. This would be ideal if not every person technically gets a plus one. Then I go go gadgeted into Bridal Bitch mode, where, I came to the realization that I am not paying for random people to be fed at my wedding. New plan: If someone has a significant other, by all means they are invited as your plus one, if not, do not plan to seek out a date for my wedding. People tend to forget that for every person that comes into that reception hall, I have to feed them a three course meal and they need to have wine available to them on the tables. I am not paying $20 bucks a person for some random date. SO here is my best piece of advice, if they have a significant other send the invitation to them and their plus one, if not, you need only put their name on the invitation.

This still makes it difficult because I have no idea who will be in relationships in a year from now. So I continued to cut. I am inviting none of my good friend's parents except my best friend. I cut out childhood friends. I cut out some university friends who I dont hang out with often. I kept cutting until I couldn't rationalize why I was cutting these individuals anymore or until I felt extremely guilty. We are now down to 130 invitations being sent out (doesn't include wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, kids). So there will be a butt load of people there still, which is fine by me. I've always said I wanted a big wedding, but I also need to not go over the capacity of the hall. 

If I were to assume something very prematurely, it would be that this is probably the least fun part of wedding planning. It sucks to have friends that you love, that will not be invited to the wedding because you cant afford it or because there isn't enough room but, C'est La Vie.