4 Quick Tips for Creating Your Wedding Guest List

Now that you’ve set the budget for your ideal wedding, it’s time to create your guest list. Trust me when I say that this will be one of the more stressful parts of planning.

In all fairness, the budget is a simple math exercise, how much do you have saved + additional savings prior to your wedding + any contributions from family = budget, no emotion or subjectivity involved. And this is NOT the case with your guest list.

There are several factors to consider when creating your guest list, including your wedding vision, your families’ expectations, your friend’s feelings, and your workplace norms. It will feel impossible to please everyone and below are a few tips to help you navigate the process.

step 1: draft your initial guest list

Sit down with your partner and make a list of all the people that you could potentially invite to celebrate with you. Be sure to include:

  • Immediate Family – parents, siblings/spouses, and grandparents

  • Wedding Party – friends or relatives that you have asked to be involved in your ceremony

  • Your favorites – your nearest and dearest, people you see/talk to on the regular, often these individuals are in your wedding party

  • Extended Family – aunts, uncles, and cousins

  • Extended Friends – friends of friends, your parents’ friends, work colleagues or your favorite barista

  • Parents’ Guests – long-time friends and colleagues

Yes, you should consider your parent’s guests, especially if they are financially contributing to your wedding. While it is YOUR wedding day, it is also a milestone day for your parents, and they may want to share it with their closest friends. Just like with the budget, it is important to have a proactive, honest, and fully transparent conversation and set expectations regarding how many guests your parents can invite, then let them choose who makes the list. .

step 2: how many guests do you want / can you afford?

Now that you’ve done a brain dump of everyone that you could invite, it’s time to determine how many guests you can afford and to discuss how many guests you actually want at your wedding.

Being grounded in your wedding vision, budget and priorities will serve you well here – have you dreamed about a small, cozy intimate wedding with just a few of your favorites or a large, extravagant, wedding where you and everyone you know and love dance until dawn or do you simply want to be married so that you can start a family?  These are questions that only you and your partner can answer.

Remember, there is no wrong answer here – no matter the size or budget, your wedding will be magical and unique to you. I promise.

step 3: culling your guest list

Now its time to marry steps 1 and 2 (pun intended!). Trimming your guest list is never easy and when you are grounded in the type of wedding you want, your budget and your priorities for the day, it’s less overwhelming. Not sure where to start with culling your list, here are a few suggestions:

  • Pick a venue that aligns with your vision, budget, and guest count. Having capacity restrictions at your dream venue will ensure that you stick to your guest count

  • Limit or eliminate “Plus One” option, with a few exceptions

    • Your wedding party, they have done so much for you already let them enjoy your special night with someone too

o Someone who will not know anyone else, like your boss

o Engaged couples, couples who live together or who have been together for a long time

  • Adults only

  • Create an A and B list – send out a second round of invites after you’ve received declined RSVPs

  • If the above doesn’t get you to your number, ask yourself these questions

o Have I spent time with this person in the last year?

o Would I call/text them right now to catch up?

o Will they be in your life in five years?

o Am I inviting them out of obligation?

step 4: exhale

Now would be a good time to plan a date night to celebrate the fact that now have completed your guest list and know who will be present on the most magical day of your life.

To get started planning your wedding that is playfully planned, joyously celebrated, and magically memorable, click here.

XOXO, LJE

Kelly Boyle