Creating Your Wedding Guest List

Another important factor into your wedding budget and location is how many of your nearest and dearest will be coming to celebrate your vows. Creating your master guest list takes time, so don't expect to finalize the list overnight. There are essentially three sides (more if you involve Step Parents) to the guest list:

Bride / Groom
Bride's Parents
Groom's Parents

Traditional conventions say that whomever is paying for the wedding gets the larger portion of the guest list. I disagree as the lines of who pays for what are getting blurred in this modern age and while your Father may think that inviting his first boss who has never met you is appropriate, turns out, it may not be. Have an honest conversation with all the parents about what the goal of the wedding is. Is it just family? Is it just family and close friends? Is it not all family, just close family? Or, is it everyone you've ever encountered in your entire life? Once you've created a general "acceptable to invite" list, set a date (within a month) for all parties that get to invite people to give the Bride and Groom their lists. Once the three+ lists are merged, you will get a better sense of numbers. Please keep in mind that you'll probably trim the 'fat' off the list before it is truly final, but this number will be a large indicator on what is a suitable venue for you.


(courtesy of ancestry.com)

This post was originally published on June 5th, 2009