A List - B List ??????

A list is usually your MUST invites -- immediate family, closest friends in the world, that sort of thing. B list is people that would be nice to have there, but no biggie if they're not -- co-workers, kinda close acquaintances.

You usually send your A list invites first with a slightly earlier RSVP date -- as those folks decline, you can start to send B list invites. Hayley has a great breakdown for it, I'll try to find it for you (or maybe she'll pop in...)

Here's what Hayley has posted in the past:

First find out when your final head count is due

Then you start to work backwards

With an "A" and "B" list.... the "B" list shouldn't be TOO big, so there shouldn't be too many names to hunt down. Your "B" list RSVP can be around 7 -9 days before your head count is due. You would "like" the "B-list" to have 2.5 - 3 weeks to respond to the RSVP so it doesn't "feel" like a "B-list" (the mail out date for B-list is RSVP date for A-list)

Then count back another 3 - 4 weeks for when you mail out the "A" list.

Ex. Wedding 6/30

Head count due 6/22

RSVP "B-list" June 13 (should have all back by the 18th)

RSVP "A-list" May 21th (mail out 1 B-list as each "no" comes in - this date give B-list almost 3 weeks to respond * and is 5 weeks before the wedding)

Mail out "A-list" April 20th * 10 weeks before the wedding * (They should all receive them by April 25th - gives them just under 4 weeks to respond)

Your A lists guests are the people that HAVE to be at your wedding. ie..immediate family members...

Your A list guests are also those close friends relatives that you really want at your wedding.

Your B list guests are the people that you would *like* to come but due to budget you may have to cut them. Usually when an A-list guest declines an RSVP, you can replace them with someone from your B list.

A, B & C lists are helpful when you're planning a reception for over one hundred people. I have 70 ppl and I really didn't need it.

My entire wedding in only close family we only have 58 people on the guest list right now, i don't think we would have a use for a B list then.

I used it for something different, since I was not sending out the two sets of invites, I used mine to keep track of ages. A list was adults, 18 (or 21) years old and older, B list was for people that were between 11 and 17 years old (or could do something like 13-21, etc), C list was for kids under 10, or under a certain age if you are having kids at the wedding and there is a discount on pricing. It worked great!

We used it as a guide for ourselves. Instead of not inviting people we marked them as "A" if we thought they would FOR SURE be there and "B" if they were not likely to be able to come. We were prepared for everyone to come but were almost spot on with our A & B guesses. It helped us buy things really...

Oh, yeah, for 58 people, you probably don't need it. I'm just over a 100, and my B list is just co-workers.

Hi Angela - I really like how you used it for age ranges!

Yeh since we are having kids, i really like the idea of age groups that might actually be very helpful to track how many children. Thank you

Just remember to not send STDs to B-listers!