Hey there! So my FH and I have set a hard cut off for our budget of 150 people. My FH and I both have very large families. Most of his extended family is from out of town. He has probably over 40 cousins not in the state, and we are not inviting any of them, only his aunts and uncles (he is OK with this). For me, most of my extended family lives in-state, and I am inviting all my cousins. About half of my cousins are married, the other half have significant others. In order to keep the guest list to 150 people or less, we decided to have a rule that you had to either be engaged or married to get a plus one. We also extended this rule to any friends that are coming, except if you are in the bridal party. Therefore, this leaves about half of my cousins being invited solo.
My mom is now saying that I should invite the girlfriend of one of my cousins, who apparently has been with a woman for 5 years. I have literally never met her, he has never taken her to any of our many family gatherings over the years, I don't even know her name. She is making me feel bad about our "rule". But my concern is that if I break this rule for one person, then I will in turn make any other guest that is in a relationship feel like there were exceptions made, and so why not them too.
I feel I am in between a rock and a hard place because we really can't afford many more guests. We are already at 150. As I said my FH is not even inviting ANY cousins. So I feel bad breaking our rule because then why wouldn't we invite more of his family. Any thoughts on this? Should I just invite the one significant other my mom is talking about because of the length of their relationship? Or do I HAVE to invite everyone's significant others? This would end up costing several extra thousand dollars. Thanks!
