Did you invite EVERYBODY or just close fam and friends?

Well fam took up the vast majority of our guest list but only because we have huge familes. then mutual friends, and then close individual friends. i have friends that i did not have the space to invite

I felt at first that FH was just inviting everyone he had ever considered remotely important. The guest list got a little out of hand and we had to cut it down so I could breathe. So now we're at family, close friends, and a few people we aren't that close to anymore but they were once a huge part of our lives, such as my godfather or his old boss.

FH and I both have large extended families. His family all lives over 20 hours away, so we knew most of them wouldn't come, but with my family and friends alone we could have easily reached over 125 people, so we just decided to cut almost everyone! We are having a wedding with about 40 guests. We kept the list to immediate family and a few close friends. That's it! People have asked if it was hard for me to cut people but it wasn't at all. I was cut throat. No co workers, no friends that i dont talk to regularly, and hardly any extended family. Siblings and their spouses only. There are two members of my "Extended" family that we talk to quite often, and we invited them. Our family is so huge, that it has become common not to invite the whole gang. The extended fam isn't disappointed. We are going to have a casual party in the month or so after the wedding and invite extended family to that. We will have a party in my FH's hometown in the Spring.

We invited family ONLY to the wedding....no exceptions. I wanted it to be intimate and meaningful. The reception is family, friends and coworkers-as long as we have had dinner together or some form of intimate gathering within the past six months.....if not, then they weren't invited. Kinda harsh, but it keeps the finances within budget!

We're inviting, Family, family friends, and a couple friends.

Unfortunately since my parents were paying, we had to add on a bunch of people who were their friends. I do know them, but I wouldn't have invited them unless we had to. But we did manage to get in all the family and friends who we did want to invite; thus our guest list was 178. But with declines and it being out of town for alot of people we ended up at 135, which was a great number.

We haven't firmed up the guest list yet. But both our families, not just immediate but cousins, aunts, uncles (but not THAT uncle), friends (who are all over- we are both the people who keep in touch with other), FH will invite coworkers (they may not come because of distance but some of them), Some ex colleagues of mine that I am still friendly with, family friends on my side, family friends on FH's side.

FH family are paying so they will invite some of their friends and people they know because of work

We're only inviting those very close to us for our vow renewal. We're inviting approx 75-80. Those who we haven't kept in touch with, or not close to or who haven't kept in touch with us are not invited. And that includes some family members.

FH's list was 99% family and one bestest friend. Mine is a combination of mostly family and a few friends. We still have a very intimate guest list. What I find funny is that my friends have already RSVP-ed and reserved their hotel rooms. My family is slacking. Hopefully there will still be rooms available in the block. ;-)

Our friends make up the majority of our guess list with close family making up about 25%. Invited about 125 hope to have 100 attending.

We are paying so got to determine the guest list. My mom did suggest to send announcements to those extending family members that were not invited.

Tried to stick with just immediate family and close personal friends but we did get some stranglers in there. I regret inviting a few people. But there’s nothing I can do now : (

Ours just kept growing out of control. I have a huge Irish Catholic family, and there's nothing I can do about it. But FMIL has a lot of friends, and insists all of their grown children (our age) have to come. Ughh I wanted it at 175... and I think it might go out of control because there's no reasoning with her.

P.S. they have refused to say how much they are actually contributing.. I've been asking for over a year. Now it's 8 months away... and I want to scream.

Edited for a couple typos.

I have an absolutely enormous family, so it's mostly family, mutual friends, and close friends that I couldn't imagine having the wedding without. When we started the guest list, though, I had lots of more casual friends there, and it was still lame to have to take them off.

When we celebrate on this side of the planet, with his family, it's going to be only family and our current close friends. This will come as a shock over here, because here, you usually invite everyone, including, like, the parents of the kid who bullied you in daycare at age three. o.O

Direct family (parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins) of course, then we moved on to mutual friends (there's not many) & a couple of individual friends. We thought we had the list pared down quite a bit, but then FFIL wanted to add 5, FMIL wanted to add 4 & my friend's little sister really wanted to come (her husband couldn't), so i told her she could be her date. I didn't invite any of my step's (there's 10 adults & 9 kids), my far-away uncle & cousin, any co-workers at either job or my former co-worker who barely invited me to her wedding last yr...seriously, hinting that she had forgotten me didn't work! I had to BEG, so i owe her nothing =)

My first wedding, we invited our families and extended families. Then my parents had friends that I had known, they were also invited along with some friends of my siblings that I grew up knowing as well. (a total of 150 ppl showed)

2nd wedding was an after party at home (very relaxed) BBQ with only a few people. (a total of 15 ppl)

My soon to wedding, we are sending invites to immediate families and my grandmother. Most of his family has past away. the majority of my family will not come anyway as we are in another state. Then close friends that we both know, a couple from work, and church. (guest list is 54 but I expect only 30 ppl to show)

Okay that's nice.

We are inviting only those close to us.

We invited our closest family members which totaled 80, our entire 'friend list' totaled 5. We wanted to keep things small and intimate. If we had both invited all of our family members we would have hit over the 300 mark and that wasn't with any friends at all.

We invited family and really close friends. Our original list with not as close friends was barely over 100 people though. We cut that down to 85 who will get invitations.

We invited immediate family and close friends. We had a total of 35 people at our wedding, and it was great.