Family?

I am not lol. I have only invited the family members that have actually been in my life. My wedding is also very small, 24 guests, and DW so i think it was easier for me not invite “everyone” lol

It depends. Are we talking a long, lost aunt you never speak to? Sure, skip her. Or are we talking about inviting your 5 siblings and not the 6th? I'd invite. Whether we like it or not, weddings are somewhat political and family dynamics can be affected every step of the way (find the thread on the brother who was left out of the wedding party when all his siblings were included and how hurt he felt).

I am not. I don't have a relationship with my dad's brother and 1 of his sisters. I also didn't invite my great aunt on my mom's side, again we don't have a relationship. Heck I don't even think they know my FH and I are engaged. For me if I didn't have a relationship or bond with them I didn't invite them.

It's your wedding, you can invite anyone you want. Just keep in mind (depending on the relations - immediate or distant - if it's immediate you may cause some friction. Distant, I would really worry about too much.

You don't have to invite anyone.

This is your wedding. Don't invite them if you don't want to. My mom and I aren't close and I'm not inviting her. This is what I want. Stand your ground if you don't want them there.

Thank you everyone , you all gave me a lot to think about.

Its your wedding you should invite who you want or dont invite who you dont want. I don't feel as though people should be obligated to share such a special day with some people just because they're biologically related. Do what makes you happy.

You are certainly not required to invite anybody you don’t want to your wedding. This is your day, and you get to choose who gets to celebrate it with you! That being said, unless you actively do not like these people, I would weigh the pros and cons of inviting them. In other words, will it create a ton of hard feelings and drama if you don’t invite them? If so, you may want to extend an invite just to keep the peace. also, if you have not seen these people in years, they may decline to go anyway.

Does your dad talk to them?
Are your parents pay for all/any of the wedding?

There is “family” I didn’t invite because I don’t talk to them, ever. My dads brothers family (my uncle passed a few years ago) wasn’t invited. They live out of state we haven’t kept in contact since my uncle passed. But my dad did request that I invite 4 people (3 of which came) because HE keeps in contact with them. My parents paid for half the wedding. To keep the peace they got an invite 🤷‍♀️ Yes you should invite who you want, but if others are contributing they should get some say. Also, this is not only a celebration for you but also for your families. I didn’t realize how happy and excited my parents would be at my wedding. They wanted to celebrate with the ones they care about too.

I decided to invite all of my extended family even though I don’t have a relationship with most. This is only out of curtesy since my mom keeps in touch with the family. I live further so I might see them 1x every 2-3yrs for Christmas. I’m invited to extended family’s weddings even though there’s no relationship, I find that this is the only time we get together (besides funerals and the occasional Xmas celebration ) and we have a great time catching up and reminiscing about the past. I don’t expect everyone to show up which is fine and only invite those I want at my wedding. There are two particular family members who I really don’t want at my wedding so they are not getting an invite. It’s your wedding, you decide who should attend

We didn’t. Which I found weird aha. My husband has an uncle who is literally on the family phone plan but yet they didn’t want to invite him cause they (His parents) didn’t like him... weird aha

I had room in my guest list so I invited family I hadn’t seen in several years. Sometimes life is just complicated and busy but I was happy to have them celebrate with me.

My FW and I made a pact, around the time that we will be sending invites we will have been together for 2 years, if the people on the guest list haven't seen us or reached out to us then we are not inviting them. To me if they aren't there to support and love us through out our entire journey then they don't have a space at our wedding. (I know it is a two way street and we are making sure to try and reach out to family and such as well)

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I totally agree. You don't HAVE to invite anyone, but keep in mind that this could lead to hurt feelings and damage your relationship going forward. Of course, if you don't have a relationship to begin with maybe it won't matter.

No. You do not have to invite anyone you do not want to invite. Being family does not guarantee you an invite.

We had some people that we had to invite out of obligation (FH step dad's parents), but we have no relationship with them and they declined as we assumed. We have other family members that aren't invited but because there were huge falling outs with the families. I think it's a case by case on what the family dynamic is like and if you know if they'll come or decline

When my parents were going to pay for the wedding, I gave them full guest list control as the hosts. Now that I'm paying, I'm inviting exactly who I want and nobody else.

My personal opinion is it depends on who’s paying. If you are paying for your wedding no one but you and your fiancé get a say on who’s invited. If your/his parents are paying, then they get a say. My parents are paying for our wedding. I don’t like my uncles (nothing bad just don’t like them lol) but because my parents are paying I can’t tell my mom no when she told me she wanted them invited.

You definitely don't have to. It's a balance of what you want that day and how much drama you want to deal with ahead of time. We're drawing the line at blood family and all our friends, but cutting out non-blood family friends that our parents are close to, but we aren't. It'll cause some issues, but it's what we're comfortable with.