Guest count guilt

I would just say that your guest list and venue limitations did not allow for everyone you would have liked to be invited. You could offer to celebrate with them afterwards. I haven't personally had anyone say that to me but I still have plenty of time to get a comment or two. I would hope none of your friends are sarcastic about not being invited, but talking about guest list limits is a good response to anything you may get.

“We would love to be able to invite everyone. Unfortunately budget and/or space constraints don’t allow that. We’d love to celebrate over dinner/drinks/coffee after the wedding.”

Yes! We have a very large community here and many of the people in it feel a bit invested in us since they watched us go from good friends to a couple and now to getting married. Some we wouldn't invite anyway, but others, especially some that have been there for me through a lot of personal ups and downs hurt to have to explain we just couldn't add any more. We found a venue that only allows 50 so we have been falling back on that a lot. We also decided that if people still wanted to celebrate we would have a separate celebration at a friend's bar and invite everyone. We want to make it a bit special so we actually bought garters to toss since we won't be doing that at the wedding. We also had conversations with people at work. I chose not to invite anyone and she only invited 2 people that she has know more than 30 years. We made sure everyone knew how much they mean to us, but budget, space, and family first made a lot of the decisions for us.

It is normal to feel guilty, but unless a money fairy magically appears in your living room between now and your wedding date, you have to do what is best for you and your FS.

Honestly, it won't be as hard as you think. "We wish we could invite you, but we're having to keep it really small for budgetary reasons" is as much as you need to say.

Of course, if you're having 300 people there, it may be an issue.

I feel the same way. I am a teacher sonInhave several coworkers who I interact with on a daily basis. I definitely couldn't invite the entire school. I'm sure some will understand, but I had to draw the line somewhere.

People will understand and if they don't that is on them. Weddings are expensive!

I'm dealing with this too. My guest list is 25 people max. And people have come up to me and asked me where their invitation was. It was really awkward but all I could do was say we can only accommodate x amount

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No one has said anything yet, but I am two months away so I know people will start to realize that theres not invitation for them I hope no one hates me after LOL

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I hate awkward and I know I will have a few people bring it up, personally I would never ask someone "why didnt you invite me" but some people just arent like me

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If they are really your fiend then they won't hate you! I would just stick to what the previous posters have said and make a budget/venue restraint and tell them that you would have loved for them to come if you could have accommodated them. Good luck though!

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I have a guest count of 100 and its mostly family but I have a small friend list and hopefully they dont feel offended

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I consider myself a social butterfly so I talk to sooo many and and so many people have asked me about my wedding and knowing they wont be invited makes me feel horrible to even talk about the wedding

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While there are a few that it sucked to have to cut, it hasn't been as hard as I thought. And since we're adding an extra celebration with everyone it helps alleviate that guilt. Maybe that could work for you.

I am just a little more blunt and honest when this happens due to the fact that we are paying for 95% of the wedding day ourselves. we limited our guest list to 80 and those are all people we cant imagine having the day without. we already have a lot of people who we arent inviting asking when they're going to receive an invitation. most people understand but if we invited everyone we know we could easily be anywhere between 150 and 200 guests. it sucks but unless they want to contribute then they have to understand.

You could let know that you wish that you could have invited them but you had a budget

You let your guests know that you wished that could have been invited but you were on a budget. Have you thought about having a small gathering after your wedding and have a big party. That way they can feel included. Or you can have a b list of guests because if you have someone who cannot attend from your a list you can invite people from your b list to the wedding