Guest list too big

Just do closest family and friend. That should knock it down a lot.

One thing I asked myself in planning was "would I take this person to a nice dinner?" If the answer is NO, then why are you inviting them to your wedding?

Decide on guidelines with your FH and start cutting. Examples: coworkers, friends you haven't spoken to in over 6 months, cousins, etc.

You have 3 months... can you accommodate 225ppl now?

- Cut out kids

-extra friends

-Anyone you haven't seen in over 1 year

-Anyone you don't text/call on a regular basis

-Anyone you only know through a mutual/social circle but would never go out of your way to hang out with JUST them

MrsToBe nailed it. We did exactly what she suggested and got our list from 275 to 75.

If your parents are helping with the wedding, they will have a say in the guest list. You will have to set a maximum for each set of parents to invite and tell them to decide who to cut from their lists. Your guest list should have been established already with only a couple months left until your wedding. You will have to make cuts to yours as well. Sit down with your FH and decide who you must have at your wedding and who you can cut.

PPs have given great suggestions. Are either of your families trying to push you into inviting all of the extra people? If you are paying for your wedding yourself, no one outside of you and FH truly have a say in who gets an invitation. Even those of us with very large families have made cuts, even when they are tough decisions.

Grandparents, parents, siblings w/SO & kids, godparents.

Then aunts & uncles w/SO.

If you still have $$$ and space, first cousins w/SO, BFFs, then other friends.

Skip co-workers, especially if you don't socialize with them outside of work.

Skip acquaintances, FB friends, etc.

Our wedding was originally next September but my FH lost his grandfather last month and moved our date to this August because he wants his Grandmother there. So I originally had over a year to cut the list and plan but now only have less than 3 months. Our parents are helping to pay for the wedding, which is amazing but my parents are kinda strapped seeing as my stepdad just returned to work after hip surgery. My family is 3 sided and kinda small but my FH family is huge. I have said a few times that I only wanted about 120-150 people total but that would be my FH family only.

He needs to do his part and cut people from his side too then if you won't be able to afford it otherwise. It doesn't necessarily have to be 50/50 in numbers, but it should be equitable in terms of relations. There's no way he has 120 family members that he communicates with regularly.

His dad is one of 12 children and they are all very close. Lunch every Sunday at the Grandpartents farm and out there multiple times a week. They are kinda pushing for all the family to be there but I'm not sure how to say no.

I agree with Rebecca. There is no way your FH has 120-150 family members that he sees regularly.

Weddings are about what you can afford to host, not inviting every family member you have ever met.

There are certain family members I won't be inviting because I haven't seen them in 5+ years. Family or not, we aren't close.

I hope you didn't do STDs... It gets a lot harder to cut a guest list when you've already told people to be expecting an invite.

Yep, that's not an easy situation. I feel you - my mom is one of 15 so I have over 40 first cousins on that side alone.

What does he want to do? If he really wants his extended family to be there, do you have the option to change it to a non-mealtime to save money? If the two of you sit down and decide you can't afford to have his entire family there, he should be the one to communicate that to his parents.

Thank you all for the advice! I think what we are going to do is invite some to just the reception to save on cost.

No no no, don't invite just to the reception. That's rude and doesn't save on cost anyway since the reception is the bulk of the wedding cost.

There is pretty much no cost associated with inviting people to the ceremony, so inviting some to just the reception is silly (not to mention rude).

I narrowed my list by cutting anyone who I had not seen in the past year. Unfortunately, my FH did not do the same and we invited 286 people.

We are providing all the food and drink ourselves (with our parents help) but Im worried about the cost. Our Aunts are bringing dishes and so are our parents and us included. We are doing a pig roast so it will feed a lot but I'm such a worry wart about money that I'm freaking out.