Guest list

Maybe you can invite only those family members who you are very close with? Explain to extended family that you're trying to keep it small and don't mean to hurt their feelings. Good luck!

Well you can stick with no plus ones but that may bother people that are in relationships. Some people I know refuse to attend events without their significant others. I would say just do close friends and family if you do not want a lot of people. Just have an intimate wedding and if people say anything just say due to budget we wanted to keep it very small.

If I haven't seen someone in a year or haven't talked to them, I wouldn't invite that person - family or not

View Quoted Comment I agree with the plus one comment.


I’d start with immediate family and close friends. Then if room, expand your guest list to more friends and/or aunts and uncles. Then stop there or add cousins. Easier to work in circles from inside out in terms of closeness.

If you haven't already I guess you can cut out coworkers. Or cut out people you haven't spoken to within a year or two.

If you and FH don't have the mindset of "my day will be a little less great if this person isn't there" about someone, don't invite them. My FMIL took the list and went a little crazy. To the point that, when we were going through the STD's and checking names/putting postage on them, we came across multiple names that we were like "who is this?" We are praying that are turnout is 200 or less. We invited 248 people. I really wish we could have gotten closer to 220. Don't let other people tell you who you need to invite. It's none of their business.

FH and I made a rule that if we both did not know the person then we would not invite them. The only exception is his boss but that’s understandable. We both figured that we have been together for 4 years - We’ve met all the important people in one another’s life. This probably cut 20-30 people off our list!

View Quoted Comment That’s my biggest problem right now .. our max was 200 at first but then when we actually sat down with our venue and mapped out the pricing for that it was too much especially since we plan on also purchasing our first home. So we cut it down to around 150 . But of course our parents are like “buttttt” so hard we did was give the venue our list and anyone who wants to add some one will need to pay for them . (Which I’m sure won’t happen at the end lol) .

View Quoted Comment Yup that’s our last saving grace . Our wedding is next year so whoever we don’t end up speaking to from now until closer to our date , there goes our answer 🤷🏽‍♀️

View Quoted Comment Agreed 10000%

View Quoted Comment

Ugh that's the worst! I don't know about you, but my FH's family comes from a group that does more lowkey events in community centers with self catered food and unlimited invitations because they aren't paying an insane amount on a per person basis. While that's completely fine and I am not bashing that in any way, that isn't what I wanted for my day and each person added to our list is tacking on $50 to our bill. It all adds up! People are quick to pile it on when they aren't the ones paying for it. Stand your ground