Guest List

View Quoted Comment

Agreed...it sure does.

Hey Tineshia ! First off beautiful name and congratulations! my Fiancé and I are in the same boat as of right now we have 275 guest that are just family and our set list is at 300 with friends. I posted something similar in my forum and had wonderful suggestions when it came to plus ones and things of that nature! What I can say was that in between those 275 was around maybe 330 of family members. We truly brought down the guest count when children were separately and weren't included in the budget for catering and also family members we were not close to, haven't seen in years, or for instance 3,4, etc... generation of family members in which we have never met. I recommend following some guide lines that are available. I found some on pinterest and they helped us so much! good luck!

Tough one! I come from a huge family too. Grandma has 17 brother and sisters with their children, grand & great grandchildren. Everyone is pretty much still living. If you're looking to go really small, only invite just your immediate family such as grandparents, parents, siblings. If you're open to about 20 people per side, maybe open it to your whole family and ask them if they're willing to travel for your wedding. You'll find, many folks will say they're coming and can't afford to travel or life gets in the way, especially with COVID. This may not be as hard as it seems. Are you paying for family to stay in a hotel?

I would invite immediate family, close friends, and close extended family to a destination wedding. I have a large family - list was up to 276. I decided on no kids except nieces/nephews. And no second cousins. Brought my list down to 202. This will be a local wedding though. I like the graphics others have attached.

I would start with the total number of guest you would like to have and go from there. Our wedding planner gave us a tip...for a smaller wedding if you hadn’t given that person a Christmas gift in the past 3 years then they shouldn’t be invited.


Guest list are hard. Good luck!

So I have the exact issue I'm one of 13 kids. yes 13. And so I knew that I needed to keep it to only immediate family. And since mine was out of the country that helped. But I will be having a huge reception party in NY for the ones I couldn't invite. (which is much cheaper than per person wedding)

I also come from a large family and agree this was tough.

We didn't invite ANY cousins (sorry guys!)- just aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings, and of course parents. Our wedding party includes friends. I invited about 10 people that are *technically* friends, but I've literally known them my entire life- so I counted them as family.

We also limited +1's. +1's were only provided to guests that were engaged, or married, at the time the invitations went out.

We did include kids (FH's request) but we could have easily reduced our guest list even further had we not included kids.

Agree only people you talk to or seen in last year or immediate family seems easiest way to explain how you are narrowing it so people don't become offended. or you can say local only and due to COVID online invites.

I dont have any friends to invite, so im only inviting immediate family... my kids , mom dad - step parents, brothers, sisters, ( if they have kids they can come to the ceremony only) grandparents. close aunts and uncles. ( like my mom and dads siblings. 5 cousins who grew up with me in the same household..... the groom on the other hand whats to invite everyone he grew up with he dont hang out with ( tho i know them all) and their momma Im trying to cut his list too lol

View Quoted Comment Thank you Monaija 😊

View Quoted Comment Thanks Courtney. We have both agreed on NO Kids at our wedding, but ours. I know that sounds selfish, but that’s how it’s going to be.

View Quoted Comment I understand lol. Everybody and their momma can’t come!

View Quoted Comment Danielle, sounds like a plan to me lol. Never considered online invites. Interesting. Thanks

View Quoted Comment Victoria, we both have agreed on no children. So that’s a plus!

View Quoted Comment I am considering this too


One of my friends got married in Vegas last year and they were only allowed 15 people in chapel so they had it online via video so everyone could attend.