Wedding Guest List Help- Tips to Trim

Invite in circles. Don't invite children. Keep the bridal party to a minimum. Don't invite anyone you haven't seen in the last year.

We had to trim our list too! I think it just takes talking to your family and your FH about who you *really* care about being there. When it comes to wedding stuff, somebody will always be disappointed no matter what you do, so just do what's best for you two! If somebody asks why they aren't invited, you can say something like "due to budget and venue restraints, we sadly had to limit our guest list, but we would love to celebrate with you after" or something like that!

My cousin got married at Disney a few summers ago and it was lovely! I think she was in the Wedding Pavilion for the ceremony (the one where you can see the castle out the window behind the alter) and then maybe the Ariel Room at the Beach Club? Her pics were beautiful, the venue was gorgeous and everything was coordinated and managed impeccably. The food was yummy, too!

I'm not sure not inviting children makes sense for a place so heavily geared toward kids. I know that if I were a parent, I wouldn't be jazzed about a Disney wedding I couldn't bring my kids to.

Definitely invite in circles, though.

And keep in mind, many of your guests may not be able to manage such a Disney destination wedding, so your guest list might stay smaller than you think. Disney World can be a big ask, since it can get expensive. It can be at least a two-night stay, plus airfare and all that jazz.

It was fun, but the costs added up quickly as a guest. We stayed on Disney properties (my FH and I picked the cheap Allstar Resort, which has a motel-ish vibe and level of comfort), and took the Mickey Express from the airport (free). We didn't have a car, so we relied on free Disney transport to get to the parks, plus a shuttle for the wedding. Since we didn't have a car, we were kind of stuck eating on the properties and that's not cheap either, even in the 'cafeteria' of the Allstar.

I can't imagine any guests will want to travel all that way and not do the parks, too. I had a very badly broken leg when my cousin got married, and even stuck in a wheelchair, I toughed it out to go to the parks. My FH toughed it out the most, though, by pushing me around two parks.

Just because someone enjoys Disney doesn't mean they want children running around their wedding.

DH and I both have large families and one rule that helped us was if we only see someone at other weddings or funerals, they were not invited. Someone being "family" did not automatically grant them an invitation. That also went for old friends, if we had not seen or spoken to them much in a year's time then it was a no. And I think we worry ourselves that someone will be offended when in reality they won't be. One thing I had to keep reminding myself was that we had to draw the line somewhere and there was always going to be someone left on the other side of it.

Cut kids from the list. That saved us from paying for 30 additional heads.

Invite those that you actually see in social settings. Don't worry about that one friend of a friend. If we haven't seen or spoken to someone in the last year then they weren't on the guest list.

Cut plus ones for anyone outside of the bridal party. Does your cousin have a new boyfriend every 6 months? Maybe don't give her a plus one.

Don't give in to people's requests! Politely put your foot down, "due to budget/space/etc this is the guest list".

This is a good idea to go by!

Our wedding guest list kept creeping up each time we worked on it. Finally, I told my FH that we are going to A list and B list guests. A list guests will get the save the date and invitation. Should an A list respond that they are not coming a B list would fill the spot and get an invitation. This is helping us keep control on the total number of people we are having because it is expensive to keep adding people. Something my future MIL said to me when I was worrying about not adding some people was if I would take them to dinner. She said to me, "Would you take them to dinner? Would you call them up and ask them out to dinner one night and be willing to pay what you are for the cost per person at the reception? Because essentially that is what you are doing, you're taking them out to dinner." That thought has actually helped us trim guests (or move them to the B list) that maybe we thought we needed, but aren't as close to as we thought.

I like this idea, too.

So how far out did you send invitations and Save The Dates? Keep in mind that this is a Disney wedding and pretty much a destination for everybody so if I did go with the “B List” idea and actually began to utilize it, I feel like I would need to coordinate it as such so that people didn’t get that impression.

We decided to not invite kids to ours (actually, anyone under 21) and to not include plus ones by the rule "no ring no bring" (although slightly modified because we did decide to include people who are living with a significant other).

My cousin did an A and B list, she sent her A list invitations out about 12-16 weeks before the wedding and then began to send the B list ones out when the A list no RSVPs came in. This way the B list ones went out around 8 weeks which is traditional for a wedding. Don't know if you'd need to bump this up a few weeks on both lists though since it's destination?

My thoughts exactly. I was wondering if we sent invitations out to the “A-List” around the 4-6 mark, but had RSVPs due about 3 months prior? I would have to have different RSVP dates printed, but it may help with things.