Who should I invite to my wedding?
How do I tell someone they’re not invited?
Once you’ve calmed down from the initial stress, you will realise that everyone has an opinion on how you should plan YOUR wedding! It’s important to remember it’s just that, YOUR wedding! so do what makes you and your partner happy!
Want to be married Under a tree with your three best friends and an acoustic guitar player? DO IT !!
What a huge wedding with 500 people ? DO IT !!
Just make sure what ever you decide its what you both want for your wedding day 🙂
The Five Year Rule
This is my best bit of advice for guest list planning. It can be broken down into two simple steps.
1) Imagine your dream wedding – who is there ? Friends? Family? Co-Workers?
2) Now focus on each person ? Who will you still speak to in 5 years time? Who have you even spoke to since the engagement!
Don’t feel like you have to invite people just because you don’t want to upset anyone. This day is all about you, its okay to be selfish!
It’s the worst thing to look back at your wedding album and hardly recognise anyone. Plus each person you invite is another mouth to feed, favour to buy and this all takes money out of your budget!
Now The List!
Now you know who will be there in five years time and what size wedding you want, write everyone down! What are you doing about plus ones? What about children? If you have children you may want to have a dedicated child’s area with activities or entertainment…or alternatively you may want a kids free/night off for all at the wedding! These are all things you need to decide and make sure you remember to include on your invites =)
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Finalise The List
This is the step you can only do once you know your budget. This is simply how much is your catering per head and how much is your alcohol cost per head (if you’re choosing to have an open bar, if not this might just include the toast bubbly). Write everyone down on your Wedding guest list to keep track of them… don’t forget to put this in your wedding binder!
Have a Few Back Ups
This sounds mean but there are always going to be people that can’t make it, don’t want to travel that far or already have a holiday booked. This is when you need a few back ups. Friends or family that you would like to invite but budget doesn’t allow it.
Alternatively if you have invited everyone you want there DON’T feel you have to invite someone extra to fill the gap. Hopefully they will have let you know when your save the dates went out and you have plenty of time to let catering know the final numbers.
My Wedding Planner 