Easy Ways to Trim The Guest List

Asking the groom to come up with a guest list for their side
of the family is a pipe dream. Men just don’t get it. They think people will
automatically know when they are getting married and show up bright eyed and
bushy tailed for the big day. I know my husband could not have cared less about
sending out invitations for our wedding. Me, on the other hand, I had a spreadsheet
set up that would be the envy of most brides. Luckily grooms have mothers who will do their dirty work for them. Lucky guys!

After finally getting my preliminary guest list in order I knew I was going to have to cut a lot of people out. It wasn’t that I didn’t want them there; it’s just that the church would not facilitate that many people. So, how do you cut your wedding list down? Especially when you have a big family? Here is what we did.

Start off by trimming down the non family guests. Does your best friend from third grade really need to be invited? If you haven’t talked to them in more than a couple of years leave them off the
list.

Cut down on the number of coworkers you invite. This can be tricky depending on
your position. If you have a lot of friends at work post one invite for
everyone in the office. Chances are only a few will come to the wedding but it’s better to invite them all than chance leaving someone out.

You don’t have to invite every member of your extended family. I come from a huge
family where both of my grandparents have at least 6 brothers and sisters. Most
of them are local but about one third live out of state. They haven’t seen me
since I was a baby so they probably wouldn’t come even if they were invited. You can send them an invite but don’t be surprised if they don’t show up.

4.Limit children. This is another tricky one. You don’t want to make someone mad by saying they can’t bring their children but at the same time you don’t want a couple of three year olds screaming through the ceremony. A good way to let your guests know you don’t want kids at the ceremony is to address the invite to Mr. and Mrs. John Doe and not to Mr. and Mrs. John Doe and family.

You still might end up inviting more than you originally intended but that’s okay. Figure that anywhere from ¼ to ½ of the people you invite won’t show up. If they do, be ready with extra chairs and always order more food than you think you will need.