Making the Guest List for Your Wedding: A How-To Guide in 5 Easy Steps
As soon as you choose a date, the brainstorming for your wedding can begin - and the first place that most couples choose to begin is with the guest list. Once your guest list is in place, you can start sending out save the date magnets, choose an appropriately sized venue and start picking color schemes, flower arrangements, seating charts and more! But first you have to decide who to invite - and who not to invite. Here's a guide on how to make the guest list for your wedding in five easy steps, so you can order those custom wedding magnets and ask your loved ones to save the date:
1. Ask yourself (and your partner) whose presence you absolutely require on your big day. This list will probably be relatively short, even if you're planning on a huge wedding. Include immediate family and best friends - anyone who will be in the wedding party. If anyone has been a major influence in either of your lives or has acted like a parent or long-term mentor, you'll want to include them. Also, if the two of you were introduced by friends, you'll probably want to make sure they are included as well!
2. Ask yourself (and your partner) who will most appreciate being included on your guest list. Your Great Aunt Millie may not be a close, personal confidant, but elderly relatives will be be delighted to see you tie the knot, and should be given a special spot on your guest list accordingly. If you have friends who are hopeless romantics or have always believed in you two as a couple - even if they're not necessarily your closest friends - consider adding them to your list over, say, your fiance's last roommate, who claims to hate weddings - and who never hangs out with the two of you anyway!
Send a Save the Date to everyone whose
presence would be missed at your wedding.
3. Make the list as long as possible - include everyone you would even consider inviting. This process could take a few days. Comb through all of your contacts, including the numbers in your phone, your email address book, and even your Facebook friends to make sure you're not forgetting anyone you would hate to overlook. At this point, you're just trying to get all of the names down on paper so you can see what you're working with - don't worry about how long (or short) the list may be just yet.
4. Trim the fat - and cut out those you're inviting out of a sense of obligation. It's a nice gesture, but that coworker who you rarely say more than "good morning" to will probably not attend anyway - and you don't want to feel like you're including someone simply because you're obliged to do so. Save room on your list for people who will truly relish sharing your special day with you!
5. Keep yourself open to "left-field" choices. Even if you haven't seen your best friend from childhood in years, but it would mean a lot to you if they could attend, go ahead and send a save the date magnet! Your guest list doesn't have to be made up entirely of "safe" choices. Leave room on your list for a few people who mean a lot to you, even if they haven't always been a part of your life.
