How To Narrow Down Your Guest List

Happy Tuesday everyone! So many aspects of your wedding focus on the guest count and that number quickly grows! We know this all too well. While in an ideal world, every person you know would be invited, that simply is not the reality. Most people are understanding and accepting of this. So today we will discuss how we assist couples with narrowing down their guest lists and why they may need to do so!

You might be thinking that you do not know (or like) that many people so the guest list is not something you are worried about. Well, here is how couples end up in the situation were they need to cut guests.

Photograph Courtesy Courtney Rutledge Photography

• Venue Occupancy

  • We always recommend you choose a venue you absolutely love. Sometimes these venues are limited on the occupancy or you choose one with a rough number in mind. Once you sit down to write out the actual guest list, that number is much bigger than you thought. Not everyone on your original guest list can make the invite list.

• Cost

  • Another aspect that limits guest count is cost. Each person costs a certain amount of money to be in attendance. Adhering to a budget easily comes down to guest count.

• Wedding Vision

  • To bring your wedding vision to life, for example a destination wedding, you may need to keep your guest count to a minimum.

Photograph by Lindsey Yeagley Photography

Keeping these in mind in the early stages of planning can be helpful for setting expectations for yourselves and your loved ones.

Now to the good stuff, how do we recommend couples cut guests from their wedding?

We tell couples as they make the guest list to group people into categories, such as A, B, and C. Your “A” team are the people who absolutely must be there (i.e. parents, siblings, immediate family, and best friends). These are also the people who will be there regardless of if you get married on a Tuesday or on another planet! Grouping people like this helps you keep in mind the priority of having them there.

Something to keep in mind is that every wedding is different. You can not compare a 250-person wedding to a micro wedding. Please do not feel you have to invite people because they invited you to their wedding. Especially if you are no longer close with people, you do not need to be obligated to invite them to your wedding.

Another way we recommend cutting from the guest list is making it adults only. Between the nieces and nephews, cousins, and your friends’ kids the number can quickly add up. Plus this gives the adults a night out!

Be strategic with plus ones! If most of your friend group is single at this point, they do not all need plus ones. They will have each other. Couples need to be treated as a unit, but keeping the plus ones to a minimum is a good way to limit the guest list.

Keep in mind, this is your wedding. Everyone is going to have an opinion, but doing what is needed to make your dream wedding a reality is important!

One last thought, the quality of people you have celebrating with you on your special day long outweighs the quantity!