Here are some helpful tools to help you curate your guest list.
Who Gets to Invite Guests to My Wedding?
Know that whoever is contributing to the wedding financially should be able to invite some guests. So if you and your parents are paying for your wedding it is customary to split the guest count amongst yourselves. However, if you are paying for the wedding on your own it is up to you whether you would like to allow your family to invite guests and how many they are allowed to or simply invite family only to your wedding.
Who Should I Invite to My Wedding?
Typically a guest list is comprised these categories calling
Your families
Your friends
Your colleagues
Remember, this is your wedding and you do get to have the final say on who will be invited.
Should I Invite This Person to My Wedding?
I love this graphic breakfast traffic from brideandbreakfast.ph which will help you determine whether or not you should invite a person to your wedding. some basic things to help you consider whether you should invite a person or not are:
Do you consider them a friend,?
If they are friends do you feel they are really truly for you? Do they have their best your best interest in mind?
Are they family?
If so, are you close with them?
How much interaction have you had with them in the past years?
Will inviting this person make our wedding more fun?
Can you afford to invite this guest to your wedding?
Is there space for this person at my wedding?
There are certainly times when parents feel more strongly about inviting a guest then you do and so long as there would not be any emotional harm to having a guest at your wedding that is okay.
Lastly, remember that every venue has a max guest capacity so it is important to keep your invited guest list to within the contracted guest capacity for your venue. The general rule of thumb when inviting guests is that anywhere from 60 to 80% of the total guess count will attend your wedding. If you are wanting to have a smaller wedding but wanted to invite a lot of people to be kind, you should anticipate the majority of them will be able to attend.
What should you what details should you gather about your guests when curating your guest list?
When you are putting together your guest spreadsheet, you will want to have their full names. They're mailing address, email, and their phone number. If they live out of the country make sure you have the proper zip code, too. Putting together your guest list can be a hefty task and I highly recommend dedicating some #weddingwednesdays for crafting your guest list. I have put together a free wedding guest list spreadsheet for you. Simply click on the button below to access yours. if the thought of gathering all of your guests contact information is overwhelming to you, consider asking your family to help you with this task. specifically, if each of your parents will be inviting guests, simply share the spreadsheet with them and ask them to fill in their own guests contact information.
Should I have an A-list, B-list, C-list?
Your A list will be the guests that will be invited to your wedding no matter what. Most often a B list is comprised of the guess that you would like to invite but the venue doesn’t have capacity for them to attend. You would move to the B list after your A list guests have started rsvp'ing and you are receiving some No’s. Your B-list would not receive a save-the-date but would receive an invitation in a timely manner so that they can have ample time to RSVP for your wedding. Most couples do not have a C list, but if you do, your C list would be invited after your be list what's gone through and you realized you have room to invite the people on your see list.
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