Creating your wedding guest list can seem like one of the hardest things to sort out before your wedding.
Especially during a pandemic! If you are not sure what to do, the process can look extremely complicated.
However, I like to keep things simple. Organising a wedding is mentally demanding, so let’s try and make your life less hard than it should be.
So who should you invite? And how should you establish the guest list? Follow these easy steps and you’ll be sorted in no time.
If money was endless
As a first step, I would recommend writing down all the names of the people you’d like to invite if your budget wasn’t a problem.
I know money is not endless (unless you’re Elon Musk!), but if you had all the money in the world, who would you invite? Let’s write down all the names coming from both partners on a piece of paper or in an Excel spreadsheet.
Once you have an approximate number for each one of you, write it down in your wedding planner workbook.
Find your VIPs
The Dream team, VIPs, A-list..call it as you wish! But you get the point.
Figure out which ones are the people you absolutely want to be present at your wedding. Those are the people that have to be there, no matter what.
Usually, this list includes both partners’ parents, siblings and best friends. You should of course include the plus-ones for each member of this list.
Work out the rest based on your budget and vision
Ok so now that you have a bunch of names and an approximate number, let’s figure out the rest.
By now you should know how much you can afford to spend on your wedding. The budget (and your vision) will determine how many people you can invite apart from your VIPs.
Ask yourself: what matters to me the most?
If you want to splurge on amazing food, booze and desserts for everyone, you’ll be able to invite fewer people.
If instead, you care more about having lots of friends rather than what they’ll be eating, you can go wild on the wedding guest list.
It all comes down to you, what you want, and how much everything will cost you. To keep track of everything, I have included a handy budget chart in your wedding planner workbook.
Consider what to do after a few “sorry I can’t make it”
Life is busy for everyone and I can guarantee there will be someone who won’t make it for some reason.
And that’s totally fine.
This means you can either invite some people that didn’t make it in the first draft. Otherwise, you could decide to keep the number low and go crazy on some awesome upgrades (I know you’ve been thinking about that chocolate fountain since you saw that post on Instagram!).
Either way, the choice is yours. That’s your wedding afterall!
This is my easy-peasy 4-steps process to create your wedding guest list.
Did you find it useful or do would you like to share extra tips with me? Let me know in the comments below!
