Photo Credit: Matt Davis Photography

Cutting a Wedding Guest List: 5 Tips

Cutting a wedding guest list can be one of the hardest parts of initially planning a wedding. You and your fiancé will probably sit down to create your wedding guest list and have a lot more guests written down than you budgeted for. So how do you get from 150 guests to 100 on your guest list? We have a few tried and true ideas for you.

Don’t invite friends of friends.

If you’re considering inviting someone to your wedding, but only see them at events with mutual friends, consider removing them for your guest list. These types of friends don’t necessarily warrant a wedding invitation,

Send out invitations in two rounds.

A great way in cutting a wedding guest list is to send out invitations in two rounds. Round 1 being your closest family and friends, and round 2 being guests you are ok with not attending your wedding. If you receive enough declines from round 1 guests, start sending out invitations to guests on  your round 2 list. These could be an extended family member, colleague or allowing guests to bring a plus one to your wedding.

Nix plus ones.

I’m sure your guests would love to bring a plus one to your wedding, but sometimes this isn’t feasible when cutting a wedding guest list. Make rules about plus ones and stick to them. One option is to only allow guests to bring a plus one who are married, living together or engaged. Another option would be to not allow anyone who is single to bring a guest. Whatever rules you decide, just stick to them.

No children allowed.

Simply put, only invite adults to your wedding. Unless of course it’s a child partaking in your wedding party, such as a flower girl or ring bearer, these children should always be invited to your wedding reception.

Reevaluate your friendships.

Cutting a wedding guest list can be difficult. That’s why you should reevaluate some of the friendships you have with guests on your wedding list. When looking at each name, askyourself “Will you be friends in 5 years?” or “Would we be friends if we didn’t work together?”. People that you don’t think you’ll keep in touch with for years to come can be removed from your guest list.

Photo Credit: Mary P Karnes

Wedding planning can be hard. We have more tried and true tips on our blog!