Do you know who you are going to invite to your wedding?
That is a good question. Technically it is your wedding and you should be able to include, or exclude anyone you want, right? Well yes, technically, but weddings are like big social parties and you are the host. Many people want invitations and many people in your lives fall under the category of mandatory invitations. Usually immediate family members are invited. If you invite the majority of one group, like aunts and uncles, you really should invite them all.
Your wedding is your big day, and you really should be as happy as possible on that day, do not forget that. However, remember that you want to keep the peace leading up to your wedding and after the occasion is over. This is why we invite people we might not want to spend time with usually; keeping the peace within a family is important especially when you are starting a new life with the one you love.
But how do you decide who to invite? How do you narrow down your choices? Here are some ideas:
Start by making a list. Write down a huge list of everyone you could possibly invite. This way you will have a number of maximum guests. Do not forget to include everyone your fiancé could invite! This massive list should include everyone either of you may want to invite, or who may want an invitation. Don't worry if the list is way too long, you are going to cut the list down to who you absolutely want to invite and who you need to invite.
You may need help creating these lists. Make sure to get help from your fiancé and both of the families. Your fiancé will have to answer the same questions and list everyone who may be invited. He should also break them into groups. Your families may have requests on people to invite, friends of the family or business associates. Take everything into consideration in order to know who to invite.
Now that you know everyone you could possibly invite break your list into groups. Groups can be dividing into sections like cousins, second cousins, aunt and uncles, friends of the family, colleagues, etc. Now that you have all your lists separated decide if there are any groups you want to exclude completely. Do you want to exclude all second cousins or all children from your wedding? Maybe you only want to invite children over a certain age or children in the wedding party. Once you look at all the possible guests in list form it is easier to see who you want there and who doesn't really warrant an invitation.
The colleague question. Decide whether or not you are inviting colleagues. If so, how many? Are you inviting many or all or just a few which you are especially close to? This is something that you may want to decide soon. When your engagement is announced people may wonder whether or not they are invited. If you decide against it you can certainly explain that you can only afford so many guests and family has first priority.
If your list is still too big think of other ways to cut it. Analyze the people left on the list. Are there people who you barely talk to? How about people who you may have once been close to but now you barely talk to them. Sure, maybe once you thought they would see you getting married, but that was years ago. Maybe these are the people you should be cutting from the list.
Pam Kazmierczak is the owner of Wedding Planning 101, a website dedicated to assisting engaged couples with all their wedding planning needs. Wedding Planning can seem difficult or daunting but it does not need to be with this free resource of information at your disposal.
