WHO SHOULD I INVITE TO MY WEDDING?

WEDDING PLANNING HELP SERIES 3

We have created a series of blogs that will help with your planning if you are new to your wedding journey. So do come and delve in….

So far in this series you have

· How to build your wedding budget - series 1

· How to spend your wedding budget - series 2

Now we are going to cover how to compile your guest list.

CHOOSING YOUR GUEST LIST

Assuming you read the last post on how to spend your wedding budget you should now be in a position to choose your guest list.

Now many will say go and pick your venue, but from a personal point it has to be the guest list next.

As a planner I couldn’t possibly find you your perfect venue if I don’t know how many you want it to cater for. It is very easy to fall in love with a venue and find that it cannot hold all your loved ones that you hoped would be there on your day.

Selecting the right guests for your wedding is a crucial part of your big day.

So it is true to say that once you have a headcount then that will help you decide on the perfect venue for your wedding.

You do have to consider here that the more guests you have, the more cost. Guests take largest amount of your budget, so don’t be pressured into inviting people that you don’t want at your wedding day. It is all down to you and your partner to decide who comes (if you are fully paying for it), also it could be the case that not everyone you invite are able to come! Back to asking any financial contributors if they want guests to attend that would not be on your list.

Everyone, despite all different sizes of family, will have a hard core list of family and friends that you just would not even consider getting married without having them at your wedding day. These are you absolute MUST HAVES. So is there little point finding a lovely hidden gem of a venue in London that only seats 100 people, when you have a 110. That little insignificant 10 people, that one more round table of 10 that WILL JUST NOT FIT in the room, so you see how important that is. That is not to say that all your 110 can make your date, but if you can’t even invite them, you will never know.

Selecting the right guests for your wedding is a crucial part of your big day. Once you have a solid number down then that will help you decide on the perfect venue for your wedding.

Be Selective with Your Guest List

The cost per head will take a large amount of your budget, also it’s your wedding so don’t feel guilty about not inviting everyone. It's all down to you and your partner to decide who comes, also it could be the case that not everyone you invite are able to come!

Once you have your absolute must haves, you have your immediate family and your besties, the friends that are the family that we get to choose in life. You can now hunt for your venue that has this guest count as a minimum number.

However, you may have others that you may like to invite, but you won’t necessarily let it dictate your venue choice, but you may like to invite them to the evening. So it is time to pin down your evening invite list, if you feel you have the budget, as they still come at a cost.

If all of a sudden you are on 175. How can you cut this down.

• Do you invite a plus one or not?

• Kids of no kids?

• Colleagues from work?

• Extended family?

• Are your financial contributors expecting their friends to come?

I did a blog that delves way more into this that you can go and look at before making those all-important guest count decisions here

If you have been following this series, you will now know what your budget is, how to spend it and now how many guests you have to come to the day/evening and you are now ready to book your venue. Go to my next blog on what questions to ask your venue.