Okay Dotties let’s talk guest lists.
They’re controversial, they cause tears, they cause stress and they’re painful. Do you invite that aunt? Do you leave off the school friend? What about partners?
My mother has a saying (you see, we talk about weddings quite a bit, being a wedding blogger and all) about inviting people who will be a part of your future, to your wedding day. But I want to know, how did you deal with it? Did you cap your guest numbers? Did you give an “allowance” to both sets of families? Did you cut off people past a certain friendship level? How the heck did you sort out your guest list?
We’re fortunate that our venue allows only 80 guests, so we have that as our can’t-argue-with/non-negotiable reason.
However:
* We’re not inviting one of my partner’s uncles (although inviting rest of family). This is because when his uncle married last year, we weren’t invited. Fair’s fair!
* No children. The only exceptions to this are my niece & nephew who are in the bridal party. Babies still feeding are of course exempt. We’ve not stated this anywhere on the invite, however the RSVP card will tell us if people decide Little Timmy, although not addressed, should be brought along. We’ll take it from there.
* Although we don’t want to, we’re inviting a couple whose wedding we went to nearly 5 years ago & who we don’t keep in touch with. This is solely to keep our sanity with a mutal friend, who took it upon herself to cause grief when another friend didn’t invite these people to her wedding last year…phew! We hope they’ll have something else on that day, or realise it’s a pity invite & have the nous to decline.
My parents generously contributed towards the wedding, so we’ve included their chosen guests. My partner’s dad has also kindly given us money, but doesn’t want to invite any of his friends & my partner’s mum & stepdad haven’t given us anything so they don’t get a say in it! Plus, his mum has a large family & many of them will be invited.