Tips on Conquering Your Wedding Guest List With Blogger Bride Erin

While I could think of a million things to blog about when it comes to wedding planning, one that really struck me so far has been the guest list. For some reason, keeping our guest list number down has been a serious struggle. And while a ton of people warned me about in-laws and parents, my fiancé Matt and I have had the most challenges with this aspect of planning. Why? Here’s my theory: Matt is the epitome of a social butterfly. I don’t know if it’s because he’s in real estate and his job is to literally be social, but he has a ton of people that he considers friends. I, on the other hand, am a pretty private person. I have a small, close-knit group of girlfriends that I’ve known for years and believe that when it comes to friends, it’s about quality over quantity. Naturally, this has caused some issues during the planning process – especially when trying to keep our guest number down.

Right now, we’re in the process of finalizing our invites, and lucky for us (and our marriage, haha), we were able to agree on a final number of guests. And while I do not consider myself a wedding expert in any way, shape, or form, I wanted to share some tips that worked for us when we were trying to keep our guest list number down.

Name your Numbers Before you even compile your guest list, sit down with both sets of parents and give them an allocated number of guests they can invite. This not only keeps potential arguments at bay, but it also saves you from having those awkward conversations.

No Kids? No Problem. If you follow my blog, you know I love kids – I literally spend all my free time with my nieces and nephews. That said, Matt and I decided that we want our wedding to be an adult only affair. One, I think children change the vibe and dynamic of a wedding, and two, I want my guests to have fun without having to chase their children around.

Evaluate your Friendships Like I said earlier, Matt has a ton of friends, so we really had to sit down and talk about the levels of these friendships and what each person meant to him. In the end, it boiled down to inviting only people we see and talk to on a regular basis.

Stand your Ground on Plus Ones This was a no-brainer for us: if we hadn’t met our friends’ significant others or they had only been dating them for a few months, we didn’t invite them. It may seem harsh, but we wanted this day to be shared only with people we know and love.

Know your Vision I don’t like huge parties in general, so we came up with 150 people as the perfect number of guests. To me, this meant our wedding day would be small enough where we’d know everyone, but big enough to still feel like a party. Thanks for letting me share my wedding tips with you all! I’ll be back next month with another wedding blog post, but in the meantime, be sure to follow me at @StyleByThePeople!