When you think about starting wedding planning, all of the fun things come to mind. You get excited to check out the venue, pick out floral arrangements, find your perfect wedding gown. But we’re going to go out on a limb and say that working on the guest list isn’t high up there. It can be challenging, it’s tedious and requires a lot of time from the start all the way to the wedding day. We think it should be the very first thing you do though.
Why the Guest List
But seriously, why would you want to start your whole wedding planning process by working on figuring out which family and friends will make the cut? Because it will decide absolutely everything. By doing the hard work first, you can be more prepared for every other decision you’re going to have to make for your wedding day.
Having a good idea of your numbers will help when you decide your venue first off. You don’t want to have not enough space or too much. Either will be a problem. Your invitations of course since you have to have the number to be printed and mailed. The guest list also determines how many tables you’ll have, which will change how many centerpieces you will need. You can see how this trickles out throughout the event.
Because of this, keep in mind that the guest count can drastically change your budget! If you have a specific budget in mind, be prepared to cut the count to fit the budget.
How Do You Decide
This is the big question, right? Guests lists have been the point of contention for many a wedding. There are a lot of factors, including who is paying for the event. You could choose a venue first and then base the count off of that, but we would not recommend this. It pigeon-holes you before you’ve even begun.
Start off by just writing out whoever comes to mind that you can’t imagine your day without. It could surprise you! Either by how many or by how few. This goes for your soon-to-be spouse as well. There will be cross over but there could be a few that aren’t. Then a conversation with the families are in order. Same thing, just write down anyone who comes to mind that they imagine being there. After you have a full and complete list, then you can count it up. If the count feels too high, then you can go back through and edit. Or you can leave it if it feels comfortable and matches the budget.