5 Ways To Shrink Your Wedding Guest List

We totally get it: weddings can get expensive FAST. And that is only made worse when your guest list is full of people that you feel obligated to invite or people who aren't on the list assume they're invited, so you have to actually invite them. But no worries, we’re here to help! Here are our 5 steps to shrink your wedding guest list.

Look at your list and highlight the people who you're not sure actually need to be invited.

This will help you narrow down who to include and exclude for these next few steps.

Ask yourself these questions for each person you've highlighted:

Have you talked to this person in the past year? 

Has your fiancé ever met this person? 

Would this person invite you to their wedding?

If your guests have kids, you should specify on the invitation whether or not they are welcome at your wedding.

This is super important because kids can raise your headcount very quickly, and they also have to be kept occupied/entertained. If you would rather use those spots on your list for more friends and family, that’s totally okay! You just need to make sure and tell your guests that it is an adult-only event.

Another thing to consider when thinking about kids at your wedding is the venue. Is it kid-friendly? Is there visibility for parents to monitor their kids while enjoying your day as well? If not, it may be a good idea to leave the kids out of the wedding.

Plus Ones

Okay this is a tough one and needs to be decided on a case-to-case basis, but no worries, we have another trick to help you figure out if your cousin’s boyfriend really needs to be invited!

Have you met the S.O.? If you haven't met them, they will most likely not be offended that they're missing out on your day. Don’t feel obligated to provide a +1 for a stranger!

Are they married? If your guest is not married or seriously involved with their significant other, they probably don't need a +1

Are they in the wedding party? Typically everyone in the wedding party gets a +1

Are they your boss? All of the info that I have found says that you should always give your boss a +1, if only because they sign your paycheck

Okay are you looking at your list and it’s still way too big? Here’s our final tip to weed out the unnecessary invites. Family is a big part of your wedding day, but what if you have a big family that’s taking up 87% of your venue space? 

Don’t feel obligated to invite your entire family. Only invite those that your wedding would not be the same without. For example, your grandma should definitely get an invite, but your 5th cousin twice removed probably doesn’t. 

Here’s one last piece of advice: Remember that this is your day, at the end of the day you will be married to the love of your life. If you don’t want to invite someone, you shouldn't feel obligated to, this is one of the only days of your life that is all about you and you get to make all of the decisions for. So invite those who you want to be there, and let the rest go!

Leave your comments below for any other tips or tricks to shrinking an oversized guest list!