Creating your guest list is one of the first things you and your fiancée need to do right away. Your suppliers, particularly your caterer, and the size of your venues, greatly depend on the number of guests. As much as you wish to invite the whole world to your celebration, your budget will thank you if you downsize it a bit. Who do you invite?
Create Your Wedding Guest List
1. Make your wish list.
This is the fun part! List down as many names as you want—down to that best friend from Kindergarten! Have your fiancée do the same. Ask for a list from your parents and your future in-laws as well, then put all these lists together. Rather than removing duplicates, take note of the people who referred her at the side of their name.
2. Grow your list
Go through each name and do a little research on each. Are they married or coupled up? Add a plus one to their name. Do they have kids, and do they have yayas? Include all of them in the list. Are there workmates on the list? You have to invite your entire team, not just a select few. That “team” rule applies to barkadas as well.
3. Pick your non-negotiables.
Imagine that you can only invite ten people to your secret wedding. Who would those people be? These people will comprise your non-negotiable list. This list will probably include mostly family members, and only the closest of friends. Once you’re done with the list, no names can be added or removed in the list, so don’t take this list lightly!
4. Take note of the guests you both know.
Your wedding isn’t the place to meet people for the first time, or a mini reunion of people you haven’t seen in over a decade. Choose people with people who were important enough to be part of your life as a couple, and people you both know and have kept constantly in touch.
5. Apply the 10-year rule.
Your wedding will be completely documented, from hundreds of photos to choose from, to countless videos. Making your wedding as timeless as possible is a great option to go with, and that goes with your guests. Ask yourself: Is this person someone you would like to see in the next 10 years? That’s easy enough to say yes to when they’re family, but not so easy when it’s casual acquaintances. This will be an easy way to remove the guests you were feeling lukewarm over.
6. Remove the “fat”.
Remember when you were starting the list, with each guest had plus one, or a plus family and yayas? Now’s the time to decide if you want an “adults only” wedding, a strict rule of no yayas allowed, or plus ones for couples you both personally know, or if you’ll extend the plus one courtesy to all your guests.
7. Divide your current number of guests in half.
This is the toughest but final test that your list will go through. Pretend that your budget can only allow half of your guest list. Are there names that you can still afford to take out? You can choose to remove those names all together, or to make it compromise of the “List B”.
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