How do I form a guest list?

Where do I begin?!

Question Asked: 10/12/2017

Wedding Date: 9/08/2018

Most Helpful Response

Love Tales

(2) · Australia Wide

Posted: 13/12/2017

Great question.

Like a spiral, start from the middle and wind your way out.

If you want your family there, start with them: The middle is your immediate family. From there, add each of their spouses, children etc. Add grandparents. From there, go to aunts and uncles and their children (your cousins!) and spouses. Do you have godparents? Add them here. Friends can be tricky if you're limited for numbers. Look at your diary. What do you do on a regular basis - Work? Sporting team? Book group? Training partners? Travel? Do you want to invite people from these groups?

Once you think you have your list, don't finalise it until you've scrolled through all the contacts on your mobile. You may have forgotten someone important!

Good luck, and please let me know if Love Tales can assist with a keepsake storybook. Or you can add Love Tales to your gift wish-list.

Best, Kristie :)

Answered by: 3 Experts

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Elegant Invitations by Kathryn

(3) · Australia Wide

Posted: 13/12/2017

My suggestion would be to book the reception first and see how much per head you are paying. Work out how many people you can afford. Decide if you want children present. (or work out with reception centre a price for children seperately).

Say you end up with allowing 80 people. You may want to allocate 10 guests to your parents and your partners parents. They will have been waiting for this moment all your life and their friends/relatives are important too. That leaves you and your partner 60. Start with must haves in the relatives (they will always be in your life) - then friends. If you know people are going to be offended as they are not invited then stress that it's not a big wedding and you can't invite everyone.

Lava Stationery

(50) · Australia Wide

Posted: 13/12/2017

Hi there :)

The way I did it for my wedding was to use an excel spreadsheet and write down people in a particular order. You don't need to use this ordering system but it worked well for me. Write down everyone you can think of, and then begin culling the people who are not close enough to be invited to the wedding:

Immediate Family
Extended Family
Close Friend Group (Consists of best friends, bridal party, housemates, etc)
Uni / TAFE Friends
School Friends
Current Work Colleagues
Past Work Colleagues
Parents' Friends and Family Friends
Special Interest Group Friends (such as music / art classes, sports teams, etc)
Neighbours (may not be applicable)
Any outliers from your social circuit who don't belong to a certain group (Go through your Facebook friend list etc)

If you contact me directly, I can email you a spreadsheet to help you get started :)

Thanks so much,

Lava @LavaStationery

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