Are you currently planning your wedding and getting excited over the idea of exchanging vows with your significant other in front of loved ones? While in the process of planning all the fine details, you may have realized the importance of cutting your wedding guest list down. Although you want to share the special day with the people you love, having too many guests at your wedding can quickly become overwhelming and cost a fortune. Learn how to cut your wedding guest list down with ease to save money and enjoy a more intimate experience.
Ways to Cut Down Your Wedding Guest List
The first thing you need to do is make sure you have a wedding registry to send with your invites. This is free and you can add to your list as you think of items you and your partner desire. Amazon has a wedding registry that is free and everyone can access it.
If you have more than one registry you can use MyRegistry to house them all in one place.
If you are already determining the Guest List then either these are already done or coming up soon. Use these tips to plan the rest!
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Determine Your Maximum
Before you begin cutting your wedding guest list down, be sure to determine the maximum number of people you can have at your reception, whether it’s indoors or outdoors. And, just because there may be a maximum number of people allowed to attend the wedding doesn’t mean you need to reach that maximum number if you don’t want to do so. Many people prefer inviting the minimum number of people to help save money on wedding-related expenses while making their reception a more private and intimate moment between the couple and their closest loved ones.
Related: Weddings on a Budget – 21 Ways to Save Money on Your Wedding Cake
Keep the Plus Ones to a Minimum
Consider keeping the plus ones to a minimum. It’s one thing to let your sister bring her current boyfriend or something like that, but it’s another thing when you have cousins bringing friends that you’ve only met once or twice before. You don’t need people who are practically strangers to attend your wedding reception.
If you want to make the idea of plus ones a bit less awkward, you can request your loved ones to contact you if they’d like to bring a plus one after receiving the invitation to your wedding. So, when you do this, it gives you an idea of who they’re trying to bring with them. Because it’s your wedding, you have every right to say, “I’m sorry. We won’t have any extra space for that person.”
You don’t have to feel bad for saying things like that either because it’s your special day. You deserve to have a stress-free and enjoyable time surrounded by the people who mean the most to you. If someone doesn’t like that, they don’t need to attend your wedding anyway.
Make a List of the Most Important People
Sit down with your partner and start coming up with a list of the most important people you’d like to have at your wedding, such as parents, siblings, and best friends. These are the people that should be at the top of the list if you have a close and loving relationship with them. You may then work your way down to other relatives that you love but aren’t as close with, such as aunts and uncles. When you have a clear list in front of you, it’s easy to figure out who is a priority in your life and who isn’t, so that makes it easier to decide who to invite and not to invite to your wedding.
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Think About the Future
It’s not too late to start thinking about the future. First, ask yourself if certain people would still be a part of your life in the next ten years. While it’s impossible to predict the future and what will happen in the next several years, you want genuinely good people attending your wedding reception, not fake friends and relatives who gossip about you behind your back.
You don’t want to invite people who won’t even matter in a few years because you’re already at your wit's end with them. Your wedding day is such an important and memorable moment, and you don’t want to let someone randomly ruin that for you with a poor attitude. Do yourself the favor of thinking about the future while you try to decide who will receive an invitation to your wedding reception and who won’t.
Make It a Child-Free Experience
Another fantastic way to cut your wedding guest list down is to make it a child-free experience. There are a few good reasons to let your guests know that you’re planning to have a child-free wedding reception, such as:
- Save Money – If you’re having a child-free wedding, that means anyone with children under a set age would need to find babysitters for their children, ultimately saving you some money in the long run because you’ll have fewer mouths to feed.
- Stress Less Over the Menu – When kids are attending, you often have to worry about what is on the menu because you want to make sure they have something they’ll like, especially if you’re planning on having fish or something fancy served. However, if kids aren’t coming to the wedding in the first place, the thought of having chicken tenders and other finger foods gets thrown out the window unless you want to have those foods served.
- No Crying or Fussiness – Let’s be honest, your wedding day is all about you and your partner, and you don’t want someone’s child to ruin the moment for you. If you don’t have kids attending the reception, you save money, cut down your wedding guest list without hurting any feelings, and won’t have to worry about a child crying or throwing a temper tantrum when you’re trying to enjoy the incredible moment with your partner and loved ones.
Be sure to set an age limit. For example, you may allow children that are at least 13+ to attend the wedding, but that is entirely up to you to decide.
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Cut Your Wedding Guest List Down with Ease
Use these different methods to cut your wedding guest list down without stressing or worrying about hurting feelings. Keep in mind that this day is all about you and your partner, so you deserve to have the time of your life without worrying about anything. If you think ahead during the planning process, you can keep the number of guests to a minimum and enjoy a more intimate wedding with the love of your life and those who mean the most to you.
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