Putting Together The Guest List
You may already have a rough estimate of your guest list, or at least your “guaranteed invites”, if you had an engagement party. It’s now important to take that a step father and put together a formal list that will allow you to start searching for venues.
To begin planning, find time where you and your fiancé can discuss your wedding day dreams – do they involve a huge shindig or perhaps a small intimate celebration? Start jotting down a list of who your “must-haves” are. It’s important to consider asking your parent and your future in-laws who their “must-haves” are and for their “wish-list”.
Once you have your first-draft you can use this to estimate actual attendance by breaking the guest list out into different subsets such as a). local and b). out of town guests. Set an estimate for each group’s likelihood of attending.
Ex. 300 invites = 200 local guests + 100 out of town guests
Local guests are 90% likely to attend.
Out of town guests (factor in things like age and income) are 60% likely to attend.
Estimated attendance = (200*90%) + (100*60%) = 240 guests
*Note, if you will have strict occupancy limits from either your ceremony or reception location it is best to be conservative (i.e. overestimate) when estimating guests likelihood of attending.
Having found your estimated attendance you can begin to trim the list if needed. Keep in mind as you trim the list that if you cut guests that were less likely to attend you’ll need to update your likelihood of attending estimates and recalculate the above.
Trimming the guest list can be daunting. The bride and groom should partner for this task and start by cutting 1. Names from parents’ “wish-lists”, 2. Friends that neither the bride nor groom have spoken to in a long time, and 3. Distant family that haven’t been seen for years that can be cut without offense. Remember that while it’s not a requirement to include everyone your parents suggest, you should be considerate, especially if they are infusing funds into the wedding. I recommend working closely with them, sharing your dream size and budget limits so that they understand your constraints. Parents often are willing to “pay the difference” for their guests that go beyond your budget.
First daughter, Jenna Bush, recently held her nuptials where she and hubby Henry Hager turned down the option to marry at The White House and instead carefully cut their list down to 200 and opted for an organic, outdoor event at her family’s ranch in Texas.
Jenna and Henry are great inspiration... If they could work with their parents to form a list of 200, you too can put together a guest list the perfect size for your dream wedding!
To begin planning, find time where you and your fiancé can discuss your wedding day dreams – do they involve a huge shindig or perhaps a small intimate celebration? Start jotting down a list of who your “must-haves” are. It’s important to consider asking your parent and your future in-laws who their “must-haves” are and for their “wish-list”.
Once you have your first-draft you can use this to estimate actual attendance by breaking the guest list out into different subsets such as a). local and b). out of town guests. Set an estimate for each group’s likelihood of attending.
Ex. 300 invites = 200 local guests + 100 out of town guests
Local guests are 90% likely to attend.
Out of town guests (factor in things like age and income) are 60% likely to attend.
Estimated attendance = (200*90%) + (100*60%) = 240 guests
*Note, if you will have strict occupancy limits from either your ceremony or reception location it is best to be conservative (i.e. overestimate) when estimating guests likelihood of attending.
Having found your estimated attendance you can begin to trim the list if needed. Keep in mind as you trim the list that if you cut guests that were less likely to attend you’ll need to update your likelihood of attending estimates and recalculate the above.
Trimming the guest list can be daunting. The bride and groom should partner for this task and start by cutting 1. Names from parents’ “wish-lists”, 2. Friends that neither the bride nor groom have spoken to in a long time, and 3. Distant family that haven’t been seen for years that can be cut without offense. Remember that while it’s not a requirement to include everyone your parents suggest, you should be considerate, especially if they are infusing funds into the wedding. I recommend working closely with them, sharing your dream size and budget limits so that they understand your constraints. Parents often are willing to “pay the difference” for their guests that go beyond your budget.
First daughter, Jenna Bush, recently held her nuptials where she and hubby Henry Hager turned down the option to marry at The White House and instead carefully cut their list down to 200 and opted for an organic, outdoor event at her family’s ranch in Texas.
Jenna and Henry are great inspiration... If they could work with their parents to form a list of 200, you too can put together a guest list the perfect size for your dream wedding!
posted by The Last Bridesmaid at
11:42 PM
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