Friends, family and the Guest List

When paying for your own wedding the cost of every little thing adds up.  Most magazines and websites tell you to cut the guest list as a way of saving money but really how much of it can you cut.  So far the guest list is only between my fiancée and I.  No one else knows who is and who is not invited.  My biggest pet peeve is that parents insist that we need to serve food at the reception if we have guests coming from out of town.  We would much rather host a cocktail reception someplace fun to keep costs low, than have a full blow ballroom that costs an arm and a leg.  The last thing we want to do is start our new life in debt.

So that brings me back to the guest list.  I want to have a mix of friends and family without going too overboard. I'm creating an A list and B list.  Not because one group is more important than the other but the A list is the people that I really want to be there and the B list are people who are close and I can invite in person a few months prior to the wedding or they are people that we will invite if we can but it won't cause any heartache if they aren't there.   Personally I can do without some relatives that I haven't seen or talked to in years but I'll extend the invite because it would seem rude to invite some but not all.

One method that I've found to politely suggest that we are keeping the guest list low is my writing, "We have ___ seats reserved in your honor" on the response cards and then filling in the number for that person, couple or family. We are also asking that people respond via phone or website (so we can save of postage).

Unfortunately we will have many guests coming from out of town so invites will have to go out early to get the best rates of flights and hotels.   With this in mind we may do welcome bags as opposed to wedding favors.

Thats all for today.