Congratulations! You’re engaged! I’m sure there’s so many thoughts running your head pertaining to planning the big day- like which venue to choose, which vendors to pick, and most importantly who you and your soon-to-be spouse want at your wedding ceremony and reception.
Source: pinterest.com
The latter stated factor of wedding planning is perhaps the most important because the amount of guests RSVP to your wedding invitations can both greatly and directly affect the costs of food, beverage, venue booking fees, and more importantly- your stress-level. Long story short is that numbers add up quickly in terms of wedding services.
We know it is easy to get carried away with the guest list in the beginning stages of wedding planning; however we as wedding professionals definitely recommend focusing on this aspect of the planning process as early as possible to avoid the possibility of regret or stress down the road.
Source: Philadelphia Magazine
Why is it so important to focus on slimming your guest list down early on in the planning process? For starters, the people you choose to include in your guest list are going to be attending the most important day of your life. Therefore, the first names that pop through you and your spouse’s heads through the initial brainstorming process are most likely the ones that you couldn’t imagine your wedding day without. These individuals should be the main chunk of your guest list. More importantly, if you fail to conscientiously focus on keeping the guest list slim early on, you may yourself wishing you had thought twice about inviting them when it’s a little too late.
Upon a second or third brainstorming session, it’s extremely easy to just nonchalantly add people on your guest list such as former coworkers and bosses, high school or college friends that you somewhat keep in touch with. While there are definitely guests within these categories that you would love to share your big wedding day with, you may find that adding twenty or so more guests may greatly increase the costs of food and beverage more than you had expected which will subsequently cause you more stress in budgeting and planning the entire day of events. Additionally, keeping the guest list small will ensure that you are able to allow your guests to bring a plus-one– which will keep them happy throughout the ceremony and reception.
If you find yourself susceptible to the possibility of having to increase your wedding budget due to a larger guest party- yet don’t know how to slim it down for a more intimate and manageable gathering, consider utilizing some of these extremely helpful flow charts we have found that are tailored specifically for this hard decision making process:
Source: The Huffington Post
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