Narrow Down Your Wedding Guest List with Two Rounds of Cuts

Are you wondering

How to narrow down your wedding guest list? If so, you are not alone. The average number of guests for a modern American wedding has gone up from 150 to 175 people in the last ten years. That is a lot of pressure on your budget and also your time! We will show you how to make those first cuts without it being too painful or stressful for anyone involved.

When planning a wedding, one of the most important decisions you will make is who to invite. It can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to this task because there are so many people you could include in your wedding guest list. If you’re lucky, some of these people might even offer financial assistance for your big day! To help narrow down the list and save yourself time, we’ve created a simple yet effective strategy that starts with everyone on the list then narrows them down based on their importance.

First, start by creating two lists. The first list is for people that are on the top of your priority list and will be invited to your wedding no matter what. If you don’t have enough room in your budget or venue for everyone on this list, then it’s time to make another one.

The second list consists of those who you would like to invite but you’re not sure how much it will cost. It can be difficult to guess at this number, especially when the average wedding costs over $30,000.

If the person is on the top of your second list, but they aren’t assisting in some way on your big day and they aren’t essential family or friends, then you might want to reconsider and remove them from the first list. This will save a lot of time later when it comes down to deciding which people should receive invitations.

When you have a limited number of guests in your budget, the next step is to cut down your guest list based on location. If someone lives out of town, it might be difficult for them to attend. By removing these people from consideration, you can free up some money that would otherwise have to go towards their travel arrangements and possibly help cover other costs.

Next, you can cut down your list even further by looking at the family ties of those included. Extended family members might not be as close to you or to each other, and could even cause issues or drama on your big day so it’s best to remove them from consideration too. With these people gone, you also free up some money for other wedding details that are important to you.

Now that your list is much shorter, it’s time for the final cut! This step consists of deciding who will ultimately receive an invitation and who will be left off the list. If certain people are very important to you or have done a lot for your wedding preparations so far, they might deserve an invite even if there isn’t enough room in your budget to invite everyone. For example, if you have two siblings that are both coming from out of town and only one has offered to help cover some wedding expenses then it might be worth inviting one but not the other. The same goes for other relatives or anyone else that has helped with wedding planning or committed to helping pay towards certain costs involved in your big day.

While it might seem like a daunting task to start with, narrowing down your wedding guest list actually isn’t as difficult or time consuming as you might think. It all starts with creating two lists then cutting them both according to the priorities in your life and what is important for your big day. Once that’s done, invite everyone who matters most and get ready to marry the person you love!