top of page

Who Should We Invite?

Planning a wedding is such an incredible experience. You will get to celebrate your new life with everyone who is important to you. A lot of our couples struggle when it comes to exactly who is “important” enough to be on the final guest list. So we wanted to shed a little light on this topic to hopefully help a few couples struggling with this.

1. First and foremost…you need to set a desired number of guests. This will depend on how many your venue accommodates and how your budget looks in regards to food/beverages, etc. DO NOT make a guest list before looking at venues. You need to get an idea of how many people your dream venue can accommodate. If you make a guest list of 300 people and your venue only hold 200…you will have a major problem. So start with a number based on your facts.

2. Don’t get stuck in the parent trap. Sometimes parents will make crazy guests list themselves leaving you and your fiancé with no invites. Make sure this doesn’t happen. Go through your guests and then be upfront with your parents about the number of guests and work together to create the list. You don’t want to shut out your parents completely (especially if they are paying for the wedding) but you also want to be sure that the guest list isn’t ALL your parents’ friends.

3. The “and Guest” problem tends to come up as well. Generally any guest who has been in a long-term committed relationship should be invited with his or her significant other. Beyond that, if this person won’t know many people at your wedding (they live far away, friend from first job, etc.) then give them a plus one so they have someone to spend time with at your wedding. If your friend is single but his or her family or best friends are all invited…you might be able to skip the plus one. Just take it person by person and make those calls accordingly.

4. One of the best ideas is to have an A and B List. This will take some organization on your end and some planning. The idea of this is to basically have two lists. List A is your nonnegotiable guests. When you go to order invitations order extras and order earlier than you would expect…this will allow you to activate the B List adventure. The B List is the list of guests you would love to come but might not have the room or budget for. So…when one of your A List guests declines…a B List invitation is sent out to take their place. This is a wonderful way to invite as MANY possible people as you want. MK Event Boutique will manage your A and B List invitations for you! Ask about that during your paperie consult (:

5. If you are having a wedding that is strictly adults…make that clear to your guests in different ways. For one, when addressing the envelope do not address to “The Doe Family” if the kids are not invited. You should address the envelope to “Mr. and Mrs. John Doe”. You can also have numbers on your response cards. This would state something along the lines of “We have saved 2 seats for you at our wedding” before the RSVP line. This will make it clear to guests how many people are invited. MK Event Boutique can do this process for you! Just ask (:

6. Coworkers can be a big question mark too when making your guest list. If you spend a lot of time outside of work with your coworker (double-dates, dinner, sporting events, etc.) then of course invite them. If you ONLY see them at work and maybe they haven’t even met your fiancé…it is safe to not invite them!

7. Be very careful with showers (bridal showers, couples showers, engagement parties, etc.). If you invite someone to a pre-wedding event…they need to be on your guest list…A List. So remember this if you are having these events maybe before your final list is made.

MK Event Boutique also has this handy dandy chart to help you decide if a guest should be invited or not! Our brides seem to find it pretty helpful for those people who are on the borderline!

*Helpful Planning Documents & Computer calligraphy envelope addressing by MK.

Featured Posts
Recent Posts
Archive
Search By Tags
Follow Us
  • Facebook Basic Square
  • Twitter Social Icon
  • Pinterest Social Icon
  • Instagram Social Icon
bottom of page