The Perilous Guest List

So your handsome fellow or lovely lady has asked for your hand in marriage and you've rung your Mum, Dad, close friends and Nana Joan with the news.

Treehouse engagement

 You've gone ring shopping and practised your possible new signature, swooned about in lovely soon to be a wife or husband bliss thinking about all the wonderful things you want for yourself on your special day. 

Gorgeous Green Saphire Ring - Katherine Bowman

You've asked your nearest and dearest to be your best men or women and have started to shop for the prettiest waistcoat or most dapper dress and then you realise......

YOU HAVE TO WRITE A GUEST LIST!

If you are anything like me and have a reasonable sized extended family, a multitude of dearest friend groups and minimal space in your little outer suburban backyard where you plan to chuck up some balloons and hold the affair, the guest list becomes an absolute nightmare scenario. 

Apple orchid wedding

Do you invite all of your extended family? 
Can you invite some of your work mates and not others?
Can you invite friends and not their partners who you have never met? 
Do you let people bring their children? 
Should you let your friends invite their parents? 

On and on the questions go and you dread offending or excluding anyone, it's enough to as my mother says 'make you get the ladder out and elope'. But take a deep breath and know that you can't really make any great mistakes unless your workmate has had a deep seated crush on you for years and chooses your wedding day to let that be known...to everyone. 

not everyone has this much space

I asked a very wise friend who had just been married to shed some light on her methods as her day was spectacular and she gave me this simple advice. 

First her and her partner figured out the amount of people they could reasonably invite - due to capacity of venue and what their budget entailed.

Then they divided up their guest list into 3 categories.....

1. Family and Friends that they couldn't do without - essentials
2. Extended Family and Friends who she and her partner wanted to come 
3. Friends and others that she and her partner really wanted to come but could only be invited if room allowed

then they invited their first list and waited for RSVPs for their next lot of invites and so on...

not everyone can afford a royal wedding

Ultimately it's your vision and your choice to invite 30 or 300 guests and who comes is up to you and whether you can find the right venue size. 

After the guest list is decided on and the invites sent out you can't have any regrets about who you have and haven't invited, and as long as your guest list 1 is coming then everything will work out swell whatever happens!
Here are some more links on guest list advice for further reading, GOOD LUCK engaged couples and let me know how you went - message me on facebook. 
Yahoo
About.com - http://weddings.about.com/od/getorganized/a/StartGuestList.htm
Canadian Living! 
Anna Post
and how to cut down the list with Glamour

$50 and a ladder