We want every bride’s experience to be as smooth as possible. So we’ve gathered all the best tips and advice you could possibly need to help plan the wedding of your dreams. Find more tips & tricks here.
The dates have been set and you’ve selected your venue. Yay! Now that you know when & where it’s all going down, you can now focus on the next step in the wedding planning process – inviting your guests. But wait a minute, who do you invite? Yikes.
Before you get overwhelmed with the potential wedding guest list, let us guide you towards an easy way to get started. That way you can have the confidence to be sure you don’t miss that important distant relative or your fiance’s best friend from his college days.
Prepare Yourself
Take a moment for yourself to think about all those faces and names coming to mind. Grab a cup of coffee (we prefer tea or hot chocolate!), and a pen and paper. Also, make sure you have a chunk of solid quiet time to yourself so you can focus and get some serious shit done.
It’s important to realize that the blank piece of paper in front of you won’t be blank for long and you’ll have names circled and crossed out before you know it. You simply just need to START! So, let’s get started!
Start to Brainstorm
Make three columns on TWO sheets of paper. One sheet is for the bride’s invites and the other is for the groom’s invites.
Label at the top: FAMILY FRIENDS OTHER
Start with yourself and place the faces and names that are swirling around in your mind onto the paper. No particular order needed at this point, just put them in the appropriate columns. Use the “labels” to help you focus on different relationships in your life. PRO TIP: Try not to let your mind get ahead of your pen. We know it’s hard, but you’ll save yourself the hassle of trying to read your writing later in the game.
We recommend focusing solely on the names. Don’t even begin to tackle the actual addresses of this list. That can quickly become overwhelming and we don’t want that.
Now once you’ve finished with all the peeps you know and love, get started on the groom’s invites. Although you might find that you know all his family and friends, often times there are a few random people you didn’t think of, so this is a great time to have him give the list a once over to add or remove any names. (Or better yet, have HIM make his own list! Hells yeah.) This is also a great way to get the groom involved. Win win!
Master List It Up!
Consider these two lists together to be your master list and a great start to your FINAL wedding guest list! Your list is sure to evolve over time and you’ll continue to think of people you forgot as well as people you are okay with removing, but these first steps will have you on your way to stress-free guest list in no time.
Next up will be compiling all the addresses, but you can use this list to check those each off, one by one. And once you start to gather those addresses, have a look here at our Importance of Invites to find out more!
Still having trouble tackling the guest list? Tell us, what’s holding you back from starting your wedding guest list?
