I'm in the middle of addressing invitations this week. I check in daily on a wedding website with a bunch of other brides getting married in May-so we all have invitations on the brain. And what that often means is guest list on the brain. dun dun dun
This is it-time to finalize and figure things out. After hearing a bunch of their horror stories (late additions, ballooning numbers, lost addresses etc) I feel like we've had a pretty good guest list experience. So here are my personal tips, for what they're worth...
1. Get organized asap. We sat down before making any final decisions on venues etc and created our guest list. Not just an estimate or a 'something along these lines' guest list. But THE guest list. There, it was done - we had an exact count to use when developing a budget, meeting with caterers/florists/rentals and choosing the space.
2. Get those around you organized too. I felt so blessed to have an extremely organized mother-in-law-to-be. Within a week or two of getting engaged, we had a full guest list from her-complete with addresses and everything. I cannot tell you how much easier this made things!
3. Stick to it! Our list really hasn't changed since August. Which means no freak outs that we've over booked/will run out of space/don't have enough money budgeted etc. Obviously over time things change-and you probably won't have the exact guest list, but stick to your guns! This is what you had established and this is what you organized yourself around. And you can't always control things- parents might realize they forgot someone (or a lot of someones) and the list can grow - but do your best.
Bottom line is if you take the time in the beginning to really sit down and get things semi-finalized, I think you'll be a lot better off in the long run. There are too many stories out there from brides that 'estimate' 200 people - and once the guest list is finalized its 275 and now they're in a panic that there's not enough room for everyone at the space they've booked and paid for and so on.
So that's my guest list advice:) Artwork from Confessions of Baffled Bride
This is it-time to finalize and figure things out. After hearing a bunch of their horror stories (late additions, ballooning numbers, lost addresses etc) I feel like we've had a pretty good guest list experience. So here are my personal tips, for what they're worth...
1. Get organized asap. We sat down before making any final decisions on venues etc and created our guest list. Not just an estimate or a 'something along these lines' guest list. But THE guest list. There, it was done - we had an exact count to use when developing a budget, meeting with caterers/florists/rentals and choosing the space.
2. Get those around you organized too. I felt so blessed to have an extremely organized mother-in-law-to-be. Within a week or two of getting engaged, we had a full guest list from her-complete with addresses and everything. I cannot tell you how much easier this made things!
3. Stick to it! Our list really hasn't changed since August. Which means no freak outs that we've over booked/will run out of space/don't have enough money budgeted etc. Obviously over time things change-and you probably won't have the exact guest list, but stick to your guns! This is what you had established and this is what you organized yourself around. And you can't always control things- parents might realize they forgot someone (or a lot of someones) and the list can grow - but do your best.
Bottom line is if you take the time in the beginning to really sit down and get things semi-finalized, I think you'll be a lot better off in the long run. There are too many stories out there from brides that 'estimate' 200 people - and once the guest list is finalized its 275 and now they're in a panic that there's not enough room for everyone at the space they've booked and paid for and so on.
So that's my guest list advice:) Artwork from Confessions of Baffled Bride
1 comment:
easier said than done :) even after we mailed the save the dates, we are STILL arguing over the list. You certainly ARE blessed to have an organized FMIL. Mine just gave me a random smattering of names and addresses, and oh, just send that person's to their parents house. !!
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