Making your guestlist

Hello and happy monday to all!

When it comes to making your guestlist, I suggest you just sit down with your fiancé and each make a list of which family members and friends you would like to invite. You may want to agree on an approximate number of people before you start, just so you know where to set your limits (invite only close family and friends, invite every 3rd cousin and all co-workers from your entire company).

At this point, you may have to argue. Personnally, when starting our guestlist, my husband and I did not see eye-to-eye on the number of guests we wanted. He wanted the über-intimate type of wedding, with just our parents and one or two friends present. That made absolutely no sense at all to me, so we talked about it for a while, and I won. Sorry babe, hate to put it that way, but it is what it is. And on a nicer note, I don't think my demands were out of line. I didn't want 300 people there, but I wanted our close family and good friends there. In the end, our guestlist was about 55 to 60 people. However, keep in mind that not everyone can make it. We ended up with 45 people coming.

After you both make your initial list, share them with your significant other, and see if you agree on all the guests. I cannot stress the importance of being tactful at this point. You don't want to start off with "Oh god, we can't invite your grandma, her face makes me want to puke." or "Steve? REAAAaaaaaaally? Oh noooooo."
Try to be understanding of your fiancé's family and friends and remember, you don't have to sit with or talk a lot with most of them. Avoid having people who don't like each other and who might cause tension or even a scene. That may be impossible if your families don't get along, in which case you will have to sit them down (SEPARATELY) and talk with them, make clear that you want NO drama and you expect everyone to be on their best behaviour, even if they only discuss the weather for the entire meal.

Another hard thing you may want to prepare for is having to tell people that they are not invited. That happens randomly, like when you write a Facebook status about going dress-shopping and an old friend you haven't seen in 4 years writes "You better invite me!" and you have to send them a private message to explain that you are not having a big wedding with all friends from college and so-on... Just a little heads-up!

Alright girls, get to the list-making! Next week, we talk about ring shopping!!

Have a good week :)