How do I know who to invite to my wedding: 7 tips to avoid making a mistake?

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Evelyn Carpenter

As soon as you start organizing your celebration, the guest list will be one of the first items you will have to settle.

How do I know who to invite to my wedding? Take note of the following tips if you don't know where to start.

    1. Establish a budget

    How many people to invite to a wedding? Although it will depend on the type of wedding you are planning, the money you have available will determine whether the celebration will be more intimate or massive, since a large part of the budget will be spent on hiring the event center and the caterer, which are usually charged according to the number of guests.

    Thus, the budget for a wedding with thirty people will be very different from the one required for a celebration with more than a hundred.

    2. Include the indispensable

    When it comes to listing who I should invite to my wedding, there are people who can't be left out, such as your closest family and friends.

    Therefore, ideally, they should draw up an initial list with those guests who will accompany them on their big day, including their parents, siblings and lifelong friends.

    3. Prioritize by affections

    Then, make a second list of people who are also important to you or with whom you have a bond in the present, such as aunts, uncles, cousins, co-workers, or school friends.

    So, depending on the budget you have for your celebration, you can decide whether to invite them all or to filter out according to the degree of closeness.

    4. Define companions

    Another relevant point, regarding who to invite to my wedding, has to do with the partners of the guests And there you will have to analyze if the invitation will be with a partner only for those who are married or in a stable relationship, or also for singles.

    Several factors will influence, such as the budget you have available, the courtesy you want to have with your guests or the importance you give to the fact of knowing everyone who is in your marriage.

    Since they do not have a direct relationship with the bride and groom, for example, many times co-workers are guests without a partner.

    5. Define if it will be with children

    If the wedding will be during the day, there will be no problem for your guests to attend with children, but if it will be at night, perhaps it would be better to do without them. Now, if you decide to have a wedding with children, will you include all of them, or just your nephews and nieces and the children of your closest friends?

    You should be careful here, because if you invite some children and not others, it may cause discomfort among some parents because they feel that their children are being excluded.

    6. Decide on "engagement guests".

    When evaluating who to invite to a wedding, there are always a couple of names that come up that are categorized as "engagement guests".

    For example, your boss, your neighbor, a distant relative who invited you to their wedding, or a couple of your parents' friends, if your parents contributed money for the celebration.

    Only you will know if it is really worth inviting them. or, on the contrary, they reserve those places for people closer to them.

    7. Deciding on guests only for the party

    Finally, although it is not a common modality, it is also possible to invite alone to the party, if you want to save on the banquet But this is a formula that only works with young people.

    For example, if you are studying and want to invite all your classmates, or if you have had to leave out the companions of certain relatives, then inviting them alone to the party may be the solution.

    How to invite someone to a wedding? Once you have the definitive guest list, then you can start sending out the wedding invitations, which can be in physical or digital format.

    Evelyn Carpenter is the author of the best-selling book, All you need for your marriage. A Marriage guide. She has been married for over 25 years and has helped countless couples build successful marriages. Evelyn is a sought after speaker and relationship expert, and has been featured in various media outlets including Fox News, Huffington Post, and more.