How to Choose Your Wedding Guests
Suzan Magdy
May 29, 2019
Reading Time:
3m
How to Choose Your Wedding Guests
10 months before the wedding
By now, you should be done with the big chunks of the wedding planning process, like setting a budget and choosing a venue. If you’re already done with the big boys, then you can mark yourself safe because the rest will be breezy in comparison. Now it’s time for you to handle your wedding guest list, an annoying but crucial task. My guess is you’re worried about the number of guests, maybe the seating, and definitely about things getting out of hand. Let me stop you there, kid because we won’t let you mess this thing up. We get it! Most couples fight over the whole guest list thing for it almost always has to be divided equally, and boy is that a hard equation to solve. If you would allow us, we would like to help you out if you would bear with us:
1-Know your limit
Write down the maximum number of guests the venue can accommodate, then divide that number by two (Between you and your partner, duh) if you want to play it fair.
Venue: Steigenberger Hotel El Tahrir Cairo
2-Categorize
It’s time to write down the names of your guests after separating your list from that of your partner’s. The way to do it is to categorize people according to their connection to you, for example, 1. Family 2. Close Friends 3. Work Friends 4. Gym Buddies. Customize your list according to the different social groups in your life.
3-Prioritize
After penning down your big list, narrow it down to a smaller one that’s only made up of the guests that MUST be invited to the wedding.
4-Ask the real questions
It’s time to examine the structure of the big list in detail. You do that by thoroughly analyzing the reasons behind inviting those who didn’t end up on your priority guest list. Start by asking yourself questions like, will you be risking ruining a good relationship with a particular person if you exclude them? Will children be allowed to attend? Are you being too much of a people-pleaser right now? Think about all these questions and we’re confident that more will emerge as you really start delving into it.
5-One for your old folks
This point can be skipped if you don’t feel the desire to let your parents have a say in some part of the wedding guest listing chore. But some couples actually like to allow their parents to invite a certain, agreed upon number of guests to their wedding, especially in Egypt where parents live to gloat. You know it.
Photo by: Hamed Kamel
6-Drum Roll
This is the part where you take each number of guests from each of your categories and you add all the sums together to see if the final total equals or exceeds that of the venue’s capacity.
More often than not, couples find that the number of the names on their lists does exceed the capacity of their chosen wedding venue. No need to panic or fret (Unless the number’s WAY higher than that which the place can hold). In this case, you first have to go back to point number 4 and re-assess. If that doesn’t work, you have to refer back to your wedding planner who will surely be able to handle the situation far better than any of us. Either way, we wish you a smooth process when creating your wedding guest list.
By now, you should be done with the big chunks of the wedding planning process, like setting a budget and choosing a venue. If you’re already done with the big boys, then you can mark yourself safe because the rest will be breezy in comparison. Now it’s time for you to handle your wedding guest list, an annoying but crucial task. My guess is you’re worried about the number of guests, maybe the seating, and definitely about things getting out of hand. Let me stop you there, kid because we won’t let you mess this thing up. We get it! Most couples fight over the whole guest list thing for it almost always has to be divided equally, and boy is that a hard equation to solve. If you would allow us, we would like to help you out if you would bear with us:
1-Know your limit
Write down the maximum number of guests the venue can accommodate, then divide that number by two (Between you and your partner, duh) if you want to play it fair.
Venue: Steigenberger Hotel El Tahrir Cairo
2-Categorize
It’s time to write down the names of your guests after separating your list from that of your partner’s. The way to do it is to categorize people according to their connection to you, for example, 1. Family 2. Close Friends 3. Work Friends 4. Gym Buddies. Customize your list according to the different social groups in your life.
3-Prioritize
After penning down your big list, narrow it down to a smaller one that’s only made up of the guests that MUST be invited to the wedding.
4-Ask the real questions
It’s time to examine the structure of the big list in detail. You do that by thoroughly analyzing the reasons behind inviting those who didn’t end up on your priority guest list. Start by asking yourself questions like, will you be risking ruining a good relationship with a particular person if you exclude them? Will children be allowed to attend? Are you being too much of a people-pleaser right now? Think about all these questions and we’re confident that more will emerge as you really start delving into it.
5-One for your old folks
This point can be skipped if you don’t feel the desire to let your parents have a say in some part of the wedding guest listing chore. But some couples actually like to allow their parents to invite a certain, agreed upon number of guests to their wedding, especially in Egypt where parents live to gloat. You know it.
Photo by: Hamed Kamel
5-Drum Roll
This is the part where you take each number of guests from each of your categories and you add all the sums together to see if the final total equals or exceeds that of the venue’s capacity.
More often than not, couples find that the number of the names on their lists does exceed the capacity of their chosen wedding venue. No need to panic or fret (Unless the number’s WAY higher than that which the place can hold). In this case, you first have to go back to point number 4 and re-assess. If that doesn’t work, you have to refer back to your wedding planner who will surely be able to handle the situation far better than any of us. Either way, we wish you a smooth process when creating your wedding guest list.
