Wedding Guide: Who Should Be on Your Guest List?

Weddings are exciting and beautiful events, but planning one isn’t as easy as you think.

Aside from considering a lot of things like where and when to hold the event, you also have to decide on the theme, which caterers and decorators to hire, and difficult stuff like coming up with a guest list that you can afford while also ensuring you’ve got everything and everyone covered! Whew.

So, who should be on your guest list?

Obviously, the bride and groom’s immediately family should be on the list, including their closest friends and closest co-workers; even bosses are welcome. But how do you draw the line on who to invite and who to skip?

Many couples find this difficult to do, especially in the Philippines where relatives and friends expect to be invited to the wedding – and the couple’s parents also have their own ideas of who to invite!

Here’s a handy guide to help you choose.

Set a limit and write your guest list.

How many people can you really afford to have on your wedding? Put the count on paper, put in everyone on the wedding entourage, then decide how you split the remainder of the number. For example, you set the number at 300, with 100 for the principal sponsors, entourage, photographers, ministers and choir, and your immediate families.

For the rest of the list, you can split it as 100 for the bride and 100 for the groom. Then, use these questions to help you decide:

Have you met the person before?

This question holds true for both bride and groom. Often, parents want to invite this and that friend, forgetting that the event is their children’s wedding, not theirs! If both of you haven’t met this person and he/she doesn’t really hold much importance in both your lives, politely tell your parents you can’t invite this person to the wedding.

Is this person important in your life?

If he’s just a random coworker who wants to be invited, you don’t have to do it, really. You could add them later but when making the guest list, put your friends and family in order of how important they are in your life. Remember you don’t have to invite all your relatives and friends – especially if you don’t really connect that much.

Am I comfortable with this person around?

Your wedding is the time for you to enjoy. You don’t want tension during your big day – and you certainly shouldn’t invite someone who just might make an embarrassing toast or ‘big reveal’ on your big moment!

Are we inviting the entire family?

In the Philippines, it is often ‘understood’ that if you invite one person in the family, the rest are also invited! Be clear with that by telling that politely telling your guests how many people you are actually inviting from their family.

“We have reserved 2 seats for you…” is one way of doing that.

Are you still in touch with this person the past year?

You might have a childhood best friend with whom you vowed to invite to your wedding back when you were kids. You can still invite him/her to fulfill that vow, of course, but if you haven’t been in touch with this person for a long time, it’s really alright not to include them on the guest list. The same goes with anyone you haven’t been in touch with for over a year!

And if you can only afford just a few people, don’t stress out yourself in trying to stretch your wedding list. Just invite the ones that really matter to you.