We sat down around my parents kitchen table, combined our proposed guest lists and realized we were way over our people budget. Well, truth be told, we didn’t really have a people “budget”, but as the number was just shy of 300 we knew we had to create a people budget. And it wasn’t fun. I come from a family that lives by the motto “The more, the merrier” and, especially with a wedding, we absolutely stand by that statement. The problem came with the fact that our wedding is a DIY wedding on steroids. We are literally doing everything ourselves, just short of hand carving the chairs. So for every additional person that meant an additional favor to make, an additional ribbon wand, additional antique goblets collected, additional food prep (yup, we are doing a lot of the food ourselves too!), additional pillows for the bonfire, and, in general, a lot of additional work (and money!). So we knew that cuts had to be made somewhere. And it was probably the most stressful part of the wedding for us. We had to cut people that we know are expecting an invite and that, honestly, we would love to invite! But family took priority over friends and we had to ask ourselves some hard questions regarding our friends. Social media has this bizarre way of making you feel connected to people when, in reality, you really aren’t. We all had people who we’ve stayed connected with on Facebook but who we haven’t seen in years upon years, and who we have no idea what is really going on in their lives right now. So despite our desire to invite everyone we know, cuts had to be made.

In order to help us cut down our guest list, I made this flow chart that made the decision a bit easier for us. I’d love to hear some of the questions you asked yourself when choosing who should make it or be cut from YOUR wedding guest list!