I should be recieving the Save the Date magnets sometime today and now it's really getting real! This is the part that I hear is the hardest, narrowing down who can come vs. who can't. I think I've got the list in relatively good shape though.
**NERD ALERT: I'm using a spreadsheet in Excel to say the name of the person, if they can bring a guest, and the percentage chance I think they can come. For instance, my mom is 100% yes, whereas my cousin who lives in Japan is a 0% yes. This is helping me calculate a number of those that actually may attend vs. the number of people receiving an invitation.
So basically when I got engaged I loosely said out loud to my coworkers that "you're all invited" and dammit if I'm not eating those words right now... I've looked closely at the list and if I invited all of my co-workers and 100% of them came, that would be 20% of my guest list... Granted I work for a small company and I also took into account that at least 1/2 of them wouldn't attend but I didn't want to gamble and take any risks. I cut the list down, way down. I'm sorry to those I'm not inviting but if they've ever planned a wedding/will plan a wedding they'll understand.
Then there is the case of those that are friends of friends that I'm not very close with that actually ASK me to come to the wedding. Well SPIT! If I invite you then where does the line stop?
So recently I sent out a facebook blast to a few too many people asking them their addresses. Hindsight is telling me that many of those people are actually on the B-list and now I'm just trying to figure out how I'm supposed to skirt the fact that many of them may not be on the A-list. YEESH!
Let me know your experience in cutting down a list and how you made your tough decisions!
This is, in my opinion, the hardest part of wedding planning. I did NOT do a very good job of this and ended up with over 300 people at my wedding. I wasn't able to talk to everyone and was very disappointed when I realized that I missed seeing certain people all together.
ReplyDeleteIf the co-workers list is really bothersome, what about a pre-wedding work party where you bring Salty and introduce him to everyone? (At work or at a bar/restaurant after work) You could make your wedding favors and hand them out, show your co-workers photos of the two of you, tell the story of how you met....make it really personal, but also apologize and let them know that due to financial reasons, etc...you are not able to invite people from work.
Might not be a politically correct or traditional thing to do, but hey at least they know you are thinking of them!!
I know this is a super lame thing, but it will get your B-list people off your back. You can say you were getting addresses for Christmas cards. Then, nearing Christmas, blast those same b-listers with a sorry, but I didn't get a christmas card out, blah blah & toss of new "christmas" picture of you & salty & go with that.
ReplyDeleteAs for cutting people off the list, ask mom for our side (or myself) & Amy, Salty's sister, on his side (or the mom, just saying her b/c she just got married). Really, it is the friends part that is hard to cut. Sorry, that was really lame help.