While all aspects of planning a wedding come with their own unique challenges, there’s no doubt that finalizing your wedding guest list is hard. You have to balance what you want with what you can realistically have – and then comes the added pressure of your mom asking if a cousin of a cousin that you’ve never met can come. (Hint: it’s okay to say no!) If you’re having trouble narrowing down who you should invite to your wedding, here are some tips to help you come up with the final list.

Decide if you want to invite kids or keep it an adults-only affair.

Inviting kids might be essential for you – your toddler niece might be one of your favorite family members and you can’t picture your wedding without them! You might also prefer an adults-only celebration. Both are totally valid options!

Talk to your parents upfront about their expectations.

Some people have parents who are not involved at all in the wedding planning process while others have parents that are maybe a bit too involved. If the second option sounds more like your situation, consider having a discussion with your parents early on in the process. Let them know how much they can change the guest list you come up with and offer a compromise if it works for you. For example, maybe they can invite whoever they want if they agree to pay for those guest’s plates. If your parents are already paying for the whole thing you might not be able to make the rules like you would if you were in charge of the finances. Either way, it’s a conversation to have early before they start inviting everyone they know.

Figure out how many people you can actually afford to invite.

The truth is, weddings are pricey. The cost of a single guest can pass $200 in some locations. Ultimately you need to be able to afford the party you’re throwing, so figure out how many guests fit into your budget.

Narrow down your list by asking yourself some questions.

If you’re stuck on a name and can’t decide, ask yourself some questions to make your decision for you. For example, you can ask yourself if this is a person you’ve spoken to more than once in the past five years. Whatever the question is, keep it consistent each time and you’ll be able to make those hard decisions.

Ultimately you should only invite people you’re excited to celebrate your marriage with!

While there may be pressure to invite your cousin that you really don’t like or you might want to invite a friend that you don’t really talk to anymore just because they invited you to their wedding, remember that ultimately the most important people at your wedding are you and the person that you’re marrying. You might have some people you really have to invite, but at the end of the day, the guest list should include people that are excited to celebrate with you.

If you’re planning a wedding, what are you finding to be the most helpful when it comes to planning a guest list? If you’ve already planned one, what tip would you share? Let us know in the comments!

While we might not be able to tell you who to invite, we can help take the stress out of planning a wedding by handling some elements of the planning process. We help plan bachelorette parties and other epic events! Head over to https://thesocialsetters.com/startplanning to get started!