Before you begin with your invitations, you should have a definite decision on the location of your reception. This is vital to figuring out how many people to invite. Usually, you can have about 25% more people than will fit in your reception location because that is the average of how many people will not be able to attend the wedding. For example, if your reception location can hold 300 people, count on inviting 375 guests.

One important thing to remember is that the number of invitations you send out is not equal to the number of guests. When you make your list of potential guests, make sure you put the number of people that are being invited next to their name. At the end of the list, put the total amount of guests. If this is too many, go through the list again and see who you can do without inviting and tally it up again until you get the appropriate number.

Speaking of taking off potential guests- you should try to not have them on there in the first place if you are going to take them off. If your fiances mother wants to add her hairdresser, unless you have a thousand-person location, you’re going to have to veto the request. Make sure you try to invite those that would be offended if they weren’t invited, such as your great aunt that sees you every Christmas. As a general rule, you can figure if you haven’t seen them for over five-ten years, you can probably do without them on your guest list.

Always make sure you have both your parents and your fiances parents make a list of people they really want to be invited. You will be able to know who to invite on your parents’ list, just by figuring out if you’ve ever even met them, or if you aren’t really familiar with them. Your fiance will be able to do the same for his parents’ list. Just make sure you talk to both parents about your guest cuts so that they either convince you otherwise, or save themselves embarrassment when they talk to the guest that was cut.

Also, remember- it is your wedding day. If you would feel uncomfortable inviting someone, or if you want to invite someone despite these tips, go ahead and do what you want. It is completely up to you who you decide to invite and who you want to share your special day with.