I DO NOT ♥ the Guest List

Ahh guest list...how I loathe thee.

I'm just going to put it out there: our guest list is much larger than I'm comfortable with.

But there are reasons why. One reason is that the PHIs family is on the large side (think approx 20 aunts and uncles (including their spouses) and approx 30 first cousins). My family is not nearly as huge (only 6 first cousins) but the wedding is in my hometown, and there are a slew of close family friends (I lovingly call them the fake aunts) that are pretty much family. When you factor those people in, were more equally yoked on the family front. Add in the handfull of Spelman sisters/Morehouse brothers for me (the PHI's line brothers for him), some of my friends from grad school (his job for him), and the requisite parent adds and were upwards of 225.

Eeeek!

Our ideal day-of count is 150-175, which means I'm hoping that at least 50 people say they are sad they cant attend our event. I know thats terrible, but its the truth...so we'll roll with it.

However, in order for the 50 to decline attending our fabulous event, all 225 have to be invited. I'm not going to reveal what the invites will cost us per piece, but I will admit that I think of every addition to the guest list as an additional [insert price]that its costing us to invite them.

So regardless of their response, we've already spent money on them attending our event. If we spent the money on the front end, at least you could come and celebrate with us, right? You want everyone to come, but you want a lot of people to decline. You want your loved ones to be there, but only some or most of the loved ones.

And now you see my issue with the guestlist.

You cant win them all, but the guest list feels like a losing battle all across the board. Because the guest list is intimately linked to the budget bottom line (my other fave wedding topic...NOT!), the more people you invite, the more the most basic celebration is going to cost. The more food/champagne we'll have to buy. The more invites and stamps (ech!) we'll have to make arrangements for. The more cocktail napkins we'll have to make arrangements for (more on that later).

The more I'm going to think about our guests as dollar amounts rather than people. God, that really sounds terrible. Yet brazenly honest and true.

*big exhale* Looks like I'm taking this one for the team...
♥