Organizing the Wedding Guest List

• Don't think of creating the wedding guest list as a daunting task — after all, the people on it are coming to celebrate you and your new journey in life! Think of it as a chance to realize how many friends and loved ones you have.

  Organizing the wedding guest list can go two ways — you can first decide how many people you can accommodate (or afford to accommodate) and then put the list together, or you can put the list together and finalize the financial plans based on that number of people. Which ever way you do it, here are some tips for creating/organizing the wedding guest list:

  1. Use a form to make a bride's list and a groom's list, first.

  2. Split people up into categories on each wedding guest list: close friends, old friends, acquaintances, co-workers, close family, distant relatives, and the "maybe's" (Maybe we will invite them, maybe we won't).

  3. Rule out those who will hinder your happiness on the big day. Some people prefer to have no children at the wedding, some prefer to not invite those who drink too much, etc.

  4. Don't worry about hurting someone's feelings. Chances are if you aren't close enough to them to invite them, then they don't feel close enough to you to have their feelings hurt.

  5. Make sure your financiers (usually parents) approve the wedding guest list and can add people if they wish.

  6. Allow space for last-minute additions.

Wedding Announcements & Wedding Invitations

• It might be the most important announcement of your life (thus far, anyways), so you want it to be perfect. And it's a great idea to coordinate the design of the wedding announcement with the save the date and the wedding invitation. So now your decision is whittled down to the tone of the wedding: sweet and simple, classy and elegant, bold and modern, or some combination of the above?

  Wedding announcements and/or wedding invitations should reflect the tone of your wedding. Choose something elegant, for example, if you are having a black and white formal wedding ceremony and reception. Choose something colorful and fun if you are having a more semi-formal or casual ceremony and reception. Sending a photo wedding invitation or photo save the date is also a recent trend.

Wedding Quotes & Sayings

• It's always fun to express your love by placing a favorite wedding quote or saying (about love) in the communications that go out to guests and/or in the programs and table cards. Some popular wedding sayings and quotes:

  Love does not consist of gazing at each other, but in looking together in the same direction. — Author Unknown

  Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same. — Emily Brontë

  Two souls, one heart. — French Proverb

  Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction. — Antoine de Saint-Exupery

  To love someone deeply gives you strength. Being loved by someone deeply gives you courage. — Lao Tzu

  Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination. — Roy Goodman