Wedding Guest List & Invitations

Once you have found your dream venue and set the date for your wedding, the next step is to work on your guest list and think about invitations.

Guest List

How can you approach creating your guest list?

I would recommend to think about your guest list in terms of capacity, budget and atmosphere.
What I mean by that is that every venue has a maximum capacity of guests that they can host.
Also, logically, the more guests you invite, the higher the cost will be.

In addition, a wedding with a larger number of guests (100+) will have a very different feel and flow of the event than if you invited 30 guests.

Taking these factors into account, you should set a target number of guests for your wedding.
Next, I would recommend that each partner sits down and starts by listing the family members that you want to invite. Then, you move on to your best friends, good friends and more casual friends, neighbours, and colleagues.

Admittedly, it can be tough to narrow down your guest list, especially if you are over the maximum number of guests that you can feasibly invite.
This is a great article that might be helpful to you in your quest to create a wedding guest list.

Inviting Plus-Ones

It is customary to invite your friends along with their significant others. Of course, each friend will be in a different stage of being in a romantic relationship. Maybe they just started dating or they have been going strong for years.
Because you can only invite so many guests, you might want to think about where to set the cutoff for allowing plus ones to your wedding. This is admittedly not easy.

Inviting Kids

Along with inviting your friends’ and family members’ significant others, you will have to decide whether you want to include children in your wedding celebration. If you choose to invite kids, it is customary to write out the names of the parents and their children in your invitation. Also, it might make sense to arrange for a babysitter to be present during your wedding festivities so that the kids are looked after and get to have a fun time too. Check out the Wedding Childcare page to learn more.

Wedding Invitations

Once you finalize your guest list, you can get started on your wedding invitations.

Invitation Wording

Apart from striving for a beautiful design of your wedding invitation, makes sure you convey all the key information surrounding your event to your guests:
clearly mention the full date and time of your wedding, the name and address of the location where it is being held, along with your names.

I would recommend you also ask for your guests to RSVP by a certain date which you list in your invitation as well. In addition, you might want to include an insert with details such as:

Information about the wedding day agenda
The appropriate attire for guests (i.e. business-casual, formal, black tie, etc.)
Accommodation details (in case you blocked rooms for your guests at a hotel)
Gift registry information or your wedding website (if you created one)

You can get inspired by some great examples for wedding invite wordings on: the knot, Brides and minted.
If you are looking for guidance on how to best phrase your invitations to communicate who exactly is invited (and who is not), take a look at this article

Printed Invitations or Evites

It is becoming more and more common to choose electronic (e-)vites instead of printed invitations. Based on your personal preferences, you might want to streamline the process of inviting your guests to your event by having it managed online through the choice of sending out evites.
Or you prefer to have physical invitation cards that your guests and you get to keep as a memento. Both are great options, the choice is yours 😊.

When to send your Wedding Invitations

Many wedding planners recommend that you send out your wedding invites no later than eight weeks prior to your date. Of course, it is up to you to send them a little earlier or to wait longer. You know your own timeline best.

"Save-The-Date" Cards

To make sure that your guests do not commit their time to another event that falls on your wedding date, you could send save-the-date cards, a practice that is very common in the U.S.
A save-the-date card provides your guests with very basic information: when you are having your wedding and where (city).
That way, your guests can pencil your wedding date into their calendars. You can send out save-the-date cards as early as a year from your wedding date.

Websites for Printed Wedding Invitations

Let me share with you a list of websites I have found that specialize in creating beautiful printed invitations. All of these websites allow you to choose from a long list of templates that can be customized online.
You can also select the paper quality, add embellishments (e.g. metallic finishes) and additional customizations and premium options. These stationary providers also offer envelopes along with the invitation cards and other custom stationary items such as table cards, save-the-date cards, guests books, etc. Simply click on the name to get to the business' website, they are linked.

You can order physical, printed wedding invitations from these businesses:

Wedding Evites

If you prefer to send Wedding Evites, here are some websites that you can use to create your wedding evite. They also allow you to track the responses.

Free Tools for Planning your Wedding in Berlin

I found this great website Here Comes the Guide where you can find free checklists to download for planning your dream wedding.