WEDDING BLOG

Use These Tips to Narrow Down the Wedding Guest List

February 8, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

photo by Jonnie + Garrett Wedding Photographers

Choosing your wedding size and creating a wedding guest list with or without a wedding guest template can be one of the most stressful parts of planning. There are many factors to consider like your and your fiancé’s vision, your families’ expectations, and your friends’ feelings. It seems impossible to please everyone—because it is! After creating an all-inclusive list it’s time to do the dirty work: narrow down the wedding guest list.

Unless you have an unlimited budget and unlimited resources you will never please everyone. When all is said and done, your guests will affect how you and your fiancé feel on your wedding day and be part of your precious memories forever. Since it’s much easier to stay firm in your decisions when you have a plan in place, here are some tips to help you narrow down that your wedding guest list.

photo by Shadi Garman Photography

Pick a Venue That Aligns with Your Vision and Your Budget

Vision and budget are arguably the two most important pieces of the wedding planning puzzle. Once those connect, everything else can begin to fall into place around them—including your guest list. If visions of a cozy ceremony in a greenhouse and a dinner-party style reception at a local restaurant fill your wedding mood board there will be a natural cap for your guest list.

Even if your dream venue can accommodate hundreds of people, a more intimate gathering might be all you’re looking for. In this case, book the venue and set a cap yourselves. This is your special day and you want to get married somewhere that is meaningful that captivates you. Don’t let an inflated guest list, of all things, dictate where!

Divide and Narrow Down the Wedding Guest List by Tiered Categories

Trying to cut people from one long list can be both intimidating and down-right uncomfortable. One way to make the process easier is to divide everyone into categories: immediate family, close relatives, extended relatives, close friends, family friends, coworkers, acquaintances, children, and so on. Then rank those categories in order of importance and start cutting from the bottom.

There may be potential guests that fit into two different categories, such as a close coworker that consider a friend. We recommend putting people in the highest category you feel comfortable with. Using this divide-and-cut method allows you to cut more people at once while also decreasing the risk of hurting anyone’s feelings once they realize they were not singled out.

Consider the Present and the Future

Keep from looking back at wedding photos and wondering, “who is that?” by only inviting people known to both you and your fiancé. A wedding day is not the time for introductions—couples divide their time and need to find ways to stay present as it is. While taking personal relationships into account, also identify people you haven’t talked to in the last year or people you don’t see yourself keeping in touch with 5 years from now. This will help focus the guest list on the people who mean the most now and who likely will in the future.

photo by Leeann Funk Photography

Allocate a Percentage of Invites for Your Parents’ Friends

It seems to go against the last tip, we know. One of the hardest issues to navigate when creating the guest list is dealing with parents’ expectations. Keeping both families happy and sticking to a vision is easier said than done. There are a few ways to handle this split, and the conversation. If you are paying for the wedding yourselves, up to 20% of the invites can be allocated to your parents.

Parents Who Pay Should Get a Percentage of Invites

If parents are helping pay for the wedding, a fair split could be 50% for you and your fiancé and 50% for your parents combined—whether that means 25% and 25% for either set of parents, or a smaller percentage for multiple sets of parents. If one parent is paying for the majority of—or the entire—wedding, they might get a larger percentage. However you decide to split it, make sure not to give up more than 50% of the guest list. Your guests are the top priority.

Limit or Eliminate the “Plus One” Option

This is one of the easiest ways to cut a guest list almost in half. Either make plus ones exclusive for the wedding party and immediate family or make a general “no plus ones” rule for everyone. It should be enough to address your invitations to just the people who are invited. For example, “Mrs. Jane Smith and Guest” vs “Mrs. Jane Smith.”

Guests may assume a plus one is included. If you receive an RSVP with a plus one that wasn’t offered simply call your guest—yes, call don’t text or email—and be honest about your decision. When it comes time to create your reception seating chart, consider putting single friends together so don’t feel left out of the couple crowd.

photo by Victoria Gold Photography

Make it Adults-Only

Adults-only weddings will never go out of style, especially if budget or venue constraints mean choosing between inviting friends or inviting children. While it would be great to invite everyone’s families, often it’s not realistic. If you decide to have an adults-only wedding, make it clear on the invitation and on your wedding website so there’s no confusion. If there are too many children in your circle for an adult-only wedding, consider hiring a babysitting service to take care of the children at the venue so they are nearby but don’t require an extra seat.

Stagger the Invites

If all else fails and the guest list isn’t quite down to the number you set, be sure to send invitations in waves. Break up the final list into two groups: people who must attend and people who would be missed. Send invitations to the first group 5-6 months before the wedding. As you begin to get RSVPs, send out invitations to the next group of guests in an agreed-upon order. Make sure you give the second wave of guests enough time to RSVP and make travel plans. Make sure all the invitations sent no later than 8 weeks out.

Turning folks away from your joyous day will never be fun, there’s no getting around it. We hope these tips helped cut through some of the noise and made those tough decisions a little easier. Once you’re able to narrow down the wedding guest list the next step is invitations. Luckily, our vendor list includes the world’s best custom wedding invitations. Check them out, you’ll be glad you did.

The Homegrown Details in this Howell Family Farms Wedding will Give You Life

February 8, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

bright red champagne kelly green white

Chelsea and Boston’s wedding at Howell Family Farms was as sweet as can be! These two celebrated with their closest friends and family and made to sure make it an all-day celebration. While Chelsea Welcomed BrittanyBeautyTX to join her and her maids to get dolled up for the occasion, Boston and his boys were joined by Bradley Onyegbule for a fresh haircut before the wedding. Chelsea’s bridesmaids are rocking mismatched dresses from Lulu’s and Show Me Your Mumu that go perfectly with Chelsea’s bold patterned Rue de Seine wedding gown. All of these details were beautifully photographed by In Frames Photography!

The Couple:

Chelsea and Boston

The Wedding:

Howell Family Farms, Arlington, Texas

Getting ready in the morning with my girls was the most memorable! I had a very intimate bridal party of five. Each girl I owe so much of my happiness and joy to. They are not just my friends but my soul family and I could not have made it so far into the wedding planning process without them. Finally, when the time came to come together and get ready for my big day, my heart was full. My mother and soon to be mother-in-love (I call her my mother-in-love, not in-law because I married her son for love not for law) were in the room. My best friend Brittany is a professional hair and makeup artist for weddings and I lucked out to have such a talented woman in my life. To have her there doing all of my girls hair and makeup, including my own was intimate and lovely to say the least.

In the beginning of the wedding planning process, since I did not have a wedding planner, I was immediately overwhelmed. I narrowed down the top three things that were the most important to me, knowing if I executed those three things I would be happy if nothing else went right. The first was my dress, which I knew from the start had to speak to my soul. The second was a photographer that would capture the energy of our love and our day the way it felt in that moment. Lastly, that our wedding party, the people we hold so dearly to our hearts because each person we owe a part of our identity to, felt comfortable and confident in the decisions we made along the way, that it was nothing short of a magical day for everyone. In executing those three things, everything else that went right was a hooray and hallelujah!

Every venue we looked at either wanted us to choose a morning or evening wedding but I wanted an all day affair, so it was very discouraging. Eventually we found Howell Family Farms hidden a short 10 mile commute from our house! We toured it and I absolutely fell in love with the elegant rustic barn, intimate cottage suite, and beautiful farm land. Once Katherine joyfully told us we could have the venue all day, we were sold. It is one of the wedding details that was 100% right for us!

Everything will not go as you imagined, don’t hold on to the things that did not work out the way you had hoped. All you can take away is the immense amount of love you were given by everyone involved! Hold onto that memory and the way your husband looked at you every step of the way.

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My bridesmaids and I hand made the wedding bouquets and boutonnieres from Autumn Ferns and White dinner plate Dahlia’s that I grew in my garden specifically for my wedding day. The symbolic meaning of the dahlia in the Victorian language of flowers expresses sentiments of dignity and elegance. It is also the symbol of a commitment and bond that lasts forever.

I also have to add that walking down the aisle was out of this world, time slowed down immensely. It was one of the few “Be Here Now” moments you experience in your life where your mind can not be anywhere but in the moment, heart and soul. The only other time in my life when every moment was so accounted for was the day I delivered my son in an all natural water birth. I will remember these two moments for the rest of my life with warmth in my heart.

The Wedding Team:

Photography – In Frames Photography
Event Planning – Chelsea Comins
Venue – Howell Family Farms
Floral Design – BlondeOrchid
Catering – Blue Mesa Grill
Cake – A Bit of Sweet Cakes
Officiant – Richard Spiva
DJ – Ryan Morgan
Invitations – BlondeOrchid
Hair and Makeup Artist – BrittanyBeautyTX, Bradley Onyegbule
Wedding Dress – Rue de Seine
Bridesmaids’ Apparel – Lulu’s, Show Me Your Mumu
Groom’s Apparel – ASOS
Groomsmen’s Apparel – ASOS
Rings – Rosados Box, Diamonds & Designs

The biggest congratulations to Chelsea and Boston, and a big thank you to In Frames Photography for sharing their farm wedding with Junebug! If you loved Morgan’s photography in this wedding, then you’re in luck! Check out this timeless meets contemporary style in this Ebell Long Beach Wedding that she photographed.

Our Favorite Wedding Registry Essentials from Bed Bath & Beyond

February 7, 2018 | Junebug Weddings

Photo by Humble Gatherings // This post is sponsored by Bed Bath & Beyond

Starting a wedding registry can feel overwhelming at first, especially if you’re stressed out with other wedding planning to-dos. But don’t let the stress of wedding planning ruin the fun and excitement of building your wedding registry! To give you an inside look at the whole wedding registry process, we’ve partnered with Bed Bath & Beyond, the go-to place for building your registry. From Bed Bath & Beyond’s in-store appointments with registry expert consultants to their extensive product line up, we’re pretty psyched about what Bed Bath & Beyond has to offer newly engaged couples! My husband, Phil, and I joined in the fun at our local Bed Bath & Beyond to get a behind-the-scenes look at what registering with Bed Bath & Beyond is like from start to finish!

We started our registry journey with an in-store appointment!

First of all, I have to say that I was a little hesitant about the in-store appointment. I was sure that I could find everything I needed online, and that an in-store appointment wasn’t necessary. So you might say I was surprised when I realized just how valuable (and fun!) registering in-store can be. Feeling the products and seeing them in-person really helped us to narrow down our final registry selection. Plus, using the scanner is as fun as it looks!

Another giant plus to the in-store appointment was also a surprise to us! Our registry consultant guided us through the store and highlighted different products that we may or may not need from each department. On top of showing us what all the store has to offer, our consultant was able to tell us how much of a certain product we might need for our small family of two. For example, I had no idea that we needed so many dishes. When Phil and I got married in 2015, we registered for 6 sets of dishes, which, come to find out, isn’t enough for hosting dinner parties or family events! Our Bed Bath & Beyond consultant’s insight to the whole registry process was invaluable.

We might have had a little too much fun at our appointment!

Another reason why I believe Bed Bath & Beyond is the #1 place to register has to do with their diverse product line up. They have everything from home decor, to the best in kitchenware, to all of the fun stuff like massage chairs and travel necessities, and I haven’t even gotten to all of the products they offer online!

Bed Bath & Beyond’s online registry allows you to access thousands of products that aren’t available in-store. You can also schedule your in-store registry appointment online, which is just one more way Bed Bath & Beyond makes the whole registering process easy and stress-free!

To make registering even more fun, Bed Bath & Beyond hosts Rock Your Registry events. Learn about registering in a relaxed setting and treat yourself to food and drinks as you mingle with other engaged couples in your area (hey, new friends!). To RSVP for an upcoming Rock Your Registry event, head this way!

Who’s ready to check out some of our favorite wedding registry items from Bed Bath & Beyond?! These 20 wedding registry essentials are more than enough to get you started on your own Bed Bath & Beyond registry journey!