Who to invite

Thinking about who you want to invite to your wedding is one of the first tasks to get done.

Think about the following categories of guests:

Relatives – parents, grandparents, siblings, nieces and nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles and of course, your own children if you have any.

Friends – best friends, friends from college or university, friends from school, friends from work, friends from previous jobs, friends of the family.

Make a short list and a long list of people you would like to invite. The short list should be the really important people, or the wedding VIPs. These are the ones that absolutely have to be there.

You need to identify these VIP’s because you need to check their availability before you fix on a date. Key people to think about are parents, grandparents, siblings, and your circle of best friends. Sound them out to find out whether they have any holidays, exams or other events in the next 12 months that you need to take into account.

You can firm up on exact numbers later on when you have more idea about the size and cost of your chosen venue and catering arrangements. Unless you have unlimited funds, you will normally need to compromise on the number guests. Weddings are usually an expensive business, and often someone else is footing the bill, so you may need to take their budget into account when deciding how many friends and relatives to invite. However, you can consider doing things on the cheap if you want to.