So we sent out Save the Dates back in January. I notified my parents and Fi's parents then that we needed their guest lists so we can send Save the Dates. Tada, done. 225 people invited to the wedding, 225 people people to plan and budget for.
Fast forward to 1 month ago. I told all of our parents that invites will be going out in a few weeks, and here's a copy of the guest list. Please double check it and make sure that everyone is on there that needs to be.
Fi's dad and step-mom tell us that it looks good and who they want invited are on there, and we're good to go. YAY!
Fi's mom gives me a list of a few relatives she "forgot" about the first time around, which equated to 20 people. Not a horribly big deal, but still a bit more than we expected.
Then my mom and dad go through the guest list and pretty much tear it apart. If we invite this cousin (that I actually talk to and see), then we need to invite this cousin too on each of the sides of the family to make it fair.
Not only do we have my parents adding about 50 people that weren't originally in there, and FI moms' 20 guests. His mom proceeds to stop by last week and ask if invites have been sent yet. I tell her no, but they're put together and ready to go. Well she wants to add this co-worker, and that friend of hers, and this neighbor. And "so and so's son is mad that he didn't get a save the date." Okay, we'll invite so and so's son that neither of us have ever met. He won't come anyways because he lives in AZ and the wedding is in IL. But come to find out, FI's family reunion is the day after the wedding, in IL. So that is why all of this family wants invited, because they will already be in town for the reunion.
And not to forget to mention, FI decides that he wants to add about 20 people between his co-workers, boss, and their wives and SO.
So needless to say, within the last month our guest list has gone from 225 to 400 people. I mentioned this to my parents (who are footing the bill), and they have told us that these are all people important to our lives and are invited for a reason. Glad they're okay with almost doubling the catering budget.
I just need to vent. When we started the wedding planning, we both knew our families were huge and that our guest list would be an issue. So we made sure we booked a venue that would accomodate up to 450 people, and we prepped ourselves for a large wedding. But when we got the lists from parents for Save the Dates, we were both excited because we were going to end up having a smaller wedding. Which is what we both wanted.
We aren't wanting to cut the guest list, because we know and understand that not all of these people will come. If they do, that's fine, they can be accomodated. But I just am freaking out a little bit, because I never wanted this big of a wedding. But then some of the people we forgot the first time around, I felt horrible about because some were people we talk to often or mean a lot to us.