guest list questions!

joellennitsche

how did everyone organize their guest lists?! how did you ween people out to make it fit your budget??

should i make a grid on the computer and start listing guests?  

i'm trying for 100 guests or less and i'm just not sure where to start!

lclemence

I use the Guest List manager on Wedding Wire. Theres' one on The Knot too, but I found Wedding Wire's a little easier to manipulate. Just a personal preference. I think both sites have a template that you can download to Excel to create your list, then you upload it back into the system.

Now, as far as making it fit the budget, do you have a venue yet? I found that most venues I looked at asked for a number estimate up front so they could give me cost estimates. We used the 100 guests number to compare apples to apples when it came to venue costs. HOWEVER, I would caution you and your groom to sit down and make a comprehensive list of everyone who you would want to invite. If your parents are helping to pay, have them submit their must-haves to you also. Once you've got everyone you need to invite, you can start assigning people to your A-list, B-list, etc. We wound up being surprised by how many friends and family we have that we really want there, and we're now pushing the limits on our venue space. I've heard you can "count on" 10-20% of your invited list not to show up, but it seems that everyone wants to go to Maine these days!

joellennitsche

what did you have on your spread sheet?? i have name & person they are bringing ( if bringing someone), address, STD, rsvp yes, rsvp no...

not sure what else to put!?

hcorr34

I ended up having a few different ones depending on my stage in the planning process.

I started with just names and number of people invited from that family, and added  addresses when I started collecting them for STDs.

When it was time to send invites, I made a new one (copy/pasted names) and kept track of yes/no/meal choice.

One of the premade guest list managers I found had, no joke, like 20 columns.  As soon as I saw that, I decided to make my own based on my needs at the time.  I hate looking at unnecessary information, so that's why I made separate ones.

joellennitsche

yeah i tried to look one up online to go from... but they all had waaayy to much unecessary information!!

jmconley08

just write a list on excel or word. we kept adding to them. checked off who we sent save the dates to, wrote in addresses, made a total headcount... gotta ask the parentals (if you want) for a wish list too. my mom thought of a few I forgot (oops) and add in a few depending on how many single friends you have. they could be dating by then. so much fun lol