Who to Invite to Your Wedding? And, Where Do You Draw the Line?
One of the hardest parts of wedding planning isn’t picking a venue or writing vows — it’s figuring out who to invite. You start with a few names and suddenly the list has tripled — distant cousins, old school friends, your parents’ neighbours…
The number of guests you choose to have at your wedding has a huge affect on the venue selection. You’ve got to think about how many people can fit in the venue, where the guests are going to stay, how the guests get to the venue, whether they offer guest parking, etc.
The photo below was great little wedding with just their closest friends and family. They had the wedding ceremony at the Grafton Art Gallery and the reception was back at their place. When you have a small wedding, you can cut costs on wedding venues. They still had a caterer but because the numbers were low, so were the costs.
(Civil Marriage Celebrant – Ryan Martin)
How to select the right wedding guests
A good starting point is to decide what kind of celebration you want.
If you’re dreaming of a big party, then go for it — include extended family, work friends, and anyone who’s played a part in your story, providing there is a venue near you that can cater for that sort of wedding.
If not, you may need to go venue shopping first to determine how many guests you can actually invite before it gets awkward and all of a sudden you need to retract an invitation or two.
If you’d rather keep things intimate and relaxed, AND simple, focus on the people you can’t imagine the day without. The more guests you invite, the more dramas seem to stack up.
Another helpful approach is to ask yourselves:
“Would we take this person out for dinner and happily pay the bill?”
If the answer’s yes, they probably make the cut.
There’s no magic number when it comes to guest lists. Around 60 to 100 guests is quite common for weddings in the Clarence Valley, but many couples are now opting for smaller celebrations of 30 to 50 — or even elopements with just a handful of loved ones. The right number is the one that feels authentic, not overwhelming.
At the end of the day, your wedding should be about celebrating with your favourite people — not ticking boxes or pleasing everyone else.
Ryan’s communication leading up to our wedding was clear and very helpful. He was so accommodating!
Ryan really highlighted the atmosphere and emotions.
Ryan was absolutely amazing performing at not only our wedding reception but our ceremony as well. He performed live acoustic for the ceremony and combined this with his DJ work at the reception, it was the perfect balance to keep the party going! Ryan also was the MC at our reception and was extremely professional, […]
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