Guest list - how did you decide?

The order of list by:
Both families
Friends
Co workers

Our parents gave us who they wanted! Most were close people we wanted involved anyways! Then we looked at inviting friends, coworkers, etc.

View quoted message It went over well. All family brought kids and wedding party and anyone who had kids but wasn't family never asked to bring them.

View quoted message How did this go over? I'm really struggling with kids or no kids right now but my sister will have a 10 month old at the time of the wedding and so will one of my other BM's.

We just made sure that family were the only ones that could bring kids and not kids of friends. That cut it down a lot.

We both have large families, so we set the limits at aunts, uncles and first cousins only and set aside a portion for close friends. That seemed to be the most fair way to keep things small - we created and stuck to strict criteria!

Started with family first, immediate and second/third cousins and who I am still in touch with, if it was more than 2 years that I haven't talked to them or seen them they were only invited to the ceremony and not reception.

Same thing goes for friends. Inviting someone to the ceremony doesn't cost anything so I'm not losing money if they decided not to show up.

I started by writing down all our family members that we would want at the wedding. I then wrote down our closest friends and went from there. Always keep in mind your budget and venue when planning your guest list. Also keep in mind that if it allows for it, you can invite some extra people to the reception.

Honestly, I just put in all my family members that I want there, our friends and all of his family members that I could think of then showed him. I was missing a few but he added them.

I started by people that are absolutely necessary to be there, like family and super close friends. Then extended it to close friends and their significant others and so on.

I agree with Chloe. I would also add though that depending on the venue you might have a minimum number to Guarantee. I know we have one and we need to guarantee 225 people. We can go up to 290 so we have places to play with

It's good to know your budget (larger lists are more expensive). I would start with writing down the closest people in your life who absolutely have to be there and have your future spouse do the same. See how many are there and write down some other names you may like to be there. Play around with numbers.