My FH and I want a small to medium sized wedding. If we just do immediate families, grandparents, and very close friends, we're at 22 people, which doesn't seem like much of a party. Adding in aunts, uncles, and 1st cousins gets us up to 80 people quickly. In our perfect world, we'd split the difference and have about 50 guests. That's the right number to meet the minimum spend at our venue with the biggest package.
One idea is to invite only the aunts, uncles, and 1st cousins that we have a relationship with. We're defining that as anyone who we've both met at least once over our 8 years together, and that either of us have had any contact with in the past year. Why should we spent almost $200 on someone that has barely had any presence in our life in over 8 years? These criteria get us to our ideal number, but I'm worried that it will offend people. On one hand, someone will be offended by something regardless of how careful I am, and it is my day. On the other, it's rude to exclude people.
Is there a way to frame this politely or do I have to choose between the 2 extremes?
