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Creating your wedding guest list can seem overwhelming. You want to include all the people that are important in your life and you do not want to forget anyone. In addition, you do not want to hurt anyone's feelings by not extending an invitation. This can be tricky if you are trying to keep your guest list small and limit the number of people that are invited.

The best way to get started is for you and your fiance to sit down and think about the different groups of people in your lives and make a preliminary list of the people you wish to invite. You likely will want to start out listing EVERYONE you would consider inviting, and then you can cut people from the list as needed. Also keep in mind, that proper etiquette dictates that anyone invited to an engagement party or shower should also be invited to the wedding. Some categories to think about are as follows:

• Wedding Party
• Bride's Family (immediate and extended)
• Groom's Family (immediate and extended)
• Bride & Groom's Friends (childhood, high school, college, work, church, former jobs, softball team, Bunko group, etc)
• Bride's Family Friends & Groom's Family Friends (This includes your parents friends from work, church, neighborhood, etc)

You will likely need to enlist your parents to help with their list of family friends. If you only have limited space on the guest list be sure to tell them that up front. Provide them with the list of people that you came up with for this category (as they will likely be people who have met and known for a long time). They may have other people they wish to invite that do not know you personally, but feel like they do because your mom or dad talks about you so much. Keep in mind, that if your parents are footing the bill for the wedding, you may need to make room for the people they wish to invite and cut your friends from high school that you have not talked to since graduation. A good rule of thumb when faced with paring down the guest list is to cut people what you have not talked to or seen in two or more years.

Once you have compiled your master list, you will need to add up the number of people you are planning to invite to see if you need remove anyone from the list to get to your desired head count. Some people will also create an "A guest list" and a "B guest list" at this point. All of the people on your "A List" will receive invitations in your initial mailing. You can send invitations to people on the "B List" as you get responses from guests stating that they will not be able to come to the wedding. This can be an effective way of keeping your headcount in check, while still being able to invite as many people as possible.

Another major endeavor referring to the guest list is gathering names and addresses of the people you wish to invite. Your parents and future in-laws can be a big help in this arena. Give them a list of names (particularly family and family friends) and ask them to gather all of the information you will need for your invitations. This will include the following:

• First & Last names (spelled correctly, with the names of spouses and children, if necessary)
• Street Address
• City, State, & Zip Code
• Number of Adults and Children invited

If you are using Excel to track your guest list, it is helpful to send a copy of the template you are using to the people who are helping you gather names and addresses. As they send their information back to you, you can cut and paste it into your master spreadsheet. This saves you from having to re-type all of the information, which should also prevent typos and misspellings. If you are using a wedding planning website, it may be helpful to give access to the site to your helpers so that they can enter information directly into the site.

Lastly, remember as you are entering information, remember that proper etiquette states that all information on a wedding invitation should be spelled out, instead of using abbreviations. (Examples: St. should be Street and CO should be Colorado). You will likely want to spell everything out as you enter it into your template or wedding planning site. This will prevent you from having to edit the information at a later date.

In summary, gathering names and addresses for your guest list can be a daunting task. Approving the list in a logical and organized manner you will save you time and headaches. Also, do not be afraid to ask friends and family to help you gather information and review the list for anyone you may have forgotten.

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Source by Brian Sneed