Stressed About the Guest List? You’re Not Alone — Here’s How to Handle It

Creating the perfect wedding guest list that you, your partner, and your families are content with is not all that easy. The guest list suggestions change often before you reach the final count. Parents usually prefer making a wedding guest list on pen and paper. At the same time, millennial couples love to put everything together in Excel or Google Sheets with room to add the total number of people coming from each family. Merging these lists then becomes an additional task. But the GenZ couples are smarter than their previous generations and love finding quick and easy solutions. What if I told you, we at WeddingWire India have a solution for you. You can now plan your entire guest list on our website or app for free. Open the guest list tool and add your guests directly from your phone's contact list. This helps you synchronise your wedding guest list. Ideally, the guest list should be finalised before the wedding venue and catering services are finalised. Vendors need to know your guest count before you finalise the contracts with them. 

Table of Content:

• How To Create a Wedding Guest List
• How To Limit Your Wedding Guest List
• How to Use Our Free Guest List Tool
• Features of The Guest List Tool

How To Create a Wedding Guest List

To create a wedding guest list, we've cut it down into small steps. This will ensure you're inviting the right people and considering everyone's input as well. 

Step 1: Divide Your Guests

To make sure you're considering everyone's wishes, you first need to split the guest quota among yourself, your partner, your family and your in-laws. You can either make this a fourth for each or divide it as 60/40 among yourself, your partner and your families. 

Step 2:  Create a Master List

Next, you need to create a list of everyone you're considering inviting to the wedding. This will include your friends, colleagues, cousins, relatives, family, etc. Open a spreadsheet on your laptop and just start typing names. Don't think twice, if you want them to be at your wedding, just write down their names. 

Step 3: Segregate The A-List

Once you're done writing the names of everyone you're considering inviting, start separating the top-tier guests. These are the guests you absolutely want at your wedding. Filter them out of your master list and create a separate list of these people in the same sheet or a different tab. 

Step 4: Consider The Budget

At this point, you must consider your budget and see if your current one can accommodate the Master guest list or not. If not, consider cutting down some names (a guide of which is in the next section of this blog). While making this decision, also keep in consideration your venue choices. See if the venue you're looking for will be able to accommodate your guest list or not. If not, choose a bigger venue and see if it can be covered in your budget. If your budget is unable to accommodate your wedding guest list, it's okay- you can always invite the A-list and go for an intimate wedding.

Step 5: Consult Your Parents

By now you will have an idea of your final guest list and it is this part where you should be consulting your parents. If you hadn't divided the guest quota in step 1, you must have your parents check your wedding guestlist once to ensure all their guests have been included. Make sure you are respectful and fair with your decisions. Also, once you have the final guest list, keep a buffer of at least 10 extra guests.

Step 6: Send Out The Invites

This is a crucial step that will determine your final wedding guest list. Once you send out the Save The Dates and wedding invites and get RSVPs, you'll realize how many guests you wanted at the wedding would actually be or not be able to make it. This will leave empty spaces which can then be filled in with guests who you had to leave out earlier. 

How To Limit Wedding Guest List

We understand limiting a wedding guest list can be a huge challenge especially if you're living in India. With our big families, huge groups of friends and family friends, limiting a wedding guest list might seem like an emotionally and mentally taxing task. But if you're the one financing your wedding and are looking to reduce the number of guests for an intimate wedding, this is an essential job. You have to understand that at the end of the day, people will have to understand and that the ones who matter will always wish you well, no matter what happens. On that note, to make this incredibly stressful task a tad bit easier for you, we've got some useful tips:

1. Eliminate Extended Family Members

You would have a lot of extended family members who you are not even in touch with for the past few years. Know that it is okay to eliminate them from your wedding guest list if you want an intimate wedding or are on a budget while financing your own wedding. 

2. Limit the Plus-Ones and Kids

Eliminating plus-ones and kids is an easy way to cut down your wedding guest list massively. When it comes to plus-ones, it is okay to limit it to friends who have had partners for years and have introduced them to you as well. When it comes to asking guests to not bring their kids to the wedding, it can be a more difficult job. Make sure you're only limiting kids to your immediate family and friends. One easy way to ask guests to not bring their kids to Indian weddings is sending out invites with only the name of the guest without adding the term "With Family". This gives a clear and polite message to the guests. 

3. Eliminate Neighbours and Coworkers

When you're having an intimate wedding, it is important to understand that you only need to keep your family and close friends on the wedding guest list. It doesn't matter that your neighbours and coworkers are the people you see every day and spend the most time with. Understand that your wedding is an intimate affair and you would only need the people who are closest to you there with you. If you are incredibly close to your coworkers and neighbours, consider throwing a cocktail party or brunch party, later on, to celebrate with them. 

4. Rule Out Guilt

You may have friends who haven't been in touch with you for years or people who had invited you to their wedding but did not make it to your close friends' list. Know that it's okay to not invite these people to your wedding and that you do not need to feel guilty about it. Chances are, they weren't expecting you to invite them either and if they did, they would still be sending you wedding wishes and wishing you well no matter what. 

5. Keep It Private

Guests you have invited might spread the word of your wedding before it happens and this might make the ones who weren't invited feel a little left out. This will further add to your pressure and you might feel guilty about not inviting your extended family, cousins or friends. To avoid such situations, it is always best to keep your wedding guest list private. For Indian weddings this will mean keeping things under wrap until the wedding is done, requesting the invited guests to avoid discussing the wedding with others and avoiding the use of social media for wedding date announcements, etc. 

How To Use The Guest List Tool

To assist you with one of the most significant wedding planning tasks and make it convenient, let us take you through a detailed step-by-step guide on how WeddingWire's Guest List tool can be your saviour. Don't forget to make notes! The WeddingWire India app, Wedding Planner by WeddingWire.in, is user-friendly and easy to use. The Guest List tool will help you maintain your wedding guest list without hassle. Here is a step-by-step guide for you.

WWI Free Guest List Planner

Step 1: Download The App

Download the Wedding Planner by WeddingWire.in the Play Store (Android) or App Store (iPhones) application.

Step 2: Log In or Register

Register/sign up on the app with your email or through your Facebook or Google accounts to unleash the genie.

Step 3: Click on More

On the home screen, click on the More option seen in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Step 4: Go to Organise With Ease

Click on the Organise with Ease option. 

Step 5: Click on the Guest List

From the drop-down, click on the Guest List tab.

Step 6: Go to Groups

The Guest List option opens to the tool's home page with Groups.

Step 7: Add Guests

Click on this +Guest option to start adding guests.

Step 8: Click on New

You will be led to an automated form if you click the New option.

Step 9: Fill in the details

This automated form allows you to add guests and fill in their details. It also allows you to pick a Guest group for them and keep track of the RSVPs all in one place. You can add their emails and phone numbers to let them receive your updates and invitations directly. The status of the invitation can be seen—whether it is pending, attending, or declined.

Step 10: Or you can click on Import

If you do not add new guest names and already have them in your phone contacts, you can click on Import instead of New. The app will then ask for permission to access your contacts. You can select the names from your contact list that you want in your guest list, and the app will automatically pick the rest of the details.

The Features of The Guest List Tool

The Guest List tool is handy for maintaining a guest list for your wedding and the ceremonies held before and after the wedding. It is also very helpful in other tasks, like picking a food menu. Read on to learn the features that make the Guest List tool awesome.

1. Groups to Segregate Guests

When you click on this Group option in the Guest List tool, the app enables you to add people from your existing guest list to different groups. By default, these segregated groups are the Bride's Family, the Groom's Family, Mutual Friends, Colleagues, etc. However, You get to customise them to your preferred group divisions. You can keep the children in one place, the vegetarian adults in one, the non-vegetarians in one group and even the vegan guests can be put in one place.

You can further edit and rename the groups at your convenience.

You can even remove the group if many guests are not on your list.

2. Menus

The Menus tab in this tool helps you prepare a tailor-made food menu for each guest group. The wedding guest list might include vegetarians, non-vegetarians, or even vegans. You can add these guests to different groups on the guest list and prepare the food menu accordingly. It becomes very convenient to keep track of each guest and easily mention the per-plate count of each menu you pick.

Analytics

The Analytics tab in the Guest List tool shows how many guests have RSVP'd Yes or No or are still pending. This makes it easier to follow up with the guests and get confirmations before you finalise the number of plates for the caterers or chairs needed for your wedding seating.

By default, two menus are added in the tool under Analytics, but you can go ahead and add more as per your requirements. The graph for each will be visible here.

• The Groups under the Analytics tab show the number of guests who will attend your wedding from each group you have segregated them into. This allows you to make decisions smoothly. Especially in circumstances when some people from, for instance, the colleagues' group have declined, you can check your backup list or List B guests who could not be accommodated with your A-list before. You can keep tabs and send messages to your guests whose names are listed on the app. They will require access to your mail to send messages directly from the app.
• Even if you hire a wedding planner, it will be a cakewalk for all of you to keep everything under control with the Planning Toolsavailable on the website and the Organise with Easeavailable on the app. From the wedding checklist to the wedding budget tool, you will have a gala time planning your wedding with us. 

Get your hands on the Guest List tool to make it easy, and hire a professional planner to ensure your wedding planning process is hassle-free.