Makin' a list, Checkin' it twice... three times... four... five...

Christmas is over, I'm not talking about Santa, I'm talking about you (although it still does involve presents). The guest list is quite possibly the first major obstacle you will face in the wedding planning process, but it is a critical step and one that needs to be taken seriously.

The importance of the guest list is three-fold. 1) These are the people you will be spending your wedding day with. 2) The size of this list determines when and where your day will be. And last but certainly not least, 3) These are the people buying you presents! Now, that last one is partially selfish, but also has a bit of practicality that I will explain when we get there.

First, you want to make sure that you don't leave anyone out. This is why you want to make your list in steps, and review/revise it at least 3 times if not 13. There are a five major groups you need to consider when planning your list:

1. Your friends
2. Her friends
3. Your family
4. Her family
5. Your "joint-custody" friends

The way we found to make this much easier was a peer-review system. I made a list of 1 and 3, her 2 and 4, and we brainstormed number 5. We then compiled our lists to one master list in a notebook. We looked at it a couple times, struck some names out, added some more in, etc. I took it a step farther and created an Excel spreadsheet. It totals the guest list (so you don't have to repeatedly count 150+ names) and allows you to group your guests to make seating arrangements easier when you have a venue locked down. I went so far as to color code them, but that's not necessarily necessary.

The total number of guests will be a deciding factor in when and where your wedding will be. You may have a lovely place in mind, but can it fit everyone you want to be there? Maybe you found a great, cheap hall but you've only got enough people to fill one corner of it. Your guest list will weed out a lot of potential venues. Once you find a place to accommodate everyone, then you can find out if they've got a spot on your day. I believe it was a movie where I heard, "You don't pick the date, you pick the venue and the venue picks the date." If you have a solid idea of how many people are going to be there, you can lock down a hall much earlier and probably cheaper (Lesson: Booking early saves money. A lot of places would rather have a guaranteed $1,000 now than a chance at possibly-maybe getting $2,000 down the road).

And presents! I told you there was a practical component and that component is the registry. This takes time. My fiance and I spent nearly 4 hours at one store (although, I think we covered bed, bath, AND beyond) creating one registry. This is in part because the scan gun is a lot of fun and you can literally scan anything in the store. The other reason is that our guest list is right around 150 people. Even if you break it down into pairs or families, that's roughly 75 gifts. If you only register for 75 gifts, the chances you'll get the same thing at least once is very high (especially if its a less expensive gift). The economy still sucks and people don't have a ton of disposable income. We registered for somewhere in the neighborhood of 400 items. We tried to keep almost half of them to under $30. This way, people can still find inexpensive wedding gifts and we can still get more of what we wanted rather than getting a trip back to the store to exchange things (After all, after the honeymoon, do you really want to worry about exchanging presents?). I also want to note, that was one store. We're not being greedy, but registering for a lot of stuff at multiple stores makes it easier for those buying the gifts. More choice, more locations, more financial maneuverability.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is, take a lot of care on the guest list. If you get it done early and correctly, several other obstacles get suddenly easier.

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