Batteries Not Included

I am extremely defensive about our guest list. We have a very strict budget and would actually like to spend less if we can because Patrick and I are paying for 2/5th of it ourselves.

The killer of every budget is the guest list … Everything is based off of how many guests you have; can you afford the caterer of your dreams with the number of people you want to invite? Can you afford the rentals and what can you afford to spend on the favors? I don’t think people realize that most receptions are per plate and when it’s at a private venue like our is, we have to rent everything, so the cost of tables, chairs, place settings and favors all goes into account, it’s not just the food. So if we break it down according to these numbers each additional person will cost us roughly $110.

Because of this we have be forced to cut people off the list, some of these people we know and would love for them to join us but are less prominent in our life as others. We are also not allowing invited guests to bring a "plus one" unless they are in a serious relationship. We have a fair amount of single friends still and that would potentially be an extra 20 people. This is a little tricky, because you have to know if people are in a relationship, but again obvuiously if we are close with you we should know if you are seriously dating someone.

Also there are no children invited. It is an adult’s only wedding/reception. Don’t get me wrong I love kids and to be honest I had always pictured having a ring barer and flower girl during the ceremony but where would they go after the ceremony? We still didn’t want children at the reception. An evening reception just isn’t any place for children, dinner won’t even be served until 8pm. Also I don’t feel its fair to allow just certain kids, if we invite some we must invite all and if everyone with kids brought all their kids there would be 18 kids.

So if we allowed all our single unattached guest to bring someone AND have everyone bring their kids it would be a total of 38 extra people which comes out to about $4,180 EXTRA.

I understand that people might take offense to these choices we have made but we did it because of our limitations, not out of spite or disregard.

You might wonder "well how are you going to make that clear on the invitations?". Well I have thought of this a LOT. Firstly the invitations will be addressed to both people in the couple. As someone in a long term relationship I hate being refered to as a "plus one". If that person is as important to our guest as our guest is to us than they deserve to be address on the invitation as well. As for people with children we are hoping that they understand that it is just those addressed on the invitation that are invited. We have also included the link to our wedding website as well for people to find additional info such as dress attire, accomadations, registry info and other various things people might need.