Creating a guest list for your wedding can offer you many unique challenges. While you and your significant other most likely have extensive lists of family, friends, and other associates, it is important to whittle down the numbers so you can create a sensible list. For many, this can prove to be quite difficult. You might feel there are people you would really like to invite but cannot due to space or budgetary constraints. Should you find yourself in this predicament, there are a handful of simple solutions for handling secondary wedding guests.

To get started, take a look at these tips on how to move forward with your wedding guest list when you have more potential guests than you originally anticipated. With a few moves, you can get things back on track and focus on other pressing marital matters.

Early Invites

The best way to solve the problem before it becomes more difficult is by making your wedding invite list as soon as possible. This is a two-person job in most cases. You’ll need to speak with your partner and set aside time to figure out who will be receiving an invitation. Doing this early can help you to see if you have any extra seats available. It also allows you room to come up with a list of “secondary” guests.

The secondary guests will be those you send an invite to when people start responding to your invitations. It is very rare that a bride and groom will receive unanimous “yes” acceptances to their invitations. The moment you get a response from someone who says they cannot attend, it is time to take a look at your list of secondary guests and send an invite out as soon as possible. By sending your initial invites out with enough time, your secondary guests are likely to receive their invitations with plenty of time to reply.

Priorities  

Your list of secondary guests is also going to require a certain level of organization. You need these guests to be written down in order of priority. You might want to invite both a second cousin and a coworker, but you need to figure out which of the two you want present more. Prioritizing your list is going to help give you a better idea of who to send invitations out to and when. It will also provide you with a general idea of which guests you actually want to bring into the fold.

Friend groups can often make handling secondary invitations to your wedding guests a bit of a problem. When friends talk, information gets revealed and sometimes feelings get hurt. If a friend of yours realizes he or she did not get an invite to your wedding until weeks after everyone else, you might need to address the fact this person wasn’t invited in the first round. Open and honest conversations with friends and family members about the situation can easily help you to keep your relationships stable while approaching your big day. 

Keeping Secrets

If you do not want guests to know they are second stringers, you will want to take extra precautions. The easiest way for guests to know they were invited secondarily is by checking the date on the R.S.V.P. card. To avoid this confusion, remember to remove any additional materials from the envelopes before mailing them out to your secondary guests.

There are a number of different ways to go about inviting people to your celebration. While you might want to allow everyone the chance to come, you know this is not going to be possible. To find the most sensible solution, take time to consider how creating a secondary list of wedding guests can help.