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By George Meszaros
Do you know how many people exactly to invite? Have you
already
set your wedding date? Have you set your wedding budget? If
the
answer is now, don’t worry. These are some of the most
difficult questions to answer you will be faced with during
the
planning process. There are many difficult tasks in the
initial
wedding planning process such as making the guest list. As you
make your decisions, you may find yourself making compromises
due to parental, budgetary, venue capacity, location and many
other forces.
Wedding ceremonies mean different things to different people.
You have to make a decision if your wedding is going to be a
once-in-a-lifetime event or smaller more intimate celebration.
The most significant limiting factor is money. Your budget
limits the number of guests you can invite more than anything
else. After you establish the reception budget, you can
quickly
do the math and decide the maximum number of guests you can
afford to invite.
More than $16 billion is spent on wedding receptions in the
America. The wedding reception will most likely account for
the
biggest chunk of your wedding budget. It is not uncommon that
close to half of the total wedding budget is spent on the
wedding reception.
The overwhelming majority of reception sites charge per-head.
If your reception budget is $6000, and the cost per head is
$60.00, you could have no more than 100 guests. You have many
options to reduce expenses such as buying your own alcohol,
having a buffet dinner instead of a served dinner.
Unquestionably, you have to take budgetary restrictions into
account when organizing the guest list.
If your parents are footing the bill for your wedding, you are
going to have to respect their input for the final count. The
larger part of the wedding your parents finance, the more you
may have to listen to them. The more friends and relatives you
have to invite, the longer the guest list is going to be.
Money is not the only factor affecting the size of your
reception. Your guest list should also be affected by the size
of the reception site. Be sure that you don’t fall in love
with
a venue until you are sure that it can accommodate all the
people you plan to invite.
Historically, the bride and groom’s family invite half of the
total number of guests. More often than not, the major check
writers are calling the shots. If you can’t live with that,
you
and your fiancée should be prepared to pay for your wedding.
As
a consequence, you’ll be able to decide the majority of the
guest list.
About The Author: George Meszaros with
www.partyandweddingfavors.com
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