Who are all these people??

Okay, I promise you that we will talk about some actual wedding planning.

The morning after our celebratory dinner debacle I awoke to find my father reviewing a spreadsheet on his laptop. This is actually pretty normal behavior and I’ve learned that one of the many things I have in common with my dad is our obsession with spreadsheets.

  

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My coffee mug says so. It must be true.

I’ve also learned that spreadsheets are irreplaceable when it comes to wedding planning. Oh and beer. I’ve pretty much decided that all of life’s problems can be solved with an impeccable spreadsheet and a tasty beer.

I Can Has Cheezburger

See? Even this little dude knows it’s true.

This was not a normal spreadsheet though. Oh no no no. This lovely spreadsheet held the names of all of our guests.

That’s right. My dad was hard at work compiling the first draft of our guest list.

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DUN DUN DUN!!!

And man was this some spreadsheet. He had organized our guest list in a few categories. His family, my mom's family, their friends, our friends and my fiance's family and friends. It was pretty intense.

Now I’m going to tell you something and most people aren’t going to agree with me. And that’s okay. But I’m gonna say it anyways.

Don't even start thinking about your venue until you decide on your budget AND your guest list.

How’s that for some tough love?

I have heard of so many couples who find their dream venue and put down a deposit right away. Then they realize that the venue can only hold 65, but they want to invite 165.

Whoops.

Family is important to us and we certainly did not want to have to make cuts based on venue restrictions. So we sat down with both sets of parents and talked about how many people they wanted to invite. Then we added in our list of friends. And we talked. And talked. And talked some more.

And then we made it work.

Are you ready for this? Our guest list is currently somewhere around 200.

This meant crossing a lot of amazing venues off of our list. Was it disappointing when I would call up a beautiful museum or a local winery only to be told that they could only hold 100 people?

Of course! And maybe we didn’t get our first or second choice in venues, but honestly I am madly in love with the venue we choose to go with. It’s drop dead gorgeous AND it can hold up to 300 people. I’m sure that our number will fluctuate a bit as we get closer and I know a lot of people won’t be able to attend, but in that off chance that 100% of our guests RSVP “yes”, I know that we will be able to accommodate them and make them comfortable at our wedding.

And that’s really all I can ask for.

Did your guest list limit your venue search at all?