Life. Love. Lipstick.

From the first day Dustin and I discussed getting married over a year ago, the guest list was a source of stress for me. We knew from the beginning that we could not afford to have a wedding with more than 50 or 60 guests. Not only did we want to have a small guest list for budget reasons, but I love intimate weddings.

I have a very large, very close-knit family. The way our family dynamics are, if I invite one of my mom’s brothers and his family, then I have to invite all my mom’s brothers and their families. This equals out to around 60 people… without even beginning to invite my dad’s family, Dustin’s family, and friends. I played around with guest lists when I was bored, trying to cut out people and see how small I could get my part of the list. Fast-forward to last week. I decided that to avoid drama and unnecessarily hurt people, there needed to be cut-off criteria. We decided that I would invite immediate family and my very closest friends. Dustin can invite whomever he wants, since he can’t even think of 20 or 30 people he would invite. His family is very different than mine. Plus, he doesn’t care a thing about hurting people’s feelings over something he thinks is silly.

I am very satisfied with my list, and while I know some of my family will not understand (I come from a small Southern town, where weddings are held at the church and fellowship hall, all food is finger food made by family, and it’s “the more, the merrier,” complete with an invitation in the newspaper and on the church bulletin board), I know I made the right decision for myself. Sure, we don’t even have a date yet, so the list is bound to be tweaked a little. But it sure is fun to plug the names into the spreadsheet Dustin made for me! If anybody would like a copy of it, email me. I’m happy to share.

Now, if I could just get Dustin to make his list [you reading this, babe? ]…

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2. Our Own Wedding
3. Amanda and Christopher’s Garden Wedding
4. Leigh Ann and Rhett’s Formal Southern Affair
5. Our Own Wedding: Still Torn