Post # 1
Member
1 posts
Wannabee
Hello all! We’re from Canada and We’re very excited to be having our wedding in front of the castle at Disneyland in California! It’s been a dream of mine all my life, and luckily my fiancé was totally into it! Trouble is, the max guest capacity for a castle ceremony is 100 (Reception is in another area in the park, in a Royal hall) Problem is, I happen to have a big extended family. AND we see basically everyone in this family at pretty much every holiday, we’re all relatively close, and I’m pretty positive each of them would be offended if they weren’t invited. Currently we get 50 guests each and we want to include close friends as well! But my current guest list that I can’t decide between is 87. This includes dates & kids (not sure what the rules are for that).
My family also breeds like rabbits and essentially everyone has at least 2 kids. I’d say not invite them but… it’s a Disneyland wedding lol. That seems like an odd thing to do in this situation.
Hopefully the destination aspect saves me but I can’t count on that just in case the particular destination seems worth the trip to everyone suddenly lol.
How do you guys cut a family guest list with minimal damage? I would so appreciate any insight!
Post # 2
Member
2797 posts
Sugar bee
- Wedding: May 2015 - St Peter\'s Church, East Maitland, and Bella Vista, Newcastle
Invite in circles. So, start with parents/grandparents/siblings and their partners and kids, plus must-have friends. If you haven’t reached 50 (which is likely unless you have a lot of siblings!), move on to aunts and uncles. If that doesn’t hit 50, go on to cousins. If that takes you over 50, stop at aunts and uncles. If it doesn’t, move on to more distant cousins and so on.
Post # 3
Member
3048 posts
Sugar bee
Could you invite the kids to come on the trip but not to the ceremony?
Post # 4
Member
297 posts
Helper bee
sundressgal : where in Canada?
if your from central/eastern (I am from Toronto) do you have any idea how insanely expensive this is going to be for your guests?.. like there is zero chance everyone is coming
Also families with kids unless they are well off are actully more likely to decline because you know what a wedding at disneyland means? The kids whining that they want to go and if you look up costs of disneyland passes/food and then convert it to CAD dollars and times that by 4 you may pass out lol
I suggest pricing it out and start asking your VIPs, like I said due to cost you will get no’s and then you can start inviting like distant family etc
Post # 5
Member
170 posts
Blushing bee
supertrooper0101 : I’m from Toronto area as well and I disagree. I don’t think it’s “insanely expensive”- especially when comparing to other destination weddings. Destination weddings are always pricey so of course there will be lots of declines. However, flying to Florida is relatively inexpensive (especially via Swoop). I went 2 weeks ago to Orlando area for 5 days: I spent less (flight, hotel, food) than I would for an all-inclusive (which is a typical destination wedding). Plus, it’s a nice short flight.
I do agree with the point that if kids come on the trip they will whine about wanting to go to Disney and THAT’s where the price adds up.
I agree with others that you should invite in circles.
EDITING: just realized it’s Disney California- ignore everything I said hahahah
Post # 6
Member
15 posts
Newbee
My fiance and I live in a different country to either of our families (He’s CA I’m AUS) and we had similar guest list issues. My family is huge, many kids, etc. We categorised people into 3 invite rounds, and sent out a kind of pre-invite message to all of our round 1s about 1 year before the wedding asking anyone who knew they would not make it to let us know, then once we had heard back we sent out round 2’s accordingly and so on and so forth.
We were quite upfront in our pre-invite that our location meant we couldn’t invite everyone we wanted to, that there would be no hard feelings for anyone who couldn’t attend, that we didn’t want anyone to be put in a stressful situation trying to attend our wedding, and that if people let us know now that they wont make it we would be able to include other loved ones.
Not everyone got back to us but we did have quite a few people say that they would not be able to travel for the wedding (school, work, money, health). We also had a lot of people say how much they couldn’t wait, and people appreciated that we were being real.
Perhaps you could try something similar?
Also – I’m curious, why are you guys splitting the guest list 50/50? If his family is smaller and you are close with your family he might be willing to give up some less-close friends to accommodate, after all they will be his family too soon!