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Who to invite
The invitation list is often the most difficult part of the planning process and can cause the most grief among the bride, the groom and the parents. Everyone has their own idea of who should be invited -- what is appropriate also varies from culture to culture.
Come up with the number of guests you and your groom would like to invite to your wedding and try to assign the number of guests you think parents could invite. Keep in mind the number is often not equal on each side -- you have to take into consideration the size of the extended families.
Who is paying for the wedding? If the bride and groom alone are paying, then they can have control over the invitation list as well as the rest of the wedding details. If, however, the bride and groom are accepting money from one or both sets of parents, then they need to compromise and allow the parents to have some say.
Co-workers This is a tricky one! You may wish to invite only a few friends from work -- and those left out might be offended. You have to look at each case separately. I think that a good rule of thumb is if you socialize with co-workers outside the work environment, then they would be invited to the wedding. How many you invite depends on your budget. It's best to communicate with co-workers and just be honest about who is being invited even before the invitation is sent out.
Children You need to decide if you want children at your wedding. Often it's only the children who are immediate family who are invited to a wedding. Before you send out the invitations, contact those guests who have children and inform them that they will be receiving an invite and hope they understand that children are not invited to the wedding. This avoids the awkwardness later.
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