On your wedding day, you want to be surrounded by your closest friends and family. Whether you want to have a small or large wedding there are a few things to consider for your guest list. Are you going to invite children? Will you include your mother’s second cousins granddaughter? And almost more importantly what are you going to do about plus ones? We are taking a look at the whole “add guest” situation and breaking it down to hopefully help your decision on this topic.
Adding Plus Ones
You may ask why add a plus one in the first place? While the wedding is your big day if you’re throwing a party, you most definitely have to consider your guests and curate many things around them. From having food alternatives, to music everyone can dance to. These are things you do so that people can enjoy themselves. This is where the plus ones come in. A friend from work, or a college from collage, your neighbor or cousins who lives far away. There are always people who aren’t going to know majority of your guests.
Allowing guests to invite someone they personally know as a date can be a good thing. It ensures that they know someone at the party, even just one other person well. Nevertheless, as the Bride or Groom may know them well, you will be busy! The saying that your wedding goes by in the blink of an eye, most definitely holds true. And depending on the size of your wedding, you may only get a few minutes with each of your guests. Not many of us are comfortable making friends easily or being able to meld into groups of unfamiliar people. Cue the plus one.
But having plus ones means that your guest list will grow fairly quickly and in Covid-19 times that’s not always a viable option, nor is it something you necessarily want.
Covid and “Adding Guests”
If there was ever an unrivaled excuse as to why a plus one is not an option it is the lady rona. If there’s one word we’ve come to loathe over the past two years it’s unprecedented. And while it has us rolling our eyes because it’s managed to be the word of the year for both 2020 and 2021, it may come in handy when you decide that plus ones mean you won’t be able to invite people you actually care for. “Due to the unprecedented events of covid” and the limited numbers or gatherings both indoors and outdoors, people will understand. As a matter of fact we think guests will be so happy to be with people again that they may be more sociable.
Alternative Options
If you’re still feeling torn about this subject we have a few suggestions to consider:
- allow a few plus ones for those people who really won’t know anyone, be selective, make a rule, singles only or spouses only
- seat people with those they know or alternatively with similar age groups
- create a tiered invite list, it’s said that about 10% of your invites will be returned and declined for various reasons, and if you have a guest list amount your aiming for, there’s nothing wrong with sending out a few later invitations that include plus ones
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