The Guest List before the Venue

By the time I proposed to Alex on Easter Sunday, everyone in the Crisp house was just ready to celebrate--enough of this waiting stuff, don't even think about planning yet! It was a bit of a different story though when a few weekends later we were down in Fowey again and found ourselves attending a beautiful masked ball at the Eden Project.

Shameless photo opportunity...

The event room overlooked the old clay mine, the gardens and biomes and thoughts of wedding dinners and dances swam through our heads. It could have been a few glasses of wine or adrenaline from all the dancing, but I asked for a venue hire brochure.

While the excitement at the possibility of such a venue mixed with the horror of the cost, Alex's mum asked, 'Well, how many people are you inviting?'

Ha, good question. Half of California and all of Fowey?

Not knowing exactly where to start with who-comes-to-what, we set out to make the biggest list possible of anyone and everyone we could possibly think of that would want to dance at our wedding. (Have I mentioned there will be dancing...?)

We spent our afternoon and train ride home making 'The List' or, as we called it, 'LoveFest Guest List,' including categories like Erica's Family (83), Alex's Family (28), Fowey People, Y-Town, The Ladies (E), Santa Cruz (A), Marin, VIPs (E), London, More to Life, and Ireland. Of course, there were subcategories within subcategories at some points, but Alex's handy Mind Maps (which she uses for her PA studies), well, came in handy.

Behold, LoveFest Guest List:

I'm beginning to really love Mind Maps...

If you're wondering why you can't really read it, even when blown up, it's cause there's a total of 330 names on there. And we're still not sure we got everyone.

While your reaction to a 330 person guest list probably depends on your family's versions of a wedding, I wasn't that shocked: it is a guest list for TWO weddings afterall.

Still, we did just make the 'Basic UK Guest List' which included 153 people getting invites, expecting about 106. (We like to be exact around here.)

So, if you'd like to receive a UK invite--cause it will be pretty--or you would prefer to go international in your celebratory dancing, speak now or in the coming months: next step is to pick a venue that won't be rained out in April.