The Guest List

By Jessica Solloway

It's time to finalize the list, but Jess has trouble making cuts.

The part of the wedding that we've all been avoiding for months has finally approached. Finalizing the list. And the problem is that every time we try to cut, we do the opposite and find ourselves adding that long lost cousin, co-worker or college friend.

I'll never forget in the movie Father of the Bride, when George Banks gets the idea to ask immediate family not to eat in order to cut costs. I swear I was almost at that point the other day. I began to see how crazy trying to cut a list can make a person. I found myself looking down at the names thinking:

Grandma doesn't need to eat! Someone can take her to McDonald's in between the cocktail hour and the reception, right?!

She dumped him? YES! I mean, that's terrible! Minus 1!

Dad's old business partner moved to France? Au Revoir! Minus 2!

We haven't spoken to those fourth cousins in years. Great! We cleared out a whole table!

Point is, there's a lot of pressure to keep the list reasonable, but is it worth starting family wars, or hurting people's feelings? I can see what led George Banks to the grocery store in his velvet tux, trying to buy only 8 hotdog buns instead of 12.

But, my big fear is (and I know this sounds crazy), that we are banking on some people NOT to come ... and what if they do?! Are we going to be over capacity, and over budget? How horrible is that to hope that you get "NOs" in the mail? But who am I kidding, I know every family planning a wedding jumps for joy when they get some RSVP's that say no.

We are sending out the save the dates next week, so we have to get this finalized by this weekend! Crunch time!

On a totally different note, I realized this weekend I can do maybe 3 push-ups (the girl kind). I have really bad upper body strength apparently. (That might explain why I was so bad at that rope climb in elementary school gym class. Ugh, I hated that. I could never get past the 2nd knot.) So, I am making a goal to try and be able to do ten push-ups by July. I am hoping Jillian Michaels can help. As my mom says, "We need Michelle Obama arms for our dresses!" 

If you guys have any last minute tips about lists, please let me know!!