Good morning one and all.

Hope you're all well and having a lovely weekend!

Very quickly before we get started it's awesome to see that our venue, Hafod Farm, has made it onto The Love Lust List. Fantastic news! We know that a few of you who read our last post have booked your weddings there since and we're excited to hear about your day too. Let us know how you're getting on.

I'd like to say that this month has been busy with weddingy things but alas that would be a lie. This month has been taken up with the topic of today's blog - (dramatic music) The Guest List and all things related to our wonderful family and friends who we hope will be joining us on the day.

Having spoken to a lot of people this seems to be the cause of the biggest headache. Venues, dresses, catering and entertainment are a doddle compared to this. It's something that myself and Debs have gone round and round in circles over. We've procrastinated, we've taken it al fresco, we've even tried applying LEAN techniques to it (something that Deb learnt at work recently and now is the best way to solve problems, apparently) and yet still here we are, having got no further than square one. Well maybe not quite square one, but almost...

When Debs and I got engaged the first job we did was draw up a list of everyone we wanted at the wedding. Three pages of A4 and 189 names later we had our guest list...Things just got complicated. The more that we talk to our friends, others who have been married and in a similar situation recently have all said the same thing: that people are now more aware that planning (and paying for) a wedding is hard, and expensive, and that it's ok to be able to cut numbers right down, people will understand. One particular thing that did stand out was from our wonderful friend Katy, she said "if there are people who are upset with you for not being at the wedding and if they won't understand your reasoning and the difficulty of something like this and the cost, then they probably aren't actually as good a friend as you'd initially thought."

Good point well made. The last thing that we want to do is offend any one of our friends or family, but we have to be realistic. Neither of us want to start married life with a huge debt or looking around the room and seeing people we've never met before. When we were able to accept that advice from Katy, the guest list became a lot easier to manage and now we think that we have it sorted. It's hard though, and certainly with 80 places for the ceremony it should be plenty but it's made a little more difficult as we don't want to have an evening group of people coming along later. We need to have a think about invites though, how long before should we send them out? We should probably check that, and is it ok to have a 'reserve list' in case some of the guests aren't able to make it at all?

Onto one of the big topics. I know that some of you reading this may decide on having a child free event, but for us it's not really an option. So many of our friends have children and we've got nephews, God children and cousins that we want there, so a child friendly day, full of fun (for them and us) is what's called for. We've thought about this a lot, and Debs' mum mentioned that one of the weddings she'd been at had a crèche, so the little people were happy and entertained throughout the ceremony, and their parents (and the Bride and Groom) were able to have a relaxed ceremony without some of the kiddies getting restless, this is certainly something that we're going to have.

It will, of course, be up to the parents if they want to bring the kids along, or whether they'd prefer to have a day/evening off to relax. We're not sure what would be the preference here but I guess that's one decision that we don't have to make, thankfully.

As we're going for a 'Welsh rustic charm' feel to the day, we're not sure if we should go for a formal seating plan or alternatively go down the informal route with seats, picnic benches and maybe even the odd picnic blanket so people can sit where they want with whomever they fancy. The flexibility of Hafod Farm is liberating but there are so many choices and configurations that it's hard to pick one. We've lost many an hour on Pinterest looking at all the possibilities and we've got some gorgeous ideas, perhaps there's the opportunity for all of them to come together, we certainly have the space there!

We've decided on a BBQ or a hog roast, with local cider to wash it all down with, so does that lend itself to being more informal, or would people rather know where they're sitting and like to meet some of our other friends? I think that Deb would quite like a table plan of sorts, if only so that she and Kirsty can make it.

We'd be delighted to hear any suggestions for the best ways people have got to meet others and not felt awkward about it to help with this. The photobooths seem to be very popular at the moment and certainly something that we can pull together, but is it as much fun to have one as we've found them in the past, or are we just a little immature? Debs is forever stealing hats at parties and generally messing about so this probably wouldn't be much different, in fact, I think it quite suits her...

I've also just remembered that we need to look (and take out) wedding insurance. Alex - our very beautiful Wedding Coordinator friend did tell us a couple of options, because we didn't know a) why we really needed it and b) where to get it. It's wonderful to have a friend who is so organised, excited about all things wedding and willing to help with the planning, just reminding us of the little important things that we wouldn't have even thought about. Thanks Alex, for all of your help!

I think that's enough of my wedding rambling for this month, as always, your suggestions are appreciated on how to arrange lists, seating, children, insurance and whether my Mum and sisters are right, do I have to wear a jacket for the ceremony?

Much love,

Paddy and Debs