The wedding guest list is the ultimate test of bridal endurance and a political minefield. Personally, I like to call it the 'how to lose friends and alienate people' list...

“So, who are you inviting from work, then?” asks a colleague over a casual after-work drink.

It seems like a reasonable enough question, except it totally catches me off guard and I unintentionally list the few colleagues I am inviting except for her, at which point she exclaims, “Well, thanks for the invite, Tash!”

I want the Earth to swallow me whole. She has been on the guest list from the start, but in the heat of the moment I forget to say that, and then it looks like I’m backtracking.

Luckily, we are good enough friends outside of work for her to not get too offended (I hope). But what about all the other people I work with/ went to school with/ spent hours shooting the breeze in the student union with? The list goes on...

I have a numbers limit on my venue, so I physically can’t invite everyone I know, which is probably a good thing and is certainly a perfect excuse for those uni friends who seem baffled that they’re not invited, even though I’ve only seen them twice in the last seven years.

The Stylist wedding blog: navigating guest list politics