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The 5 Biggest Wedding RSVP Headaches

Published Tuesday, May. 28th, 2019

Watch out for these kinds of guests when you are creating your wedding RSVP guest list.

What to watch out for when creating a wedding RSVP guest list

One of the biggest sources of stress for couples planning their wedding is (no surprise here) their guest list, which always seems to cause headaches no matter what sort of wedding you’re planning. Whether it’s your crazy cousin, screaming babies, a co-worker that’s always trying to sell her life-changing essential oils - we’ve all got a list of people we would rather not have in attendance, even if they think they deserve a seat at the table.

We’re not going to pretend that we’ve got the perfect solution for dealing with folks like this, but what we can do is provide some examples of common problem areas. That way, when you’re drawing up the guest list, you can plan ahead. We reached out to our friends in the wedding industry, as well as former brides and grooms, and these are some problem guests to watch out for.

1. The Food Diva

We get it. You’re only eating Paleo and Keto these days, and you can’t eat anything grown south of the Mason Dixon line, but wedding planning is hard enough without being a culinary expert.

“I had a few guests put ALL of their food preferences in the dietary requirements box, including the most random preferences,” one bride told us. She said that one guest wrote an entire paragraph explaining how much he hated mushrooms. Another wouldn't touch peas or broccoli.

"I even had one guest tell us that she wouldn’t eat eel. Who serves eel at a wedding anyway?”

Our advice? Just ask folks to list specific food allergies if you want to include a food preferences section in your RSVP. Most folks who can't eat common ingredients are used to packing their own lunch anyway.

An elderly man in sunglasses eats an ice cream cone outside while wearing a gray suit jacket and red tie

2. The Mystery Guest

It doesn’t matter if wedding guests are close friends or family, we still need to know who's showing up and what their needs are. Sometimes, guests will flat-out refuse to RSVP, and that’s never fun!

One guest just wrote, “You know we're coming!” a bride told us. The problem with that, she explained, was that she didn’t know their dietary requirements, song requests, or other information that would help her plan a successful reception.

“Just make it easy on us and give us the information, please,” she said.

3. The Music Snob

Are you inviting a friend that used to work at the college radio station back in the day? We’ve heard about guests that used the song request box to veto songs, bands, and even genres they didn't like.

“I’m sorry, but we'll play what we like,” another bride told us. “You are more than welcome to add a request for something you want to hear, but we’re playing Backstreet Boys whether you like it or not.”

Our advice? Ignore the haters and crank up that BSBS, BTS, Britney Spears, and Ariana! This is your wedding, include the music you love!

A young boy sits outside surrounded by trees with yellow fall leaves, wearing large blue headphones. His hands are resting on the headphones and he's smiling.

4. The Flake

This happens at almost every wedding, but it’s always an expensive complication for the couple. Wedding planners often find themselves dealing with empty seats that the couple has already paid for. It’s an all-around disappointment to waste good food -- and money.

“We had one couple book their wedding over Coachella weekend,” a Los Angeles wedding planner told us. As the day drew closer, some guests decided that it was more important to see Beyonce than celebrate their friends' commitment, and ended up not showing up to the wedding.

5. Kids-R-Us

This one is super sensitive so we’re going to preface whatever we say by noting that when it comes to inviting kids, the couple is always right. We don’t take sides.

That said, it’s not uncommon to have guests turn down an invitation due to a “no kids” rule. That’s fine, but it’s not OK to guilt the couple just because they don’t want children there.

One bride was especially hurt by a message from friends who said that it was "such a shame you're not having children at your wedding, families belong together.”

We’ve covered this at length, and you can read up on this sensitive subject here.

If the couple is spending their hard-earned money on creating a once-in-a-lifetime experience, just let them have their day. But even so -- couples should still be emotionally and mentally prepared for a few hurt feelings from one or two guests. That’s just life.

a funny meme showing two babies laying together, one has a speech bubble that reads: wanna party?

“Two of my wife’s cousins that were invited have three children each,” AMM Minister and former groom Josh told us. “One RSVP’d with no mention of children and the other had to be contacted before she said "Yes, we're coming. There will be five of us."

When Josh explained that it was going to be a small and inexpensive affair with a lot of alcohol, and not a particularly child-friendly environment, the cousins were unhappy.

“It sucked, but we wanted to have a good time with our adult friends, because that’s who we are,” Josh said.

The Takeaway

We could go on with this list, but these five examples should give you an idea of how (un) complicated the RSVP process can be.

Our best advice when it comes to tackling the guest list? Start early, and have an honest conversation about what sort of a ceremony and reception you want.

Once you (the couple) have a shared vision, it will be much easier to communicate this vision to your guests. And when any of these problem guests enter the picture, you’ll be able to handle the situation with grace and tact -- and still have your wedding, your way!

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