Wedding Planning: The Guest List

I've read in a lot of wedding magazines that planning the guest list is one of the hardest parts of planning a wedding. I read Q&A sections with brides wanting to know how to ask guests NOT to bring their children, complaining about how the guest list is overflowing with names -- & not knowing just how to trim the list, and of course the all time favorite "should we invite our single friends with a "plus one".

M. & I haven't had an extremely hard time with the guest list. We put together our list of family, close family friends, and close friends and it came to the number we were hoping for. I must say though, I still haven't decided whether or not some of my single friends will be invited with dates...any advice here?!?! For the most part our friends are either married, engaged or in very serious relationships.

I am really hoping that the guests that can make it to our wedding will show up for the ceremony & reception (because we are getting married in my childhood Catholic church we have to have the ceremony at 2pm & our cocktail hour is not starting until 5:30pm or so). Is it just me or does the idea of guests ONLY coming to the reception bother you?! I hate the idea that guests would only come for the party...I mean, the ceremony is the whole reason we're having the party in the first place! Obviously, on the day of the wedding I won't care one bit, but it certainly bothers me thinking about it right now! :)

Tonight my task is to get all of the names on our guest list into a lovely little spreadsheet so that we have it ready for addressing our save-the-dates (no, we're not using hand calligraphy for this part of the invitations, we'll use it on our formal invitations -- saves a little money, ya know?!) and for our future calligrapher to use for the formal invitations.

As soon as the Save-the-Dates are all assembled I will surely post pictures! I hope everyone has had a great Monday! :)