Drama...Drama...Drama!

As I have continued to plan my wedding I have encountered some challenges.  My fiancé and I have just started to "plan" our wedding and I think the most stressful thing that we have come across is people "giving" their opinion!  For example, after meeting with a venue vendor last week he and I started making our guest list.  our list was at 150, which was our ideal number.  My sister suggested that I invite other family members that wouldn't show up due to travel expenses as a curtesy.  I didn't see the harm in that and made a separate list.

Later that day, we met with my fiancés sister who then added another 50 people to our list!  The people she had suggested were people who we purposely left out or people we didn't know close enough.  I didn't say anything and we both looked a little overwhelmed with the fact that our list had increased from 150 to 200 in a matter of minutes!  

We both took time to process (this was after I freaked for a few minutes) and decided that we needed to cut our list down.  Where to start...we decided that we would eliminate the people we hadn't originally included in our list.  They were not added for a reason.  Our wedding is about us, the people we are closest to and who can understand our quirks, inside jokes and know who we are together as well as who we are apart.  I don't want to feel obligated to invite certain people to avoid world war 3...bring it!

The other thing that was useful in our reduction was that WE are paying for our wedding.  Unfortunately and FORTUNATELY, we will be paying for our wedding out of our own money.  Unless the neighbor wants to pay for her plate and then some they can't have an opinion.  I am aware that people mean well but this wedding needs 2 decision makers.  

I am sure there is more stress to come but for now it's just an experience where we are learning to delegate and make final decisions.  SUGGESTIONS???