Wedding Guest List

Q: Do I have to invite relatives that I have not seen or spoken to in many years just because they are so and so's cousin/uncle/brother? It seems bad but I don't even know these people.

A: My opinion is that you really shouldn't feel obligated to invite anyone at all. Once you begin to invite one person that you don't really want to, you end up having to invite their spouse, and their sister, brother, their spouses, etc. It's all downhill from there. The way I see this is that this is your special day and you should be surrounded by the people you love, not the people you feel you "have to" spend the day with. However, if there are people that you would like to include in your special day, you can do something special for them rather than inviting them to the actual wedding. You can send them a little note saying you invited immediate family only, and compliment it with a bomboniere of some sort, or a wedding video, some kind of token gift.