Whether or not to give your guests a “+1” seems to be the most complicated and controversial issue when it comes to wedding planning. Right now, we're at the point where we're addressing and sending out our Save the Dates. I was trying to figure out the best way to include “and Guest” on the envelope, so I searched around. You know what the answer I got everywhere was? “Ask your guest their partner's name!” and “Guess what! You don't HAVE to invite people to bring a guest you don't know! Yay!”
Not helpful.
Believe it or not, we decided way early on in our planning that we are totally excited for guests to bring people we don't yet know to our wedding.
Yes, we're including +1s for people who are not currently in any sort of a relationship. There's still seven months until our wedding — a serious relationship can certainly develop in that time. (I met and moved in with my future husband in about that amount of time!)
We also agreed as such socially-challenged people, we would both appreciate being able to bring someone, even if it's just a super-close friend, to another person's wedding. We've made so many new friends by meeting new people at a party, whether it's been a party we've thrown or someone else's party. Yes, a wedding is different, but I don't want to pass up the chance to make a new friend or the chance for my friends to make new friends.
I know +1s aren't for everyone. Some people are uncomfortable inviting people they don't know — they feel like they are strangers. Some people can't incur the extra cost. Some people want a small and intimate wedding. I can understand all of that! But to us, we never thought of +1s as strangers; we thought of them as “friends we haven't met yet,” and that made the cost seem less-different from all the “friends we've already met.”
What are you doing about YOUR +1s?
