Guest List Cuts

Had you already sent save the dates? You can reach out to people and let them know you’ve had to scale back the wedding and while you wish you could invite everyone you just can’t. I’d expect some people to be upset though when they realize that you still had a fairly large wedding- I’ve never seen a venue where 80 people is “micro”. Every micro-wedding I’ve seen has been less than 20 people.

How were people invited already? Like maybe you mean had you told people by word of mouth that they would be on the guest list? Just curious since your wedding is next March, so invites wouldn't typically be sent until December/January. Did you maybe move your wedding date because of COVID? If that's the case, I would just use that...say you had to change venues when you pushed your wedding out, and unfortunately cannot physically accommodate everyone anymore.

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I've sent the save the dates last year and then change the date in early 2021. I thought Micro was 50 and under and was surprised when I saw this venue considered it up to 80.

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Yes we did move it in January because of COVID, we were unsure of what was gonna happen and such. And since then I've lost my job and searching for a new one at the moment. For our previous venue, we had to have a minimum of 125 and we were adding plus ones left and right just to make that minimum.

Since you've already sent save the dates, I think you have two options here:

1. Switch to a different larger venue so that you don't have to uninvite people. Going from a wedding with 125 to 25 guests is a legitimate switch to a micro-wedding and I think guests would be very understanding in that case. But 128 to 80 is very different, because 80 is by no means a small wedding. I would probably expect people who were previously invited but now didn't make the cut to be hurt with a switch from 128 to 80.

2. Send out cancellation notices and start over with a whole new guest list for a whole new event (at this new venue with 80 guests). This way, you won't risk offending people who would have otherwise been cut from your original guest list. If you're set on this new venue with 80 guests, then I would go with this route, because it's way more polite then simply un-inviting people.

I agree that 80 definitely doesn't sound like a micro wedding. I also agree that you risk hurting feelings. Guests are way more likely to understand they didn't make the cut if you were limited to 25-30, but not 80.

If you already sent save the dates and these people are aware they would’ve been included, it would be extremely rude to uninvite them, especially since you’re not having a 15 person event or something. I think a lot of people would be very offended. Maybe look into less conventional or traditional venues so that you can include these people at a lesser cost. Parks, breweries, community halls, etc.