How far back in friendship for guests?

We are not inviting people that we have not spoken to in the last year.

You won't regret being selective about this. And lucky you, you still have plenty of time although venues do like to have an approximate guest count to know if they can accommodate you.

Personally, I didn't invite anyone from high school because I haven't spoken to them in years. They would have been "nostalgia invites" and after talking things through with FH we decided it wasn't worth it. I invited 2 friends from college that I still keep in contact with. They're my BMs. I've invited a few friends from grad school even though I know it's possible/likely we'll drift apart after graduation. But they're the people I spend a lot of time with currently so I thought it was appropriate and I'm thrilled to have them.

My suggestion regarding friends in the past? Have you had a meaningful lunch or hang out in the past year? Go by that. Also let the guest list breathe a bit as a few more months pass and you can reevaluate your current relationships. It's awkward to tell someone they're invited over a year in advance and when it's time to send out invitations you barely talk anymore.

We had a specific number of guests that we could afford to properly host. After we got through our families, we went down the list of friends that we were closest to until we reached our limit.

If I hadn't had an actual conversation with them 12 months before making my list was our starting point, we still made cuts from there.

This is totally a personal preference. The only rules I'm sticking with are, who are the people I would miss if they weren't here, and not to treat our guest list as a family/friends reunion. Invite family and friends who you can't imagine your day without and don't feel pressured to invite more just because Aunt So and So says here daughters boyfriends cousin knew you as a kid and would love to see you marry.

For the most part we're sticking with 'if we haven't spoken in the last year, they're not invited' rule. I made some exceptions for a few college and high school friends who were a huge part of my life for many years and I couldn't really imagine my wedding without them, even though we've fallen out of touch (mostly my fault, I moved across the country). But that's just how I've been thinking about it...

If you haven't been in touch with someone over the last year, then I'd say keep them off the list. Someone you only hung out with for about a year, and then haven't spoken to them in 2 years? No, I wouldn't invite them. You don't need to invite every person you know, or every acquaintance you've ever made. You should really only be inviting close friends and family. It doesn't really matter how far you go back with them or not, what matters is the relationship you have with them now.

Our rule was, if you don't talk to them anymore then they don't get an invite.

Our friend list is unfortunately pretty small due to our families being so large, so we had to make a lot of cuts. Our list consists only of friends we've each, or both, spoken to/hung out with in the past year. I have several friends I'd like to invite and am sad that I can't, but at the same time I don't talk with or see them often at all, so I don't feel too bad about it. We each invited a couple co-workers we work closely with and talk about the wedding with; I realize that if we were to leave our jobs that those relationships would probably fizzle out, but we're close now so I felt bad not inviting them.

I agree with a lot of people that have said if they haven't spoken to them in the last year, they didn't make the cut.

I would say, if you are really torn.. ask yourself if you would feel guilty about not inviting them. If you just cannot seem to get a couple people out of your mind, just invite them! They obviously mean something to you and you want them at your wedding.