Guest lists are often a big debate topic during wedding planning. Because it can become a heated issue, there are a few steps I would recommend taking before jumping into the specifics of the list.

• Decide your total guest count based on your style, budget, social expectations. decide on this Number first between all parties
• Decide the break down of brides guests to grooms guests to get your side’s final number
• Use a rule of thumb to decide how many potential guests to invite to reach the actual expected guest count
  
• Approximate the breakdown of guests, how many guests the bride/ groom expects to have, how many guests the parents expect to have
• Each person who is inviting guests comes up with an exact name/address list (ideally all in the same excel format)
• The Controller goes through and reviews guest list to look for overlap, missing people, etc

 
A first generation Indian family guest list has a few unique attributes, such as:

• Inviting family, friends, business associates who live in India and have little to no chance of coming to wedding events *do not count these people in your guest count, but it is polite and expected to send them an invitation, and it is worth a few dollars per family to make everyone feel remembered, loved, and welcome