Woes: The Guest List

Even with that the nitty-gritty tips for cutting down the guest list, there are bound to be some bitter moments....

Over the past few weeks my mom has been whispering in my dad's ear about revising his guest list.  Even though I've spoken to him several times about the size of his list, he seems unwilling to budge on it.  He keeps insisting that his oldest friends in the world, who I have only seen three times in thirty years, must be invited.  So, last night he called to talk about my gentle suggestions about leaving off some of his friends.  We went name by name down the entire guest list and each time I suggested that someone might be removed he declared, "Oh, but he has to come!  I was invited to his kid's wedding."

I think my dad thinks this is a bar-mitzvah because he kept saying, "well, but there are going to be more kids than adults."  I wasn't sure what he meant by this since I actually haven't invited any children to the event.  But, then, I quickly realized that by "kids" my dad means all his friends' children, who are in their 20s and 30s now...just like me.  He thought these "kids" should count on my guest allotment since they are my age. I tried to politely explain to him that they are family friends and not people I call to hang out with on the weekends.  And, I do want them at my wedding and would prefer that they come instead of his childhood friend that I've only seen three times.  I tried to explain that "his list" and "my list" are sort of the same because our side of the family and my fiance's side of the family should really be able to contribute equal amounts of guests.  He wasn't having it.

And, so here we are in a stalemate with 30 people over our desired number...