Dilemma #1 - To invite or Not to invite

It's been over a month and a half since I've been engaged and yet I haven't managed to blog regularly. Something I did not think was going to be a problem for me since I've managed to write about all the things I would do when I finally got engaged for so long. I think what it is, is a writer's overload. I didn't know where to start since I have so many things on the go.

I've booked the venue, Great Woods Park, I have a dress, and solidified a date, June 18th 2011.

But alas, my first dilemma...who makes it onto the guest list.

{via someecards}

First, I come from a large family, a large and close family, so I knew going into this that I would not be having one of those "less then a 100 guests" weddings. I didn't, however, expect to exceed 250 possible guests but I did.

Second, I took for granted my mister's smaller family would mean a smaller guest list on his side, and so did he. Currently we are at 70 adults & 11 children for him.

Third, I work in a relatively small office of 25 people. 25 people that I actually like and consider friends for the most part. Unfortunately 25 + guests brings the list up another 50 which I just can not justify as I'm trying to maintain a reasonable budget and my venue, as well as the food & alcohol, is a variable cost based on the number of guests rather then a fixed cost like many other sites would have been.

Since I can't cut out our families from the guest lists and we were pretty particular about who counted as close friends, I'm stuck putting my colleagues on a waiting list. I've decided to invite my three employers, as well as 4 other women + their significant others that I work closely with but everyone else is in limbo. I'm currently still holding out hope that I will either figure something out in my budget or I'll find out that more then the average 30% of invitees will decline and I'll have room.

I am struggling with the idea of a B-list of guests though. Is that poor etiquette? I won't be sending out invites until a few months before the wedding date so I have time to decide but it is one that is bothering me.

And who knows, maybe none of these people actually care if they are invited and I'm just stressing myself out for nothing!