On this blustery December morning, I thought I would fill my Tuesday with a blog post about yours truly and how I got my start in this wonderful industry of wedding and event planning. My name is Kyleigh and I am a Lake Tahoe wedding planner, the owner of Audere Events.

I got my start in the event and wedding industry when I was 19. It started as a summer job, to fill my weekends with while in between the spring and fall semesters. I was working a gorgeous mountain lodge, which was also owned by another event company in the area. Pretty soon I was floating back and forth between mountain weddings at the lodge and weddings on the lake.

Production days were my favorite. I loved walking in to a massive empty space at ridiculously early hours of the morning and knowing that by early afternoon, it would look like an entirely different space. I loved the feeling of accomplishment, when a completely ordinary space finally looked like something out of an extraordinary fairytale.

When that first summer was over, I chose to continue pursuing my degree in Psychology, with the addition of two minors in Business Administration and Communications. Coupled with my two years of work experience in weddings and events, I felt I had a well balanced education. After graduation, I took a position as a full time wedding planner in Truckee.

It seems silly to say but there was a fairly large world of difference between planning weddings as a venue coordinator, versus planning weddings as a wedding planner. Despite the initial learning curve, I couldn’t think of anything else I would rather be doing. I was helping couples, from start to finish, with the day that they would look back most fondly on. Helping them create memories and create something that was so uniquely them. I loved the emotions and reactions that I would see from my couples, as they day they had dreamed about had finally arrived.

It is an honor and a privilege to have the opportunity to work alongside such wonderful people during such a joyous time in their lives. After five years of working as a Lake Tahoe wedding planner, I know that I have found my calling and I feel so grateful to have found it.

One of the largest challenges I consistently see my brides and grooms struggle with, is knowing who to cut from their guest list and how to cut them without hurting anyone’s feelings. Hey, I get it. It can be really, really tough. When you’re like me and everyone in your family has been divorced and remarried, sometimes even twice, your list becomes astronomically high with names before you even get started adding your friends to that list. You could be looking at a list of 300+ names and working within a budget or a venue with a tight maximum capacity. So what do you do?

Photo Credit: Autumn Nicole Photography

1. Kids

Number one way to cut that list down? No kids! Unless it’s a child in your immediate family or a member of the junior bridal party, say buh-bye. If your cousin really can’t get a babysitter 6+ months in advance, or can’t bear to leave her child’s side for just a few hours, then so be it. That’s two less adults you’ll need to worry about as well.

2. What Goes Around, Comes Around

When looking at your list of friends and extended family, you may notice that many are also married. If that rings true, then ask yourself if you received an invitation to their wedding. If the answer is no and they didn’t elope or have another legitimate reason for you not being invited to their wedding, then you can very well rescind their invitations without feeling guilty.

3.  Don’t Be Afraid to Get Tough

In a perfect world, we wouldn’t be dealing with budgets, venue limitations or personal family dramas. We would be able to invite everyone on our list and sending out those invitation would be so much easier.  Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world and we do have very real limitations we are working with. At a certain point, it’s your responsibility to decide who’s getting the boot. You can 100% tell Mom she can’t bring all of her friends from yoga and you can certainly let your college friends know that if the budget allowed it, you’d love to have them, but it can’t so you can’t.

If you’re still not sure who to cut from your guest list, then check out the handy graphic below. And if that doesn’t work, then contact us for a complimentary consultation for your own Lake Tahoe wedding.

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