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"This bride wants her wedding to have a very short guest list! Writes Save the Date reader Ellie: My fiance and I are paying for just about all of our wedding, so we&amp;#x27;re trying to keep our guest list short. We both have HUGE families, but I haven&amp;#x27;t seen or spoken to most of my family members in years. I&amp;#x27;m not close with anyone besides my younger siblings, so I don&amp;#x27;t see why I have to invite everyone else to my wedding. I actually just started talking to my mother again recently and saw my dad for the first time in YEARS last week. I even lived with my now-fiance&amp;#x27;s parents in high school. I don&amp;#x27;t see why I should have to invite the aunts, uncles, and cousins I haven&amp;#x27;t seen since I was 13 to my wedding&amp;amp;#8212;but I know if I don&amp;#x27;t, my mom and sister are going to freak out. I don&amp;#x27;t have anything against these family members, I just haven&amp;#x27;t seen most of them since I was 13, so I don&amp;#x27;t know why they need to be there on my wedding day. I also don&amp;#x27;t want my dad to walk me down the aisle&amp;amp;#8212;and I definitely don&amp;#x27;t want a father-daughter dance. Again, my mom and sister are going to freak about this. All this wedding stress is giving me a major headache! So what do I do? Help! Here are my thoughts: If you just saw your dad for the first time in years, why would he walk you down the aisle? I would just tell your mom and sister, &amp;quot;My fiance and I don&amp;#x27;t want to embrace every wedding tradition, so we&amp;#x27;re using the ones we like and skipping the rest.&amp;quot; Franky, I&amp;#x27;m not sure why that part of the wedding is any of their business. I&amp;#x27;m assuming they know your relationship with your dad is tenuous, so I&amp;#x27;d just be upfront about this one. As far as inviting your extended family goes, they can&amp;#x27;t really argue with budget constraints&amp;amp;#8212;unless they&amp;#x27;re going to foot the bill for an extra 20 or 30 guests. It&amp;#x27;s not like you&amp;#x27;re hosting a 500-person affair and inviting everyone but your extended family. I&amp;#x27;d just tell your mom and sister, &amp;quot;We&amp;#x27;d LOVE to have everyone there, but we simply don&amp;#x27;t have the money.&amp;quot; If they flip out about how &amp;quot;offended&amp;quot; everyone will be, follow up with, &amp;quot;I&amp;#x27;m sorry my limited budget offenders people, but it is what it is.&amp;quot; I feel like once you have both of these conversations, if you&amp;#x27;re firm and straightforward, they can&amp;#x27;t really argue with you. I don&amp;#x27;t think either conversation will pleasant, but once you&amp;#x27;ve had them, hopefully your mom and sister can let go of their expectations and move forward. Ladies, what do you think Ellie should do? Does she have to invite her extended family? Or can she tell her mom and sister, &amp;quot;MYOB!&amp;quot;? Have a wedding-y dilemma of your own? E-mail me! More reader&amp;amp;#8217;s dilemmas, solved! * If You Were in a Friend&amp;amp;#8217;s Wedding Party, Do You Have to Ask Her to Be in Yours? * What if Your In-Laws Refused to Acknowledge Your Engagement? * Can You Be Happily Married&amp;amp;#8212;But Still in Love With Your Ex? Photo: Thinkstock "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/weddings/blogs/save-the-date/2012/01/help-how-do-i-not-invite-my-fa>