Remember: Shower guests are wedding guests. Any guest who is invited to a shower must also be invited to the wedding, with a few exceptions, such as coworkers who give an office shower. Keep that in mind when drawing up your guest lists for wedding showers.
Talk to friends who live far away. If you know that distance will prevent certain people from attending, call them to see if they think they can make the wedding If not, factor this in.
Stick to your first-tier and second-tier guest lists. Try to redraw your lines equilaterally, bumping entire groupings of people--second cousins, work associates with whom you've never socialized, or friends from the health club.
Excerpted from
Fifth Edition of Emily Post's Wedding Etiquette by Peggy Post. © 2006 HarperCollins Publishers
