Guest List Etiquette: How To Solve The Plus-One Dilemma

Etiquette expert Karen Cleveland has joined Weddingbells as a guest blogger solving all of your decorum dilemmas. Read on for tips on how to retain poise from the minute he proposes.

Partners or spouses of friends or family members are a cinch when it comes to sending out invites, but what about your single guests? There is often pressure to address invitations to a single recipient with “and guest”, but are you obliged to? While it is a thoughtful gesture to allow a single guest to bring a date, it is not required. Before making a decision, here are three careful considerations to keep in mind:

· The same rule should apply to all guests, so either all single guests are welcomed to bring a date, or no one is. It is only fair.

· Just how many single guests will there be at your wedding? If it is a matter of adding two or three guests, it might be a feasible, and very kind, gesture.

· Are you comfortable meeting someone for the first time at your wedding? Such an intimate occasion might not be the ideal setting to be making introductions.

If you are put on the spot and a guest asks about bringing along a date, you can politely decline by explaining you have limited seating, or aren’t comfortable meeting new people on such a monumental day. And if there are many guests coming solo to your wedding, perhaps use the opportunity to suggest they save a dance for a certain other guest? Romance will be in the air after all.

Karen Cleveland is a Toronto-based etiquette advisor and writer. For more on her column, Finishing School, find her on Twitter or send her your questions and conundrums here.