The £272 guest
Spend per guest rose four per cent this year while total budgets stayed flat. The maths of that is worth understanding before you write your list.
The average UK wedding now costs about £272 per guest, up from £261. Total budgets held roughly steady. Both things being true at once means guest lists got shorter.
Do this before you argue about anything else
Take your budget. Divide it by the number of people you are picturing. Look at the answer.
If it comes out under £150 a head you are planning a different kind of day than the one in your head, and it is better to know now. If it comes out over £350 you have room to be generous somewhere that will actually be noticed.
That single division tells you more in ten seconds than a spreadsheet will tell you in a fortnight.
Why per head thinking changes decisions
Because it converts an abstract argument into a concrete one.
"Should we invite my colleagues" is a question nobody can answer. "Are these six people worth £1,632" is a question you can answer honestly in about four seconds, and the answer is sometimes yes.
It also protects the people who matter. Every name you add takes budget from everyone already on the list.
A wedding is not a headcount problem. It is a fixed pot divided by a number you choose.
The part nobody enjoys
There is no painless way to cut a list, and anyone who tells you there is a clean rule has not had to do it.
What does help is deciding the rule before you look at names, applying it to both families equally, and accepting that you will disappoint somebody. You will. Everyone does. The wedding is still good.
**Sources:** Bridebook UK Wedding Report 2026.
