Modern Morals: My mother says I should invite all my cousins to my wedding ­— do I have to?

We have a limited budget and I only want to invite the three cousins I’m closest to

People can often feel an 'obligation' to invite people to their wedding and, likewise, to attend weddings to which they are invited. Photo: Getty

Katie Byrne

Question: We’re planning our wedding on a limited budget and we’re having major issues with the guest list. We’re trying to cap the numbers and it’s really, really hard. I have three sets of cousins. I have no relationship at all with one set of them but I’m friendly with one cousin from one family and two cousins in another. We don’t have the space or the money to invite all my cousins but I’d like to invite three of them and I’m sure they expect to be invited.

I was happy with my decision until I mentioned it to my mother. She says there will be World War III in her family if I only invite three of them and she told me that it has to be all or nothing. But we just can’t invite all of them and I can’t imagine telling the three cousins that I’m friends with that they are not invited.