Emily’s phone rang. It was the caterer.

“Hi!” Emily answered cheerfully. She was still feeling pretty good now that the menu had been decided.

That feeling lasted about six seconds.

“We just received your updated guest count,” the caterer said.

“Okay,” Emily replied.

“You’re at 27 people over the original number.”

Emily stopped walking. Dave looked over. “What happened?”

Emily covered the phone. “Now we are 27 people over.”

Dave shook his head. “Twenty-seven?”

Emily nodded.

“People?”

“No, Dave. Twenty-seven squirrels. Of course, people!”

Dave decided not to comment. Emily went back to the call.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. We’ve updated the count.”

Emily thanked the caterer and hung up. She stared at her phone. Dave stared at Emily. Neither spoke.

Dave finally broke the silence, “So… that’s bad.”

Emily slowly nodded. “Very.”

They climbed into the car. For the first few minutes, neither said a word.

Dave cleared his throat and said, “Where did these 27 people come from?”

Emily glared at him, “That’s exactly what I intend to find out.”

When they got home and changed into comfy clothes, they started going through the guest list.

Five were relatives. Four were coworkers. Several were unsignificant others that apparently became significant sometime after the original invitations went out.

One person was someone Dave vaguely remembered meeting at a barbecue.

Another appeared to be someone neither of them remembered inviting at all.

Dave frowned, “Who is this?”

“I have no idea.”

“Do we know them?”

“Well, obviously we do if we had their address and sent them an invitation.”

Emily sighed. Then they found another problem…some guests still hadn’t responded.

Dave looked relieved. “Maybe they aren’t coming.”

Emily shook her head, “That’s the problem…we don’t know.”

“So, we are planning and paying for people who might or might not come?”

Dave leaned back in his chair. “This is not cool. We must find out who is coming and not coming, like today!”

Emily agreed. Dave asked, “How are you going to get everyone to answer?”

“I’m sending reminders.”

“To everyone?”

Emily nodded.

Dave said, “Should we make them sound nice…or threatening?”

Emily looked at him. “They will be very nice.”

“And not threatening? Not even slightly?”

“Dave…”

“Just checking”

Emily opened LinkMy.Wedding and pulled up the guest list. She could see who had responded, who hadn’t, and who still needed to be contacted.

“This will make things much easier,” she said.”

Dave looked at the screen. “Good. Because I was about to start calling people myself.”

Emily looked horrified.

“You?”

“Yes.”

“You were going to call them?”

“Yes, I was.”

“Dave, you once called your dentist to ask what time your appointment was while you were standing in his office.”

“That’s unrelated.”

Emily went back to work. Suddenly another RSVP appeared. Emily clicked it and stared at the screen.

Dave immediately recognized her expression. “What happened?”

Emily didn’t answer and slowly turned her laptop towards him.

Dave looked at the screen, and his eyes widened. “You’re kidding me.”

The RSVP was from his college roommate who originally said he couldn’t make it, but now said he would be attending…with a plus-one.

Emily looked back at the guest count, “That’s two more people we have to account for.”

Dave nodded, “At this rate, we are going to need a bigger venue.”

Emily looked horrified. “Don’t even say that.”

More guests meant more food, more tables, more chairs, more favors, more drinks…and maybe even more pizza.

Emily looked at the numbers, “We’re going to have to adjust the budget.”

Dave frowned, “How much?”

“I don’t know yet.”

Dave nodded slowly, “That’s not the answer I wanted.”

Emily closed her laptop. They had started the day worrying about what to serve their guests. Now they were trying to figure out how to pay for all of them.

And there was still another problem staring them in the face.

The seating chart.

Dave said, “Do we have to do this today? I’d like to enjoy a little bit of my weekend and watch some football.”

Emily glared at him, “Okay. We can do this later. But think about where you want all your friends, coworkers, and other relatives to sit while you are enjoying your weekend.”

“Okay, I will think about it.”

Emily smiled and said, “Honey, don’t forget that your parents are divorced.”

“How could I forget that? It just happened six months ago.”

“And they are both bringing dates.”

This was going to make the seating chart a LOT more complicated.

Stay tuned for Part 9 of The Ring, The Stress, and the Dress….

Because apparently, the guest list was just the beginning.