'Excel-nerd' fiancé creates scoring system to grade and eliminate unwanted guests: 'Absolutely iconic'

A groom-to-be on TikTok proved that a Google spreadsheet can solve life's most crucial problems. In a now-viral video, bride-to-be Kate O'Neill (@kateeoneill) explained how her fiance Michael O'Malley created a smart spreadsheet to "score" family, friends, and other invitees for their upcoming wedding. His master plan was approved by the TikTok community, who hailed, "This is class."

In the video, Michael shared that they have a long list of people to invite, which led him to assign "scores" to each of them. "This is insane," lauded his would-be wife, Kate, to which Michael responded, "It's not insane, it's beautiful. It's absolutely beautiful." The camera then focused on the spreadsheet, which displayed several columns categorizing people by their relationships and ranking them numerically based on the necessity of inviting, the likelihood of attending, the groom's score, and the bride's score. The scales ranged from 0 to 10.

The individual scores were then totaled for an overall score of 40, based on which the soon-to-be-married couple decided to assign grades to the invitee list. For instance, Michael explained, "We then used an if/then statement to deduce what grade each person would receive. As and Bs mean you're coming! Cs mean we don't know yet, but it depends on the numbers and how much this bloody thing is going to cost. And guess what? If we don't like you — well, all you guys (Fs), we don't know your names, but you're not coming to our wedding."

Kate captioned the video, "Insane but practical" and the video inlay read, "POV: your fiancé is an Excel nerd and created a score sheet for your wedding guest list." The clip went viral with 8.3 million views so far and thousands of comments praising the man for his systematic method of decision-making, while others showed interest in buying the template. 

@imaginarymina wrote, "Things like this make me wonder whether all of life's tough decisions are just an Excel sheet away and whether that means I need to up my skills." @reluctantparisienne echoed the sentiment, "Honestly, all of life's decisions are logical IF-THEN statements that can be applied to Excel sheets. But because we are humans we have to factor feelings by being considerate." @melg claimed, "I solve 90% of my work problems this way." @moz was in awe, "This is absolutely ICONIC." 

Meanwhile, @imaginarymina noted, "I do it at work looking at data all the time yet somehow it didn't occur to me that there is potential in my private life." @vix'sstitches was left impressed, "I've often heard women say they want their husbands to be more involved with the wedding planning process. This is not what I thought they meant, yet I am impressed." @ravenclawedmouseketeer wrote, "This is a marketable template... SELL it!!!!" The bride-to-be obliged, "It's on Etsy now hehe." 

Preparing for a wedding can feel both beautiful and daunting. In a somewhat similar story, confusion unfolded for this groom-to-be, u/Least_Professor2732, whose future in-laws interfered with everything, including the guest list size. "300 people? I've always made it clear that I prefer an intimate wedding," he complained to the Reddit community. When he expressed displeasure to his fiancée, she questioned why he was suddenly acting up, given that her parents were paying for the wedding expenses.