- Blog
- Bios
- Boards
- Classifieds
- DIY
- Gallery
- Vendor Reviews
- Shop Weddingbee
Weddingbee boards
I have the exact same problem! Our venue holds 150 max and our guest list is closer to 190 right now. My fiance is from the west coast, which is where most of his family/friends live, so he's certain a large portion of his guest list won't attend as our wedding is on the east coast. But to invite that many people makes me so nervous! I'd love to hear how others handled this and bunnylovesbear, how many you end up inviting.
I think it really depends on travel and time of year. We had less than 150 attend, but had invited 275. This is because a) we got married on NYE, a semi-holiday, b) it's the winter and we got married in Ohio, so some people were afraid to risk the possible snow, and c) for about 90% of our guest list all had to travel over 2 hours to get to the venue. Those are things you should take into consideration. If you have 185 and your venue holds 150, you probably won't have a problem.
I invited around 60 Guest's and about 10 declined, due to travel and time of year. Thursday Wedding What What! But most of the intown guests are coming! Yay! So I would see what your ratio of out of town/ to in town guests and go from there.
I am in the exact same spot as you, except our venue holds 150 and we will have almost exactly 150. the only thing we are unsure about is FI co-workers. He has an office of about 20 people or so and we were just planning on having him take an invitation and sign up in and have people sign up if they want to attend. I took this into consideration, but it makes me nervouse not to know how many to really plan on.
If I were in your situation, I might sen out his families invites a little early so you can get a feeling on who will be coming.
It all depends on your situation. How many people are out of town? How many won't bring guests?
I actually had a friend who could only afford 220. She invited 265 and 250 attended her wedding. But most of her guests were from the area and the only out of towners were really close friends.
A lot of time you can go through the list and take an estimated guess of who will and won't come.
In the same boat! Most of ours will have to travel either 30 minutes or an hour and a half.. Neither of which is too bad.
Let me know how things work out!
I have been editing, editing, editing the past few days! I have found it helpful to make an A and B list.
Also, here are some rules I came across, but can't remember where I found them. I am not necessarily following all of them.
1. If you have never met them, they are out.
2. If you work with them and will not stay in contact if you leave, they are out .
3. No children
4. Single guests without long term relationships do not get a guest.
This post is also VERY helpful
It sounds like a lot of us are in the same boat....I agree with gocubbies about making two different lists or something along those lines...I did mine in Excel and colored coded who was for sure, who might and who isn't (at least from what I assumed thus far). My guest list is HUGE and it got bigger then we wanted by far, but we both have big families - 330 guests total but about 20-30 probably won't make it for sure.
Hmm....thanks for the input. We'll have to take a closer look at our guest list and estimate how many "declines" we expect to get. I have a very large family and very few guests are from out of state.... I'll have to talk with the venue to see what happens IF we end up with more than their 150 max when we go to see the place.
Definitely ask your venue about what happens if you have a larger head count than capacity. When my friend got married she has a venue capacity of 100. She and her FH had 150 people actually come to the wedding. She had to ask some of her friends if they were planning to come to the reception because they were running out of space! Thankfully for her some of the guests declined dinner if they could make it to the ceremony instead and she lucked out.
Basically, don't send an invite to someone thinking "oh, but they won't attend" because you never know! ;)
i think it depends on a lot of different situations. our wedding is on a sunday, and we're inviting a lot of people only to the reception- so a lot of oot people weren't willing to travel all that way and miss work when they don't even get to come to the ceremony. (i'm ok with this, i wanted a small wedding.) we invited 145 and 95 are coming.
ahh yes Im in the same boat too! We invitited about 150 and our reception site which is a restaurant can only hold up to 150. The worst part is that when we went to look at it the manager said "oh yes this can definetly hold up to 150 people. So we put a down payment on it and closed the deal. Well a few days later we told her where things like our dj was gonna go and shes like "Oh, your actually gonna have a dj??? Well i dont think then that since you are going to dance that this will hold up to 150" WHAT!?!?!?!?! She honestly thought we were not going to dance at our own reception! So yes, I would LOVE to have everyone there that we invited, but the "no-shows" are kinda what we need too right now.
My folks told me to expect that 1/3 of your guest list won't show. Easy estimate!
We are inviting 196 and have a capacity of 176. However, we had already cut out about 30 others, so the 196 are all pretty close to us. We don't want to "over invite" more than that though. It really depends on your list on how many of those are just aquaintances, how many are out of town, and what time or year it is for everyone.
Also, we have a couple of "worse case scenarios" planned. If for whatever reason we end up with more than 176 guests, we will have to do a different layout and just cram 'em in there. We also have an outside deck that we could put a couple of tables on if absoluately necessary.
@caszos - Is your venue okay with your backup plans? If I fall in love with the venue that has a capacity of 150, I'm hoping to be able to work some sort of magical deal with them where they still allow more, if necessary. Most of my guest list are the people that I would absolutely expect to be there! We already cut out the maybes.
I would suggest a 2 round invite list. The first round are the "must haves" and the second round are the b-list. However you define them is up to you, but my view is a must have is someone who I can't imagine not being at my wedding. The b list are those that it would be nice to have them but you're not really bothered either way. I would also include plus ones in the b-list (those plus ones that you are permitting out of courtesy, rather than that they are in a long-term relationship, etc. and therefore deserving of a plus one).
To accomplish this, your first round should go out as early as possible with a firm RSVP date 6-8 weeks before the wedding. Then you can issue your second round with confidence and it is still enough time that they won't feel slighted or a last min addition. It will also allow you to prioritize your b-list and send enough invites to get to your predetermined number.
The key is the a list and b list people can't know each other for obvious reasons.
We're aiming for 150 but our guest list is 180 right now. That does include plus ones for some people who may not end up bringing a guest and of course I'm sure some people won't be able to make it but still - makes me nervous! Our venue can fit more but it would be tight and aesthetically it would drive me crazy to have the tables too cramped. Not to mention it would be annoying for guests.
I'm planning a 2 round guest list. We can only really afford 125 guests and our A guest invite list is 140.
According to our wedding specialist, industry standard is that 20% of those you invite will not attend. So for your 185, it's likely that 36 people may RSVP "no," so you might be safe. But of course, that's just an average.
You must log in to post.
| Visit our sister sites | eHarmony Online Dating |
eHarmony Advice Dating Advice |
Project Wedding Wedding Songs |
JustMommies Pregnancy Calendar |
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Hi All,
Just curious - of the guests you invited to your wedding, how many actually ATTENDED the wedding? I'm trying to figure out my guest list vs venue capacity, and I'd love some guidance!
Long story short...the venue I am interested in has a capacity of 150; however, I have a guest list a bit larger (more like 185). What's a "safe" number of people to invite with a capacity of 150?
Thanks!!