Guest Setting
My cousing is marrying a girl from south. She wants to invite 220 guests. She only wants to provide setting or about 150. Why? How can your guests eat, hold their purse and drink? Do you sit in someones place after they have soiled the table linens? Do you jump into their seat when they get up to go to the restroom? I never attended a wedding where some people could not be seated. The dinner is buffet style, but still, is this proper. It looks like they want the gifts but don`t have the money for such a big guest list. They dont want to listen to anyone about how embarrassing this will be with 80 people standing with plates in hand and nowhere to sit. HELP!
Posted by Colleen; updated 08/17/04
Reply
Usually you can count on abou 2/3 - 3/4 of your guests actually showing up. So for her to plan on having only about 150 is probably fine. I have a guest list of 148. I colour coded them for people who will definatly come (such as my parents) and people who probably won`t (like my fiancee`s aunt in Australia). For people who will come for sure, we will only have about 78. Why should we pay for 70 meals that won`t be eaten? I`m sure that she`s done something similar, every guest list has people who don`t come.
Posted by Sarah; updated 08/17/04
Reply
Actually, for buffet dinners it is very common to have limited seating, often people end up standing around eating and talking to different people anyway, and if they are having music it often gets started as people are eating and with that many guests, by the time the second half of the people get their food the first half will most likely be done eating any way, we all know how slow buffet lines can move. I wouldn`t worry about it. Besides, like the previous person said, generally a good portion of people don`t show up.
Posted by traci; updated 08/18/04
