How many guests to invite to your wedding

8 April 2021 / Dan Symboll®

How many guests to invite to your wedding

8 April 2021 / Dan Symboll®

“There’s nothing that makes you more insane than family. Or more happy. Or more exasperated. Or more… secure.”

Jim Butcher

Weddings are full of love and excitement, that’s why is always so fun to share the special occasion with so many friends and family. But while it would be awesome to invite everyone you know to your special day, sometimes it’s not always possible.

Smaller weddings typically consist of 100 guests or fewer. Somewhere around the 200-guest mark makes up the medium-sized wedding and from 200+ guests it is considered a larger wedding.

Whether you want to invite all your friends and family, along with those of your fiancé(e), or keep the ceremony on the down-low between you and some of your closest loved ones, choosing the size of your wedding comes with a lot of factors. Some of the main factors that determine how many people you can invite include your budget, time, and, of course, venue. While some of these factors can be completely independent of each other, most of the time they go hand-in-hand. Here’s what to know before sending out those fancy wedding invitations.

BUDGET:

While it’s always nice to dream about having an extravagant dream wedding in some romantic part of the world without having to pay big bucks, it’s always best to stay realistic with your budget when planning your big day. Oftentimes, your wedding budget determines how all-out you can go for your guests. However, your monetary resources shouldn’t stop you from enjoying your big day with those you love. All it takes is creativity, resourcefulness, and patience.

Naturally, if you’ve set aside more money for this big day, it’s possible to pamper scores, if not hundreds, of guests. You can fit your guests in a large, elegant venue while also providing them with a whole catered three-course meal.

If you’re more on the saving side, you can either opt to give a select handful of loved ones for the whole dressed-up experience, or you can also go for a more casual ceremony and reception. Though entertaining a smaller crowd than most grand weddings, the casual take on a wedding guarantees a more intimate setting with your loved ones.

LOCATION:

If you and your spouse-to-be aren’t too keen on spending a fortune, it’s probably not the most feasible to bring hundreds of friends and family out to a luxury destination like Hawaii or Europe. Large destination weddings mean paying for the family to come out, finding a place for them to stay, and figuring out transportation if they don’t have access to cars.

However, if it’s in your resources to bring your family out to your dream tropical beach wedding or to France for an ornate church ceremony in the City of Love, then go for it! Choosing a location that’s more central to where you and your loved ones life will help cut costs. Doing so will have you worrying less about paying for cross-country our out-of-country flights or finding hotels and transportation.

VENUE:

When it comes to selecting a venue for both your ceremony and banquet, it’s best to make sure your guests are comfortable. You don’t want to book a venue that requires your guests to cramp together, but you also don’t want one that will make your special day feel empty.

Luckily, there are a number of venue types that can accommodate different sizes of weddings, think beaches, churches and temples, gardens, and other outdoor spaces. Other types of venues such as grand banquet halls in hotels and spaces created for specific parties are better for larger weddings. Before booking your wedding venue, it’s always best to visit different kinds of spaces. By visiting your venues, you’ll learn what the max occupancy is, what a dance floor might look like for hundreds of guests, and whether it will comfortably fit your guest list.

STYLE:

Lastly, the style of your wedding can often determine the size of your wedding guest list. In the past, we at CineStory films have seen a wide range of sizes and styles of weddings. But most of the time we notice that the smaller, more casual weddings go for the rustic and modern look.

Though it is more than possible to have more than 200 guests for a rustic and modern wedding, most of the time, such weddings aren’t about decking out banquet halls with the typical flower walls and floral centerpieces. Instead, smaller weddings can mean more simplistic decorations, leaving room for more attention towards the happy couple. Going the simplistic or minimalist route for your wedding can also mean saving money, which means you can invite even more loved ones. Again, these kinds of smaller weddings can take less time to plan, but they can help create a more intimate atmosphere.

The classic, or traditional weddings, on the other hand, often cater to larger groups. These kinds of weddings are typically held in banquet halls that can host hundreds of guests. But impressing tons of guests with such an elaborate wedding style will require more planning. Making the guest list, whether it’s for 50 people or 500, can be stressful. But it helps to think from the perspective of a loved one who will either take a 15-minute drive or a 15-hour flight to see you get married to the person of your dreams.

Of course, regardless of how many people will attend your wedding ceremony and banquet, your wedding is something you’ll cherish for years to come. But fond memories depend on the loved ones you have around you.

How many guests to invite to your wedding