400 Guest Wedding Planning

What ?

Why do you need 300-400 people at the reception? Do you talk to ALL of these people on a regular basis?

1. Nobody is close enough with 400 people to invite them to their wedding.

2. Don't have a tiered ceremony/reception.

3. 8pm is dinner time. You have to serve dinner if your reception starts at 8pm.

4. Is this a joke post?

That's rude. What is the invite to the guests that arn't allowed to arrive until 8PM going to say?

"Sorry you weren't good enough to come to the ceremony. You can show up to the reception at 8PM. Don't forget your card!"

WTF? No. Don't do this. Are you going to be serving dinner? If your reception is during a meal time, your guests will be expecting more than heavy apps.

Please don't do this, if you don't care about them coming to the ceremony then why invited them to the party...

No to your entire plan. Tiered receptions are incredibly rude. Why do you need to invite 300-400 people..

If you want to have a larger party later then just get married with immediate family only and have a celebration of marriage on a different day for the party.

And once again...WHY invite them to celebrate it if you don't like them enough to have them witness it?!

Even if it's on a different day it's still rude and I don't understand it. I personally would not want to attend a party for a couple who didn't want me there for the actual wedding

No.

I know there are some cultures where 300-400 people is a norm, however it sounds like you can't probably host that many. Tiered weddings like that are rude, please don't do that to your guests. Properly host your guests with food, appetizers is not enough and could potentially even be more costly than serving dinner.

Invite everyone to everything, be they 4 or 400.

Make sure there is food, drink and chairs for all.

Voila!

Yes, I've done it and this is how.

Just remember that having enough tapas/apps for 400 people will definitely be more expensive than a meal for each person.

I know this because we had a cocktail type reception (however, it was at a non-meal time) and it cost us more than it would have to serve a seated dinner.

Looks like you need to have 400 chairs at your ceremony and something more than heavy apps. Oh and yeah .... way to describe your friends who are "just there to drink and party anyways.

Heavy hors d'oeuvres are fine. In some cultures, 400+ wedding receptions are the norm. My venue's wedding coordinator had a 500-person reception because she and her husband are Albanian and that's just what you do.

Tiered admissions, at least in the US (they *are* the norm in some Western European countries), are *not* what you do. If you do heavy hors d'oeuvres, be sure you have enough seating for your guests. There is nothing more awkward than having to work a room while holding a plate and a drink and occasionally shake hands.

I am having a large wedding and this idea never once crossed my mind. You have to cater to everyone, not just a select few. If you and FH want to have a large wedding, you need to be prepared with a large budget as well.

I had 300 people for a traditional sit down. What you proposing is bad etiquette.

I dont even know 400 people. Let alone know 400 people I would want to invite to my wedding

At 400 guests it's just glaringly obvious that these people have only been invited to bring you gifts.

Not necessarily, LindseyO, in some cultures it becomes more of the parents' party and many friends and family are invited.

If we were having a large wedding with all our family it would be well over 400. We both have very large families. Its not always about gifts. Quit with that nonsense. That being said you need to serve a whole meal and invite everyone to the wedding and ceremony. Not just apps. Be prepared for a large budget for food. Good luck!