Under invite or over invite?

Usually you should just invite exactly that many you can host

You shouldn’t invite more guests than you can fit or afford.

Our wedding is about 3 hours away and our guest list was around 60. Pre-Covid we expected nearly everyone to come, now we’re not sure. We have a minimum too and if we don’t reach it any extra is considered “room rental.” I wouldn’t over invite just in case everyone does come. We’d have loved to invite several other people, but with covid we can’t go over 50 including us.

Decide who you absolutely want to be in attendance. Do not go over the venue capacity or your budget. Do *not* have a B list and always prepare for 100% attendance because it does happen. If people want to be there, they will do whatever it takes to show up. Make sure to send save the dates and maybe even gauge how many plan to arrive by reaching out via text or email.


Typically a food/beverage minimum is a dollar amount so upgrade your menu but stay within your budget to meet the minimum.

Write down who you absolutely want there & who will get a maybe if it fits into your budget. This is very easy & will help you decide better.

What we did was book our venue for the minimum amount possible, which is 60, since we can't take away & only add (we have a $6,000 minimum). This way we'll never over-invite & will be able to add in the extras later on, our final guest list is due 7 days before. When we send out our invitations, we'll get a better idea on who's actually coming. I don't count on half of the people I invite to actually come, but I'd feel terrible if I didn't say something.

Perhaps this is something you can do.

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Thanks this was very helpful!

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Thank you!

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Thank you, we're planning on 2022 because I live in NY and they said if this happens again during flu season everything will be shut down for 2021. We'd like to get married sooner, but want everyone we love to be there and hopefully, this 2-year gap will give COVID-19 enough time to dir down a bit.

View Quoted Comment I understand, it’s a decision all of us planning for 2020 are having to make. At the very least two years gives time for vaccines. Good luck!

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You're very welcome

I'm in the same dilemma with having a semi-destination wedding up to 5hrs away for some guests and on a Friday evening as well as having a smaller guest list. Our absolute max for our budget is 75 but our "soft guest list" is at 89. We trimmed a little more and got 75 but our agreed aka comfortable number is 65. It's harder than I thought. I just don't want my family or friends to be upset if they can't come. Thank goodness our wedding isn't until April 2022 but I want to work out the kinks now?

With a small guest list, it is even more likely that you will have less "no's" even with it being a few hours away. I would play it safe and only invite the number of people you can have.

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Exactly! I want everything worked out now as much as I can before the wedding, Even though it is two years away, I want it planned out now! I've "trimmed" so much of our list down the past few days and we have a number of 65 now, and we were at 80. Our max number is 60 and I think I'll be fine with initing the extra 5 guests and see where that goes.

Thanks!!

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No Worries, thank you for your reply it helped me as well. At, least feel like I'm not alone

I think this depends on your venue's maximum and how that was decided. If it's a legal maximum occupancy, they may not actually let anyone extra be there because they could get fined. If it's a resources allocation issue, they may be more flexible on a few extras.