Venue sizes

It doesn't hurt to at least look at the larger venues if you like them, but one thing to keep in mind is that venues often have a minimum number of guests that you have to agree to pay for, regardless of whether you actually have that number of guests in attendance. Larger venues will probably have a larger minimum, and you could end up paying a lot more than necessary. A venue with a 500 person capacity will also likely feel like too much space for a 50 person wedding, but you could always ask if they can section off a smaller space for your wedding and adjust their minimums based on the size of the space you'd need. If you like the venue, it never hurts to ask for information!

It depends on whether the venue has different rooms for different sized events or can divide the space. Some can and some can't.

Take a look at peerspace.com and Eventective.com which have a large number of smaller venues.

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much, I'll definitely use that resource 😁

View Quoted Comment That's very true, I did look at one venue and their minimum was in fact 50 and as much as I love all my guests to death, things can come up and do happen to make people not come to your wedding despite how much theyd like to be there. So, I guess that's a good question to keep in mind when talking to venues as well, what happens if the 50 person minimum is not reached day of?

View Quoted Comment My husband and I ended up slightly below our venue minimum on our wedding day, and we just had to pay for the extra people to meet the minimum. If your venue has a 50-person minimum and you end up with 45 guests, you'll likely have to still pay for 50 guests. Definitely check with the venue about their policy on this, especially if you're planning to do catering through your venue. Some venues will allow you to take the extra (unused) meals that you paid for in a to-go box, and others will not.

View Quoted Comment Okay, that doesn't seem too bad and it's definitely understandable

View Quoted Comment It wasn't too bad at all for our venue, though definitely check with your venue about how they handle this. My guess is that most venues will just require you to still pay for the minimum even if you don't meet it, but others may have additional penalties or fees for not meeting the minimum.

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We also came up short with the minimum, BUT - our venue just told us to pay for more appetizers, and I also got to have my signature cocktail! They are so so amazing to work with. So there are some bonuses to not meeting the minimum <g>

On the venue size note - some larger venues can close off the big big space to make it more intimate for the smaller groups. Just check with EVERY venue that you like and go from there - you may find a gem without even realizing it was there.

View Quoted Comment Ooh, that's really awesome that it worked out better for you!! You bring up an excellent point about some venues allowing you to pay for other add-ons or upgrade certain things in order to meet the minimum cost, rather than paying the extra cost and not getting anything for it.

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We also knew this up front, so I never really felt like I was going to have to pay and not get something for it, kwim? I didn't EXPECT this, but life happens - Several people whom we absolutely knew would be attending had some major difficult events crop up which prevented their travel to our wedding. Totally bummed me out, but .......