Advice on wedding invites

[Racheyg]

Hi guys,

Getting married in October and getting ready to send out invites. The venue can only seat 80 for the sit down meal. We have 100 that we would love to invite on the full day. We know that a few on the list are either
A) don't want to travel into central London due to age ect
B) too far to travel.

But they haven't confirmed this (just know from other weddings) do we still invite all 100 and keep fingers crossed they can't make it or just invite 80 then add the rest for a back up once have had rsvp in.

Thanks X

Please dont invite 100 when your max capacity is 80. What if they all say yes?

Either find a bigger venue or whittle down the list.

What would you do if 90 accepted?

It's definitely normal to invite more than you can seat on the basis that some will drop out but 20 might be a bit of a risk!

You could have a 'b list' (sorry, horrible term!) who you invite later if there is room. Just bear in mind that if you do you'll need to send the first batch out a little earlier than usual. Also make sure there aren't any A listers who are good pals with B listers or the B listers will find out and might be offended

You invite the 80. Obviously. But don't give people an age to RSVP. Then if you know you have six declines you know precisely who to invite from the 20.

I would strongly consider a buffet with seats.

Agreed. If your invites go out to the nearest and dearest first, with 1 July as a reply date. Have a second batch to post a weel later with 1 September as a reply date

Thanks guys. I agree I'm going to invite the original 80 then see who can't attend.

Can't change venue as we are getting married in the pub.

I plan events for a job you would think sending wedding invites would be easy.

Thanks for the helpful advice x

Invite 80 VIPs, then invite the other 20 if you get enough declines.

Make sure you have an earlier RSVP date for batch 1 as @NapQueen says, and definitely make sure that your RSVP date for batch 2 is far enough out from the Wedding if you need to chase anyone up :)

Invite the 80 first but ask them to reply by text or e-mail with a deadline of the end of the month. Then you can quickly send out your 'backup' 20 if anyone declines.

From experience, waiting for rsvp cards to be returned is a nightmare. Everyone assumes that you know they are already coming 🙄. Also be prepared for a couple to drop out within the week before your wedding because they are sick, didn't realise how expensive travel would be bla bla.

Include stamped and addressed envelopes for the rsvp.

I did this, we had a sit down of 98 and wanted to invite 110. Instead of doing a-list and b-list, I invited the people most likely to drop out first. For example some of DH family who I'd never met (and still haven't) who lived over 200 miles away were invited first with a short-ish RSVP.

That way I could send out the others in groups of how we knew them, so nobody would cotton on to the fact they were originally in the b-crowd. I think it worked, but frustratingly I had 4 family members cancel a couple of weeks before the wedding. You can't win!

Risk it there will definitely be 20 who can't go out drop out last minute