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Something that many couples have a tough time with is deciding which comes first – setting your guest list, or setting your wedding budget.
On the one hand, if you set your budget first, you can calculate your per guest cost. Doing it this way will let you calculate your guest list max. Let's say the reception portion of your budget is $ 3,000 and the cost per person is $ 30 for food and $ 20 for the bar. A quick calculation shows that your guest limit max is 60.
But on the other hand, maybe you know you want to have 100 guests. In that case, you've got to keep the total cost to $ 30 a person. You may be able to do this with a cash bar, but it will likely be difficult at most reception facilities. In this case, you may have to search out a more non-traditional location.
Of course there is no hard and fast rule saying one way is better than the other. It really depends on your situation and what your priorities are. If you and your spouse to be coming from large families, sometimes a cookout or other backyard type of reception would be best. This way, you could invite all of your relatives. Of course, if you both come from smaller families, you can let the budget dictate the number of people you invite and where you hold your reception.
Ballpark guest list figures will also help you eliminate the avenues that are out of your price range. It will also let you know what facilities are too small or are too big for your reception. Either way you go about this, you should have a general idea of how many people will be attending before you start visiting various ceremony and reception sites. Regardless of what kind of ceremony and reception you are planning, you want the site to fit in with both the ambiance as well as the number of people who will be attending.
For example, you do not want to have your ceremony in a cavernous church if you are having an intimate ceremony with only a few close friends and family in attendance. Even a mid sized wedding can seem out of place in a church that holds several hundred people. But the same is true in reverse. You sure do not want to try and jam 200 people into a place that only holds 100 comfortably. Not only will people no be able to fit in comfortably, you may end up being told to shut it down by the local fire officials.
Having an idea of how big your guest list is will also help you eliminate sites that simply are not a match for your vision of your big day. This will allow you to spend your time and efforts searching for appropriate sites for the ceremony and celebration.
You should be OK with most reception sites if you have an extra few guests. But any more than that may force you to change events. Not only will you likely lose out on your deposit, but you'll have to deal with the stress of finding a new venue on short notice.
Something that you'll want to do before you get too far in searching for ceremony and reception venues is to share your budget and ballpark guest list figure with both sets of parents. Without question, it's these people that will be the most likely to want you to add additional people to your guest list. If you discuss the parameters up front, you are much less likely to run into additional requests.
If you still run into a situation where a set of parents still insisting on adding people, you are going to have to tactfully remind them of your discussion early on. Let them know (in a very tactful way) that if they'd like so and so to come that you'd be happy to invite them if the parents in question are willing to pay the extra costs – assuming your venue will fit the extras .
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Source by Becky McLaurin
