Book or Invite?

You can't very well invite people to a wedding when you don't have any idea where it will be... ??

Definitely book first.

Book the venue first.

Until you have a booked venue, you don't have a date or any sort of event to invite anyone. Find a venue that is flexible with guest numbers. Many will list a minimum number, but generally what they are concerned with is covering their costs and turning a reasonable profit. Ask about the possibility of upgrading the cocktail hour, bar, meal, or any other element they provide if you don't have the minimum number of guests.

Book first! Typically about 60% of the people you invite will actually attend you wedding, so you can always go off of that number.

If you invite first, not everyone will RSVP when you ask them to, so you may run into booking a venue based off of a false number or attendees.

Definitely book your venue first. If it helps, make a guest list of everyone you hope will attend and use that number when looking for the right size venue.

Book first.

Book your Venue first.....Give the Venue a rough estimate of how many people you want to have....your final count will not come until your guest has RSVP.

Book first! What if you lose the venue by the time all these people respond??

Make a list of guests you want to invite first, then book. You can't invite people if you don't have a set date or time.

Invitations are one of the last things you should do. You can’t invite someone to a wedding when you don’t know when or where it will be. You don’t have a date until you have a venue. I would suggest using the WW timeline to get a better grasp on the order of things.

You book a venue that can hold the number of people you plan to invite. You usually pay per person and you tell your venue the exact number 2-4 weeks before when you get your RSVPs back. If your venue has a minimum you need to meet sometimes that can be upgraded food/bar rather than people. These are all questions to ask when you look at venues.

I'd book first. If you invite and wait for people to respond, someone else could book your venue. Do you have to pay for an amount of people upfront? That seems weird for a wedding venue. Usually it's a deposit and you give guest count later.

100% I would say book first with an estimate, you shouldn't have to pay until like 2 weeks before with the final count, just a deposit.

Make a guestlist of the people you want to invite. Make an honest estimate of the number of people who will attend. Book a venue that will hold all the people you invite but won't look too sparse if only the latter number attends.

Invitations come way later. How can you possibly send an invitation when you can't tell the guests where they should go?

What?
Venue first, based on the number of people you’re inviting. You can’t send invitations without a date or location.

Hey Adriana,

I would definitely say to make a preliminary list, just to use as a means to gauge. You can use that list to find a venue that can hold that many people. So say if you make a list, and it come up to 50 people... go off of THAT number. A lot of venue have a certain number of people that have to be there (e.g minumum 100) people. You may not want to book with that type of place if you absolutely know you won't be having a hundred people.

In my situation, I have about 60 something people on my list, but I can bring up to 100 people without the price changing. That's because I'm having a buffet, and that was the contract with the banquet hall. For me it works great, because if I want to invite up to 100 people, I don't have to change venues. Not all places are like this. You have to have a starting number in order to help with your search. Maybe say 50-70 people, when calling around. That will help you gauge!!