Ceremony Attendance vs Reception Attendance

You shouldn't have invited more people than the space can hold. Not sure what you're going to do now. You're definitely going to be over capacity...

If there is a huge gap in time or distance some people may not come, but counting on 85 people not to come? I think that's chancy honestly.

..... you invite the number of people that your spaces allow. Since that's already gone out the window, you need to move it to a place where it can hold everyone. 90 to 160 is a BIG gap. I would count on way more than 90 people attending the ceremony.

Definitely should have invited the smallest maximum that either of your venues can hold...but the attendance can vary. Where I am, it is EXTREMELY popular for wedding ceremonies to start at 1pm and the reception at 5 or 6...so the ceremony usually has a lot fewer guests as they only RSVP to the reception.

How long before do you have before you HAVE to decide between the two venues? Is it something that will wait until the RSVPs come back? Or do you have the option of booking the larger and moving to smaller when those come back?

It's not a huge deal, the auditorium is just on the other end of the building. I just really wanted to have it in the smaller more personal space. I need to talk to the church this week anyway. I'll ask about moving it.

My sister got married in 2008 and a lot of the people were within an hour of the church but there couldn't have been more than 30 people there. And 16 of those were the bridal party...

I don't know why, but people don't go to the church part. They only want to go to the reception. I have never seen more than half of the guests as a ceremony. But it's your call.

Definitely talk to the church to see how long you can wait until you need to definitely decide where your ceremony will be, but i wouldn't recommend packing 85 extra people in the chapel.. if i were i guest that would make me awfully cranky.. and hot.

@Pancakes, That's how it tends to be around here. Quite a few do not come to the ceremony. I'd say more than half live an hour or more away.

My invites just said reception to follow 4pm ceremony...... so that makes me think more will come so they can be close for the start of the reception. I'll have to ask my SIL what the turnout was at her wedding a couple years ago.

You need a new ceremony venue. Fire code will surely prohibit stuffing 160 people in a space for 90. I don't know why people wouldn't attend the ceremony. You need to plan for 100% attendance no matter what.

It is weird to me that large numbers of people wouldn't attend the ceremony but would attend the reception. I have never attended a wedding where large numbers of people only attended the reception. That just seems so rude to me, it's like saying I don't care about you getting married I just want to party.

It seems it's a midwest thing Natalie. I have a friend here that's got family in both GA and MA, and she said it's amazingly different.

I would definitely move the ceremony. I could see some people not coming to the ceremony, but definitely not enough to allow you to keep it in that small space.

That's a big overage, even if you do get a lot of declines. :/ i know in some cases people do only go to the ceremony... though in my personal experience with weddings, i've never seen that big of an instance. :/

i honestly find it kind of rude to get an invite to the wedding an only go to the reception. but maybe that's just me. it's like saying, 'well, i don't give a crap about the actual reason for the wedding... i just wanna eat the food (and drink the booze) you're paying for. thanks for having me." ... but again, maybe that's just me. lol.

Update: Spoke with the church. It holds 125 comfortably, and can hold 150. Perfect, because after the bridal party we're at 150, and there's no way everybody is coming. YAY!

I may have asked capacity before we booked the church.... and just forgot. Yay wedding brain!

Glad everything is fine!