Empty looking ballroom

His mother has said that most of her family will come as well. But fiance is still worried that because of the distance we will have a lower turnout than we’re expecting and it will make us look bad.

I spoke to the wedding coordinator at the hotel about his concerns and she said that space won’t start looking empty until you’re under 75 people, which makes me feel fairly confident that we’re worrying over nothing. I know every situation is different, but in your experiences what sort of numbers did you get if having a wedding that people had to travel for? For my side, it will mean about a seven hour drive, for his side maybe around 3 hours.

Also keep in mind that we hit 100 just with our family and close friends, so there’s not a lot of padding or tons of courtesy invites. Any advice would be immensely helpful!

I have a hotel ballroom in a historic hotel in NJ, we invited 125 and have 94 attending. I was a little worried it would look empty, but remember as well that staff and vendors will be walking around and that will make it look full. Plus the dance floor is in the middle, so even though I went down from 12 tables to 10 it only eliminates 1 table per side (so 5 on each side instead of 6). which will just spread out people more. I think you will be OK =) You could always add different tables (photo table, guest book table, etc) around the room to make it look more full if you start getting the RSVPs and you drop under 100.

As a guest I would prefer to be in a "too-empty" room than a "too-full" room. I can almost promise you that no one will look at the amount of space not filled with a human being and think you have no friends. If anything they will likely be glad to have some room to breathe!

You can also use your table set-up and decor to help make the room feel more full, also!

Our ballroom is basically the same way...Our venue coordinator said you could do tables of 6-8 instead of 8-10. It's all in how many tables you have not so much how many people...So we looked at their floor plan and they had it laid out with 12 tables...Which for 115 people is 8 person tables!

When we toured our venue it was set up so each half of the ballroom could seat as many people as we were inviting! It's definitely a fear we've had.

The ballroom I used for my reception held up 250; I had about 95. It didn't look too empty; rather, we opted to have more tables and fewer guests at each one. So rather than 10 tables of 10, we had 12 tables of 8 (give or take). Not only did it make the room look a little more full, but it gave everyone more elbow room and space to move. No one felt crowded.

Just my two cents.

I've lived like seven hours away from my home and there have been times when I've flown and times when I've driven -- it really depends on flight costs and if there are direct flights available. I would say on the whole that the younger generation (my cousins) would fly, but all my aunts and uncles would rather drive. Bit strange, I know. But the flight from Buffalo to Boston is only about an hour so they really should just do that!

Thanks for your numbers and table arrangement ideas -- these were definitely along the lines of what I was thinking and will pass info along to worried fiance!

I just spoke with the wedding coordinator and she seemed willing to drop the minimum headcount a little bit (it's on a Sunday and I think she's a bit keen to book it), so that's good. I'm also thinking that we may be able to upgrade other options so they're still getting their minimum revenue.

OP, I have been to events at the hawthorne hotel and I truly do not think it would look empty with 100-125. The rooms are very unique and between the carpet, window treatments, etc. I think it feels very cozy regardless!

I went to my cousins wedding there and have been to other events In that room! It won't look empty you'll be fine!

Honestly I wouldn't care about "looking bad" - I highly doubt anyone is judging you based on how many people come to your wedding. If anything, I would be relieved to go to a wedding where I didn't feel crammed up against everyone else.

We have this exact same issue with our ballroom since we had over 50% decline invitations. We have the option of closing off partitions to make the room smaller but I hate the way it looks and it might actually make it too cramped. We decided to rent two 40' sections of pipe and drape that we can use to divide the room and make it appear smaller without closing the dividers. This way, we can put the pipe and drape wherever we want so the room doesn't feel empty but also doesn't feel crowded. Plus, they'll look awesome with up-lighting.