Friday Afternoon wedding

I’m confused. You said your venue can hold up to 200, so why are you only limited to 150? Can’t you just rent more chairs if you have more than 150 (but fewer than 200)?

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I know it's kinda odd. We can have 200 in the building to be in compliance with the fire codes. In order to have room for the dance floor it only seats enough for 150 at the tables. Does that make more sense?

View Quoted Comment Absolutely makes more sense. I would limit your list to the 150 that your venue can accommodate and then enjoy the savings in money if not everyone can make it.

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Yeah that was my initial thought. I have a big family and just want to include as many of them as possible.

Don't invite more people than you can comfortably seat at your wedding.

View Quoted Comment My FH has a huge family and since our venue has a super high max in regards to seating, he invited everyone. I’m in the stage of planning now that I’m hoping most of them can’t make it so our catering bill will be smaller! 😂

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That's my struggle haha I'm the one with the huge family. That's why I was hoping with Friday and a Holiday maybe I could invite everyone keep them all happy and people would decline. My ideal wedding is 90-100

While you "shouldn't" over invite. You can. We did. But we felt comfortable doing so as we had 44 guests invited that were over 500 miles away, and we knew plenty of our friends would choose sitters.
That being said, the first couple weeks of RSVPs were stressful. Until we had 2 families with 8 kids each decline.

View Quoted Comment We have 28 from out of town. Out of curiosity I checked flights for that weekend this year and for some its over 500 pp. Now that I know that I dont really expect them to come and I understand.

Could you put tables on the dance floor for dinner and then have the staff remove them after dinner? That way you could still invite everyone you want. Otherwise I would consider having a kid free wedding. Like other posters have said, I wouldn't invite more people than you actually have seats for. Good luck!

You must have a chair for every guest who RSVPs "Yes." You can't have Great-Aunt Maude standing around with a plate in one hand and a glass in the other, vainly looking for a place to sit down.

There are sometimes less than invited that attend. I would ask them to RSVP so you know how many to expect

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Personally I think this is a very rude thing to do to guests.

View Quoted Comment Oh I agree I just wasn't sure if anyone had experience with low attendance on Friday after noons.

A Friday evening July 2, of a 3 Day weekend, you will have people who decline because they make plans for the long weekend, and don't want to not start til mid day Saturday. Much depends where you live. If traffic is bad on the eve of holidays and 3 day weekends, and many must get out of work then drive in rush hour traffic, you will have a higher decline rate. I would feel comfortable with inviting 10% more people than your ideal 150 (15 more). If almost everyone is local, then you may get over 90% of your invitees. But pretty unlikely.

I would not over invite, especially not by that much. Maybe 5-10 isn’t so risky, but 25 over is a LOT. I also wouldn’t give any weight to the date — because it’s near a holiday weekend, I think people are actually more inclined to take a long weekend, and take the excuse to leave work early or take the day off. It’s one of those times where all bets are off and it could go either way!

View Quoted Comment That's very true!!

View Quoted Comment My apologies if you thought this was rude! It was just an idea that I hadn't seen other people mention so I wanted to share it with the original poster. Personally, I've been to several weddings where my table has been on the dance floor and I've never minded it being taken away after dinner was done. In my experience there's usually lots of seats available after some of the older people leave and I'm busy on the dance floor anyway. But obviously, OP do what you think is right! Best of luck and I'm sure you'll have a wonderful wedding whatever you decide!

View Quoted Comment Thank you so much for sharing your experience! I'm just struggling because I want to include everyone but want people to feel welcome and comfortable. Wedding planning is so tricky.

I would not invite more than you have seats for. Sure, you will get some no's but there is no way to know how many and you don't want 30 people showing up and not having anywhere to sit. We invited 68 and expected around 45 to say yes and ended up with 65 to say yes.