Guest count vs Minimum charge

This can be the case. However if you tell them a lower guest count as your estimate they may have a lower minimum. Then you just have to get them a final count and pay the difference. This is what we did. I first though we were gonna have 100 so she quoted me 100 so would have 100 @ 45 min. But mom said prob not more then 75 so we redid and signed contract at min 75@45. But currently guest at 95. So it may go down once invites go out but we will definitely hit the mins. So it's an idea.

Not every venue has that so I would say keep shopping around. My venue has a minimum of 50 but they’re very willing to work with people if they end up with even less by using smaller rooms and they only charge for who comes. Another venue we looked at online and thought would be an option initially had 150 minimum. I used wedding-spot.com to find my venue.

The first two venues I went to had $12k and $15k minimums, I thought I'd never find somewhere within my budget. The second place followed up and I said sorry can't afford you, then the minimum came down to $12k. I ended up finding somewhere with a 75/80 person minmun that was also much lower per person. So there's hope, keep looking! The place I found is owned by the city.

Some venues have a price minimum VS a minimum number of guests. We looked at a venue that had a price minimum of 17K for a saturday wedding no matter the number of guests - which means you had to upgrade either your list or your food to meet that number unless you already knew you would be over. We didn't really like that so we ended up booking a venue that required we give a guaranteed number of guests. We are inviting 130 people - but we guaranteed the venue 100. There is no harm if we go over (we just pay the difference) but if we are under our minimum we have to pay half the price of the plate per guest we are under.

I would just do your research and decide what is best for you. If I were you, since its a budget minimum, I would just upgrade the food. As a guest I would appreciate the upgraded food rather then the extra people you really werent looking to invite anyway.

I found that venue minimums are always negotiable! My venue gave us the Friday minimum for our Saturday wedding, because we booked a date during the off-season! Never hurts to ask!

My venue has a very high minimum, but waived it since January is incredibly off season for them. They typically don't even open in January. Ask around for off season rates.

Every venue I toured had a minimum guest count we had to meet.

It depends on your area. Majority of venues in my area are all inclusive with add-on's available but not mandatory, and usually the minimums guide the price.

We are having that problem. We wanted a pretty simple wedding but because of our venues food and beverage minimum we are having to do a lot of upgrades. They wouldn’t lower it because it was the last available Saturday in August but they’re adjusting where some of it is going (ceremong decorations, etc instead of just upgraded food)

I know some venues advertise a minimum guest count but only enforce it on Friday and Saturday nights. Check to see if they have a minimum for a more off time.

Thanks all for sharing your experience! Some venues just told us we have to pay the differences if we don't meet the minimum even after knowing our preferred date is January, and on top of that, we were also told unless we booked within this 2 weeks to lock down the prices, otherwise the rate for 2019 will be higher. I guess San Diego, CA is too popular for both local and destination weddings....LOL~ anyways I will keep looking!

This is completely standard. They need to make sure they're making a certain amount of money each night so their businesses stay profitable. It's either going to be a minimum guest count with a flat price per head which equals their ideal nightly revenue, or they just tell you what their total minimum revenue is and they don't care whether you have 50 or 150 people as long as you spend that amount. Either way it's adding up to the same amount of revenue for them, and it honestly doesn't change how much you're paying at the end of the day.