Include vendors in guest count?

You count them as vendors and give that number to your caterer. Unless they are receiving the same dinner as your guests, most if not all caterers have vendor meals at a discount so they can eat quickly. There's no right or wrong as long as they're fed.

Sometimes there’s a separate meal for vendors they eat elsewhere but I included mine just cause I had a minimum I needed to hit anyway aha

Double check with your caterer on how they would like that count. If the vendor meals are the exact same meal/price as the guest meals, you can include them in the total count. If the vendor meals are either different food options or different price, give the caterer the vendor count separately.

Yes you do.

I've included them in the guest count to make it easier.

For catering no, but mention how many vendors you'll need to feed (usually waaay cheaper than guest meals). As far as covid goes, they would count for the total number of people at the venue (ie if you can have 50 ppl max but you have 6 vendors, you could only invite 44 guests).

View Quoted Comment The bride and groom are counted in the capacity and *always* forgotten about when any counts are taken. So taking into account 6 vendors, you and your fiance in attendance, for a 50 person max, you would be allowed 42 guests. 42+2+6=50

View Quoted Comment Good catch

Our venue charges differently for vendors, so we have a vendor count that’s separate from our adult guest count.

Best to ask the venue that. Mine 2 of them counts as 1 guest in my count (since with the virus we are struggling to get a headcount)

I would talk to your catering company or check your contract. Our contract had up to 5 vendor meals included in our pricing so we did not have to add them separately. We will have more than 5 vendors eating and had to add those separately but they were a cheaper price per head. It is completely up to the caterer on how they prefer to have it done but yes you do need to feed your vendors somehow.

This also assumes you know which vendors require a meal. But especially with COVID different counts mean different things to different scenarios. Just ask.

Our vendors were not included in our official guest count, because they were served vendor meals. They were included in a separate list for vendor meals. But as the PP above me mentioned, guest counts are different now due to Covid capacity limits. So I'd check with your caterer/venue