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Expert June 2021

Venue Capacity Smaller than Guest List

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Alexis, on December 30, 2019 at 10:58 AM

Posted in Planning 26

Hi everyone!

After an incredibly stressful year and a half of being engaged and trying to accommodate for everyone else in the planning process (habitual people pleaser here), my FH and I have officially decided just to have our ceremony in Las Vegas.
At this point, we both just want to be married, and all that really matters to us is saying "I do," so we felt that Vegas would be our most simple & cost effective route while still making it somewhat worth while for guests to come & celebrate with us.
I'm currently in between two venues. One can accommodate up to 100 people, while the other can only accommodate up to 45. We have cut down our guest list significantly, but still have about 55 people in mind, minimum. We are only having a ceremony and then going out on the strip afterwards to celebrate, it's out of state for everyone on our list, a lot of our guests have kids (under 21- kids also included in that 55 guest count), and our date is also in between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we understand if people can't or even just don't want to attend, and it's likely that a lot of people won't. I'm just leaning more towards the one with the more restricted capacity, and I don't know if I should over invite and hope at least 10 people will not attend, or just go with the other venue to be safe.
We understand this is far from traditional & typical wedding etiquette, but I'm just tired of bursting into tears just thinking about planning and trying to please everyone, and this is really the first idea that has either of us excited to get married since we got engaged. At the end of the day, we don't care if it's just us two in Vegas, but we still wanted to invite our family and friends if they could/wanted to be there with us on our special day.
Thank you for any & all advice!

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26 Comments

Super October 2019
W-K · on December 30, 2019 at 3:48 PM
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I'd for sure go with the bigger venue.

Just a word of advice on Vegas, once you're there even if you've already picked out your package and whatnot they WILL try to up-sell you. Lots of hidden costs that aren't always disclosed on websites like "resort fees" and restricting photography packages to just candids with all the posed photos being extra. Things like that since you're budget conscious.

We did Vegas when I was married to my first husband for a vow renewal. It was absolutely insane the amount of unwanted money we ended up spending. I will say, though Paris Paris has a wonderful dining room with excellent food if you're going to treat your guests to dinner. Right next to the light show.
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Expert June 2021
Alexis · on December 30, 2019 at 4:02 PM
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Yeah, that's something I've noticed. I know a few people who've recently gotten married in Vegas, so I'm asking them for tips and advice as well. The photo included in a lot of these packages absolutely boggle my mind. Like, "You can have 14 pictures! If you want any more, pay $500." I might end up paying the media/photographer fee to bring my own because that's just nuts.

Thanks for the dinner location advice! We've never been so anything like that is super helpful.
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Master May 2020
Kari · on December 30, 2019 at 7:05 PM
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Is the 100 person venue more expensive? If not it may be worth it just to have the wiggle room in case all of your guests do want to attend. However, I think having a 100 person space and putting only 55 people in it may feel sort of empty, so if the 45 person space is a huge cost savings, I'd be tempted to go that route.

Out of your list of 55 guests can you prioritize 45 of them? Or pick out 10 you don't think will come and will RSVP "no" early?

If so, I'd book the 45 person venue and invite 45 people. Then if/when guests decline, you can immediately invite those extra guests on your list. When you have invitations made have them all made at once for all 55 of your guests, but don't send out more than 45 to start, and only send out others once the first round of folks have started RSVPing no. Keep in mind, that with this strategy it is possible you may not be able to invite everyone you want to, so if you'd be heartbroken by not even extending an invite to every single person on that 55 person list, trying to save money and fill up a smaller space probably isn't worth it.

Also before you book the smaller space, make sure that 45 person limit is a "guest limit" not a capacity limit. If you are limited to 45 people total, you'll need to count yourself, your partner, and any other vendors (ie: outside photographer) in that total, which means the actual number of guest spots you have is actually much less.
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Master October 2020
Mandi · on December 30, 2019 at 7:09 PM
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Tbh, this really depends on where you're from.
If you and your guests are 5ish hours or less away, I'd say spring for the bigger place.

If your absolute number is 55 and absolutely zero more, and you and most of your guests are 6 hours or more away, you should be fine to opt for the smaller venue.
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Expert June 2021
Alexis · on December 30, 2019 at 7:20 PM
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Oh true! I'll definitely ask to get more clarity. Thank you for the insight!
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Expert June 2021
Alexis · on December 30, 2019 at 7:26 PM
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About half and half. Most people are like a 3 hour drive away, then the remainder is my family in Ohio, which is about a 6 hour flight. I also have two sisters expecting close to my date (by a few months), one of which is saving to move to another state and the other with a large family already, and another sister and her 6 person family whom I've barely spoken to in years. The venues both have the option to live stream, so I figured these scenarios in particular would warrant them to stay home and watch the livestream, but that's just my assumption. A lot of my family in Ohio said they would like to come, but they also said they don't mind just sending a gift or something and not coming. We picked a not so great time to do this, but it's a special day to us so we can't even be upset.
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