Venue Minimums

I agree that you should reach out to your venue. They may allow you to have 60, you'll just have to pay as if you had 80 people. If that's something you're okay with then you're good to go. If it's just a minimum amount you have to spend with them then maybe you can add extras to make up the cost of the guests.

It's pretty common that you can put the difference in cost towards upgrades like higher shelf liquor, more appetizers, an after-dinner snack, etc. Definitely ask what you can do with the $2-3K difference!

Yeah I think it just depends on your venue's flexibility for it. Contact them. Maybe because of Covid they'll be willing to allow it to go towards other things, however a lot of places I looked at did have that stipulation that youre charged the difference if you don't meet the minimum and it would have been in any contract for those places. So in that case you would have to pay the 2k

We didn't run into this issue, but I remember that when we were touring the venue, the coordinator talked about the ways we could meet the minimum if we didn't have enough guests (ours was a $ amount, it didn't mention guest count). Some of them were additional decor (like upgraded lighting, flatware, etc.) and a lot of them were food. You could give everyone more than one entree, add more hors d'oeurves/stations, include an extra dessert or late night snack...

If you can get them to do anything like that, it would probably feel more satisfying than just giving them extra money.