Wedding in October 2021 in the San Francisco Bay Area - is 100 guests too much?

Only you (and the local laws) can decide what's "too much." Even if you *think* most people are vaccinated, without checking for proof, you can only go off statistics. The rate in California seems to be around 73% for people over age 50. Would you be comfortable hosting a wedding if only ~73 of the 100 people were fully vaccinated?

Yes it’s completely a personal decision. My wedding is in October in Sonoma CA. We invited 180 people, which is quite a bit. Some people are declining because of Covid, some because it’s adult only, and some because it’s on a Friday. Our ceremony is outdoor but our reception is indoor. We do have the option to move our reception outside and will make the final call closer to the date. We are asking everyone to provide proof of vaccination or a negative covid test. If people feel uncomfortable attending we are okay if they don’t attend. We are in wait and see mode for the final numbers, but even if it’s just 10 of us we will get married that day.

As long as the county allows it, I say go for it before any restrictions are put back in place. Covid is here to stay for the foreseeable future and there's no sense putting life events on hold even if events have to be modified a bit (masks, etc). We are learning to live with it and If people are uncomfortable then it's their choice not to attend. Our own District Attorney from Contra Costa got married last August with at least 80 people present and that's when we were literally in lockdown and before vaccines.

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Thank you for your reply. May I know how you are obtaining the proof of vaccination or a negative covid test?

View Quoted Comment We are asking people to email us in advance. We won’t be actually checking at the door (unless the venue requires us to). I went to a wedding in June and they emailed us repeatedly reminding us to share our proof of vaccination. It was a bit overkill but it made me feel like they were serious.


Overall we trust that if we ask our guest to get a pcr test or be vaccinated they will do so. However people don’t read the website so we are reminding people when we chat with them. We recently sent an email about the hotel block and added the covid-19 precautions to the email.

We are in the same boat. We postponed from 10/10/20 to 10/2/21. We are in Pa however we have invited 170 people. We have decided we are not postponing again and we have provided a zoom should anyone want to see but are not able/ comfortable to make it

View Quoted Comment How are your RSVP responses looking? I’m worried many people will RSVP yes and if things don’t change they’ll pull out last minute which means we would end up paying for them.

View Quoted Comment Honestly they’re not the greatest we invited 170 and have heard from 50 but they’re due back by sept 1 so we will see

I’m in a similar situation. Wedding is 10/16/21 in Temecula. Outdoor ceremony and indoor reception. So far have 130 guests RSVPed and 35 pending. I also mandated vaccines but it’s an honor system. People who show up are taking on that risk. We deserve to have big, fun weddings too!

View Quoted Comment Yes but statistics don’t apply evenly. My guest list is over half MDs and PHDs and I trust that they are actually vaccinated. I think you can have a good idea if you can trust your guests or not.