How many guests do you have day & night time?? Managing numbers?

Mummymrs2b I have had similar issues. Trying to work out just how many people are coming during the day... then how many are coming in the evening.

OH seems to think we'll have 100 day guests and then another 50-60 to add to that in the evening. The venue we're hopeing to use is pretty reasonably priced... however the catch is you have to use one of their caterers... the cheapest menu for 3 course meal so far £34 per person (£££££) then another £18 per person for the evening buffet (even more £££££) there is a KFC down the road so maybe they should all go there instead.

I even think the numbers seem incredibly high... I'm going to sit down with the OH tonight and sort out people who MUST come and people who we would LIKE to come.

At the end of the day it's your wedding and it's about you and your OH, yes the people make it special but they do unfortunately make it expensive (I'm trying to be truthful in the nicest way possible)

Good Luck

x x

If it makes you feel any better, I would kill to be able to get our numbers down to that. We have 140 to the day including 18 kids. We probably have another £40 to the evening but evening buffets are only £8 at my venue so that's not bad.

Our venue has a pretty hefty hire charge but then daytime menus start at £28 so we have actually saved money on a lot of venues that don't have much of a hire charge and charge you through the nose for the package price per head. Champagne corkage at £8 has helped too.

Ouchies 140...!!!! Ok you win lol!!

X X

Im having 50 in the day and 100 in the night!

im not having any children in the day apart ftom my LO my niece and my nephew

and im not inviting any of cousins OHs just to keep numbers down

I've got a big family, too, and without inviting any friends other than bridal party members, and making all the cousins on my dad's side evening guests, our day numbers are at 59 adults and 16 children, if I were to add my cousins, it would just to 66 adults and 18 kids, and my venue's max for day guests is 64 (including bride and groom).

Have you considered saying that only married people get a plus 1? I've been to weddings before where I couldn't bring a date and I was fine with it. Another thing could be to say no non-breastfeeding children allowed. I can't do that, but have arranged nannies to look after the children on site. If your guests with children live nearby, couldn't they get a babysitter? Plenty of people say no children, but if your guests are traveling far it might be too much to ask.

You could always look to cut down the budget in other ways- no dessert, pay bar, don't hire wedding cars, DIY a few things. Try to make your budget work with as many guests as you really WANT to be there. If you find you're just inviting people because you feel like you need to, then make them evening guests.

We are just having 25-30 in the day (parents, sisters/brothers and their partners and our closest friends)

then 150 ish at night.

there are lots of other people we would love to invite to the day but it gets complicated with you cant invite this aunt without that one etc.. so we decided to keep to those closest to us x

Our packages has 75 day guests, and up to 200 for evening, so thats what we are having, we have large families and a big group of friends, so got 75 for day and about 150 for evening

Our package is for 60 in the day, 100 for the night. We did a rough guestlist the other day and got pretty much bang on those numbers. We're not inviting children though, we don't really know anybody with young kids anyway

Our package was for 40 people all day & night....but weve added people on so we're having 50 in the day & a further 20 evening guests.

Originally our numbers were at 120 day and 150/160 evening but having looked at costs of food and drink per head we have had a massive rethink...we are now only going to be inviting 76 day guests and then 150 in the evening...

the 76 includes both immediate familys, about 5 couples on each side that are family friends and then 3 of OH's best friends and partners and 2 of my best friends and partners...all our other 'close friends' and some cousins that we don't see and some other family friends are coming in the evening now...

in the 76 we have accounted for 6 'partners' that at the moment don't actually exsist...but we figured in 2 1/2 years, when we get married, that we would need to budget for an extra 6 people as the singles will probably have partners by then...it's worth accounting for these as this affects our budget by £300!!

we aren't inviting any children but 76 is our MINIMUM they are the people that must be there...everyone else (including a lot of important friends) will have to come in the evening...the list tends to be in groups and for us couldn't be split (e.g we would have to have all my friends or none of them and same for OH) hence why we have now opted for the best friends only...it's very difficult but maybe make a list of 'importance' of the people on your list at the moment and cut off the bottom up until you reach your numbers..harsh but has to be done...i'd personally try and keep 'groups' together and move people who are more on their own to evening

Good Luck!! x

Original draft guest list came to 125 for day and then 30/40 more for evening. That's now been whittled down to 100 in the day, we've had to be pretty harsh and theres been tough decisions but we're not made of money unfortunatley! The tough part for me is that a lot of my family and friends live scattered all over so too far away to just invite to evening really so it's day or nothing.

Got 2 children of my own and with being 'young' all the family still have younger kids and would be coming from scotland, devon, york, etc (they are scattered all over) so couldnt say leave the kids at home. Plus its too far to say your only coming at night. I have some family that havent been invited (yet) but have booked hotel?!! :o Think im just gonna have to write yet another giest list and see exactly who SHOULD be there and who we would LIKE then they may need to be just evening. But already mostly done that as our list is only close family and close friends (and their partners) so looking more like we need to try and keep costs down in other ways! x

Its so hard.... My day is currently at 158, and thats with 6 children, but hoping to get it to more 140ish. And the evening isnt as bad as I first thought I had thought we would be more 300, but looking more like 250. Having a marquee so can always fit guests in but like you are saying its the food and drink that is costly. Our meal is only about £25 during the day (3 course with tea&coffee), supplying our own drink for the meal and then £5 head for evening do.

I have a few different large groups of friends and have made the decision that just to have them to the daytime and there partners/husbands/boyfriends can come on the evening. I'd rather have all the girls there than a select few.

We've kept our numbers down in the day due to cost. We have 50 in the day including us and then 150 in the evening.

I've got the same problem, except as it stands I've got some overseas family as evening guests because I just can't get them all into the day. What we're doing is having staggered invites, with all the A-list day folks invites going out 6 months before the wedding with 6 weeks to RSVP. As we get 'no' replies, we'll be bumping up the family currently on the evening guestlist to day, but we need to do it in batches so we're not being unfair to siblings. We'll send the B-list days invites to replace the 'no's along with the evening list invites, which will go out 4-5 months before the wedding. Something like that could possibly work for you, too!

50 for the day and 100 at night.

We originally had well over 120 on day list with everyone but managed to get it down to around 92 however I think only around 80 of these will come.

We can invite upto 300 on the night time but I think including day guests total is about 240. That being said I personally think there will be no more than 180.

We both have very large families and big groups of friends.

New have budgeted for all these people but if they don't all come we will save quite a bit of money which is always good.

We've invited 195 for the day, but expecting final number to be around 165 once all the RSVPs are back. For the evening we've invited around another 130, but not expecting that all of those can make it (some are cousins we rarely see, etc.), so expecting to be at around 250 for the evening. Our absolute top priority in all our planning was to be able to have as many people as we wanted, so we chose a venue where we can bring all our own booze, bring our own caterers etc. which has helped us keep it reasonable!