Venue capacity and lax invitations

alenax

Hellooooo brides (and grooms) to be and also husbands and wives! Could I pick your brains for a bit please? There are 2 things that are bothering me a bit:

1. For the reception, we picked a hall to hire, as the booze in there is incredibly cheap and none of our friends are incredibly rich - BUT apparently the capacity is about 150/200 people (can't remember which one it is exactly) and the guestlist we have so far is only about 50 people. I'm worried that the hall will look empty and no-one will dance, as we do want to have a party-style reception rather than a fancy sit-down affair. Can someone recommend a smaller type of venue that would still be cheap and probably not too fancy? Or are my worries completely unfounded?

2. OH is saying that he wants to send out invitations to those on a guestlist and then put an "open invite" on Facebook, which sends the control freak inside me into a rage!!! Not because some "undesirable" people might turn up (we both keep our FB friends list quite select) but because that just throws catering into jeopardy, as well as not knowing how many people are going to turn up is just... weird. And to top it off, I think if people are invited to a wedding via an "open invite" then they just probably won't bother. I know I wouldn't, it would feel like gatecrashing a party. Any opinions on that?

alenax

34 views and no reply? Anyone???

Dizzie77

Alena - I would say that you should invite the people you want there - what does OH have against sending people an invitation??
I don't think that the hall will look too empty though - if the capacity is around 150, when you've factored in your disco/band area and your dancefloor and the area for the buffet - that can all take up a bit of space.

I would just tell OH that it's YOUR wedding and he should mind his beak!!!! hehehehehee

Mme.Hibou

I'm not sure about the venue. We had our reception somewhere that was fairly small (50ish guests) and had no bar, we bought all the drinks for everyone and they got fed and watered all day long.

As for the facebook group, I think it's a terrible idea for all the reasons you have pointed out already. If he wants to do something on facebook set up a private group/invitation for those you're inviting to the wedding, if you're inviting extra people to the evening do I probably wouldn't do it.

Alyssa_C_2

Ditto, Lydia. Set up a private invitation, people are asked to confirm if they are going or not. Then send a message a week before to everyone in the group asking for them to confirm attendance. I think you will be fine with the size of the hall, as said in another post, by the time you have everything else in there it won't look empty. Let us know what you decide to do! x

Jemster

An open invite on FB would make me really nervous! My little sister did that for her 18th, I went nuts and hassled her til she made it private. My mum was having a heart attack not just that gatecrashers would turn up but for the food that we were catering too. We've got a FB group as all our siblings are spread out (Newcastle, York, Harrogate, Stoke & Leicester) and we don't see them very often but its as closed as it can be to everyone else!!

p-pincher

I definatley wouldn't put an invite on facebook for all the reason you and everybody else. it would make me very very nervous x

fly_dragon_fly

did you go with the community centre in whitstable by any chance? (i remember you asking for places in whitstable and its the only place i can think of that holds that many?)

why not set up some little stations like a candy station, a photo station ( a corner that your photographer can put up a screen and have your guests have photos taken) maybe have a table for a polariod guest book to tie in with the corner photo station

just a few ideas x

fly_dragon_fly

and if you want to set up a facebook page maybe do event page so you and your partner can invite who ever you want but just word it so that they are invited to celebrate the wedding of the two of you but the reception are closed affairs for invite invited people.

alenax

Dizzie77 wrote: »

Alena - I would say that you should invite the people you want there - what does OH have against sending people an invitation??
I don't think that the hall will look too empty though - if the capacity is around 150, when you've factored in your disco/band area and your dancefloor and the area for the buffet - that can all take up a bit of space.

I would just tell OH that it's YOUR wedding and he should mind his beak!!!! hehehehehee

We are planning on inviting the people I want there, he's not against it but I think he just can't be bothered to think of all the people to invite and is trying to fob me off with the open invitation idea - typical man!

We weren't going to make it public though, just create an event on Facebook or post a couple of statuses, I'm still not too keen on it though because of catering and etiquette issues.

We're not having a band but a DJ but I haven't even seen the place yet so I'm hoping that you're right and once it's filled up with all the stuff it'll be ok!

alenax

fly_dragon_fly wrote: »

did you go with the community centre in whitstable by any chance? (i remember you asking for places in whitstable and its the only place i can think of that holds that many?)

why not set up some little stations like a candy station, a photo station ( a corner that your photographer can put up a screen and have your guests have photos taken) maybe have a table for a polariod guest book to tie in with the corner photo station

just a few ideas x

Thank you! I don't think we're going with that now as it's a bit far away and people wouldn't be able to get there. Looking in the Medway towns at the moment.

The stations thing is a really good idea, we were thinking of hiring a photobooth actually so that might be fun.