Planning a wedding stateside from Europe!

matheaballou

 I'm meeting my fiance at our home in Germany after he finishes this deployment. We're getting married officially in a courthouse over there in October, but we're planning a wedding here for March.

So many of our guests are military and from all over, so any pointers on timelines? ie. when I should get save-the-dates and invites out. My problem is, these caterers and venue people want a guest count, but how am I supposed to do that when so many of my guests could get deployed or moved?

Beachy730

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_military-brides_planning-wedding-stateside-europe?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:13Discussion:bbdc659a-0ab2-46d2-945b-d6c43624e05ePost:91c5af2f-2488-444f-a364-d8e4b640b65a">Planning a wedding stateside from Europe!</a>:
[QUOTE] I'm meeting my fiance at our home in Germany after he finishes this deployment. We're getting married officially in a courthouse over there in October, but we're planning a wedding here for March. So many of our guests are military and from all over, so any pointers on timelines? ie. when I should get save-the-dates and invites out. My problem is, these caterers and venue people want a guest count, but how am I supposed to do that when so many of my guests could get deployed or moved?
Posted by matheaballou[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>STD's should go out 6-9 months before the wedding.  If a lot of guests will be traveling, you should do it closer to the 9 month mark than 6 months.  </div><div>
</div><div>Your venue will want a general idea to begin with.  We told ours that we were inviting 275, and we figured it would be closer to 225 since we knew a lot of people wouldn't be able to make it.  Your final count is due usually about 10 days before the wedding, and that is what you get charged for.  So figure out your guest list, and use that to call around and shop for venues.  Tell them your situation, and that you could end up with a drastically different count.</div><div>
</div><div>It really shouldn't be a problem, unless you're booking a room with a minimum dollar amount.  For example, our specific ballroom had a $10,000 minimum, but with our guest list it wouldn't be an issue to hit that.  But if your original list has you barely hitting a minimum, I wouldn't book it because then you will get stuck paying that money anyways.
</div>

firsttimersluck

they just want an idea.. you can let them know the rough number you will be inviting, but the actual number won't be neccesary for a couple weeks before the actual vr.

YAY germany... I miss living there Hope you have smooth planning!

matheaballou

Thanks for the advice everyone - I'm really excited about the planning, but I'm also a little afraid I'm jumping the guns with how far ahead I'm planning. That bit about the Save-the-Dates was helpful. I guess planning ahead in the military is both helful and never guaranteed! Thanks again!

SamiJoeB

My venue wanted a general idea, but they set all the places at all the tables, but only charged us for plates used, that way they knew for a fact how many people were they. They also bought some of our decorations, and deducted that from our total bill. We got Lucky that way...

Good Luck with planning your JOP and VR.