So we went to see our venue yesterday. When we booked it last February, they were about to start construction to close in the large balcony with essentially a glass box (so that it's basically all indoor space now, removing the need for a tent to utilize the balcony...one of the glass walls completely collapses into itself, so it is also open to the outside, and the city view isn't compromised because it's all glass). It looks great. Problem is, when we booked it, the max for seated rounds was 176 (22 tables of 8). So that's what we based our invitations on, knowing that a few people would decline and that would give us space for our dance floor and our food stations. I assumed that removing 2-3 tables would be plenty for that purpose, especially if the fourth glass wall is open to the (now smaller) balcony, which we could also use unless it's raining.
We get there yesterday and are told that really 17 tables (plus our sweetheart table) would be best case scenario, 18 would be ok too. That is 136-144 people. Which is 40 PEOPLE less than we were told originally was capacity. I mean I get that they didn't know exactly what the space would look like post-consutuction, but come on. That's a big difference.
Based on our responses so far, it's looking like we'll have about 150 guests. I told them we would try to get 150 guests into 18 tables (we have a good amount of singles, so we're going to have to have a few 9-tops), plus our sweetheart table, which will be set up on the dance floor and then removed after dinner. The salad and sides buffet table, which doesn't require electricity, will also be set up on the dance floor and broken down while the cake cutting is happening to make room for dancing. And our cake will be on a rolling table, sitting on the dance floor until it is cut and then rolled to the kitchen to be cut and distributed. This should be plenty of space once the dancing starts.
It's just annoying that when we looked at the place, and told them "we expect between 130-150 guests to show up, and we want to do buffet/stations for food" they were like "oh totally no problem!" If we had known the truth we would have just done a plated meal so that the stations/buffet tables wouldn't be an issue. But it is now too late for that. Sigh. I hope our friends aren't too cranky about us squeezing a 9th person in at a few 5' rounds. :-/