Hawaii

Olowalu Guest List Count

I'm about to send out my save the date cards, but still dealing with the guest list problem... The Olowalu Plantation House charges different rate for under 50 guests to 50-99 guests.

I've done my best to make my guest list as short as possible. My current guest list is like 48-50 people (including 8 groom's relatives whom even the groom himself doesn't know... They are invited by the groom's parents). A few of our invited guests are not married, which means they may or may not bring a plus one. Also, the groom's parents probably will invite more ppl to our wedding. If I expect 100% invited guests will attend, the final guest number may turn out to be like 50-60 people. The problem is... I have a tight budget and I really don't want to pay $781.25 more for the venue fee for just 10 more guests...  

Can anyone give me some advices? Thank you.  

 

Re: Olowalu Guest List Count

  • motoLynmotoLyn member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    edited May 2012
    My advice don't count on 100% guest list attendance.  People who I was sure would go to my wedding turned out not attending after all.  Second if you and your FI are paying for the wedding yourselves then I would advise you to talk to your FI and show a united front to your parents and cut down the guest list.  You're shelling out the money you have the power to make that decision, unless your parents want to pay the extra to invite the guests. 

    On the other hand if your parents are helping pay then I would say that you talk to them about your concerns.  Don't fret too much about it.  I invited about 50 people and only 38 are actually attending and two of those are kids under 5. 
  • I'm in the same boat as you...we are sticking to 49 or less because of the fee. That being said, I've only invited 49 (including us.) We are having a very short engagement (less than 6 months) so we didn't send out official save the dates. We just called and emailed everyone. We also made an "A" list and a "B" list, if any "A's" immediately told me they couldn't come, I moved to the "B's." Keeping the list short was hard, but in a way it made it crystal clear as to who I really wanted there with me on our big day. Also, my FI and I are paying for a lot of the wedding (we're 34 and 40) so controlling the guest list has been easy. My advice: whittle your list down, don't over invite because you never know who else will decide to come. Also, not only is it nearly $800 more for the venue- tack on about $100/person for catering costs. We figured that having 40 vs 49 means a savings of at least $1K in catering costs alone! Good luck!
  • My advice is pretty much the same as motoLyn's...

    If you and your FI are the only ones paying, make it clear to the parents that you are on a tight budget and if your guest count exceeds 50 people, it's an extra $XXX more, and if they would like to help chip in for the guests that they want to invite, then you'd be willing to invite those guests, otherwise they should respect the fact that inviting a mere 6 people will cost you $700+.

    I know regardless for us, we are having 100+ people, so I don't really have that issue, but in terms of cost saving purposes, I'd rather have 100 guests rather than 140!
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