Standing room only ceremony

gogreen2004

Did anyone end up having a standing room only ceremony? I am overwhelmed by the amount of out of towners that have rsvp'd to our wedding and am worried our venue won't  be able to fit them all for the ceremony!

hkiesling

Do you have an early or late reception?  I know a lot of time OOT guests just come to the reception if it means they can drive out during the day instead of the night before.

gogreen2004

Our ceremony is at 5 with cocktail hour starting at 5:30, the out of towners are all out of state so will be coming in the day if not days beforehand.

huwehotaling

How many did you invite?  We invited 202 and ended up with 136.  I think the ceremony room fits 170?

gogreen2004

We invited 220 and have 146 yes's so far! RSVP deadline is tomorrow but I know we will have some stragglers, we've gotten 70% back so far.

huwehotaling

Oh my!  That is a lot.  Most of our last RSVPs were nos, but you still have room for 25 more people to fit in the ceremony room.  Since your ceremony is short, people probably won't mind standing.

gogreen2004

I am shocked at the number of out of town yes's. we did the math and we have people coming from 2 continents, 5 countries, 3 canadian provinces, and 11 u.s. states!  I know I should be thrilled but i'm so nervous!  At least I know there is plenty of room in Memorial Hall for dinner!

deru0012

The Johnson Room will hold 170, so you should be okay. I have a few RSVPs still coming in, but we'll probably be about 153 I think, so approaching room capacity too.

gogreen2004

are you sure it's 170? I just looked at their seating plan and it says 150 for the johnson room.  I have to keep reminding myself that 10 people will be standing up front so that frees up some seats!

deru0012

If you go to this page and mouse-over the Johnson Room it says Theater Style seating for up to 170.http://www.alumnicenter.umn.edu/spaces.html

deru0012

Actually, this page also says 170 too. "The adjacent and equally lovely Johnson Great Room is available for wedding ceremonies for up to 170 guests..." http://www.alumnicenter.umn.edu/weddings-6.html

gogreen2004

I saw the 170 and have always thought that was the number too.  Then I looked at the seating chart in the Johnson room and saw that it says "theater seating for 150" but they could probably throw an extra row in their for us.  I think we will end up with just over 150 and with 10 of those 150 standing up in the wedding party we should be good!  Thanks girls!

netcha5

I am having the same problem!  We assumed we would have the usual 1/4 saying no, and we have only had 7 people say no!  We are going to have to take tables out after dinner for the dance floor.  Now we are crossing our fingers that no one else says no because we are close to the fiire code number.