Poll: How Small is Small? (WR)

RaiKai

I have seen a few posters on some of the other boards recently mention they are having a "small" wedding, followed by a comment that they are having 70 or 100-ish guests. I guess I never consider that to be a small wedding!

So, how many guests do you think make for a "small" wedding?

bbyckes

I guess the question should be two-fold: What do you consider a large wedding?  That would give some perspective with regard to a small(er) wedding.

JK10910

I voted for 25-50 but really I mean anything under 50.  I think up to 50 is small, under 25 is very small, 50-75 is kind of a middle ground, 100-200 is medium, and anything over 200 is big.  Though I always thought 150 and up was large before TK, but so many people have weddings where more like 200 people are invited that I think I'm just used to it now.

 

banana468

I think under 30 is small.  Beyond that, you're having a small(er) wedding but you're still most likely adding people beyond immediate family and a best friend.

JK10910

I also have to throw in the disclaimer that my view of "small" is somewhat skewed as I was hoping for a guest list of around 75 for our "medium" sized  wedding, and the size of FI's families made our guest list 156 after any possible cuts.  That is excluding coworkers, friends not in the wedding party, and family we haven't seen or spoken to in more than 1 year.  Blech.

kikibaby

My guest list is 18 people.  I guess that's pretty small

I also thought 100 was a HUGE wedding before TK, but now I realize it's about average.

mwhitson14

I think anything under 25 implies immediate family only, so I voted 25-50, definitely under 50.

Lyss5782

I think I consider 100-175 average.  So anything smaller is small, anything larger is large.  Under 50 would constitute "really small" in my eyes.

beatlesgirl25

My opinions on this also changed since being exposed to others' wedding plans on here. I used to think 25 or less was small, but I realize my wedding of 70 was also small. I wouldn't have had it any other way though.

AmoroAgain

Yeah, I think that anything under 50 is smaller. 

beatlesgirl25

Btw, even with the "WR" in the post title, my mind went to a dirty place. Hee hee.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

I'd say my 75 guest wedding is smallish - but it IS small for my family. When we have local weddings, they always top 200, sometimes 300. I'm having a wedding in a different city and only inviting close family (aunts and cousins, as opposed to second cousins, etc). It really depends on your family, area, and what you're used to. Just an example - my parents' wedding was over twice the size of mine.

I can fully understand how many people do not see that as a "small" wedding. But to us - we just consider it manageable in terms of how many people we want to visit with one-on-one that day, and how many people we can pay for. So that's what really counts.

squirrly

Here's how it breaks down to me:

<25 - tiny.  Like, parents & siblings only.
25 to 50 - very small.  Too small for dancing, etc.
50 - 100 - small.  Dancing/party atmosphere would really depend on guests.
100 - 150 - average/medium
150 - 300 - large
300 - 500 - enormous
500+ -- I can't fathom this.  Is it a wedding, or a high school graduation?

In my personal experience, weddings under 50 people are usually in someone's house, with no dances or DJ.  50 - 100 is usually a second wedding, definitely a low key affair.  Certainly a lot of people on here have weddings with a different feel & size combo than that -- it's just what I've been to and/or is common in my circle.

mocha beans

I say anything under 50 is a small wedding, and 30-50 is getting on the larger side of "small".  Small to me is parents, grandparents, siblings, very close aunts/uncles/cousins (like those you see on a weekly basis or so) and very best friends.

RaiKai

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_poll-small-small-wr?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:3a9ff9ab-63d4-462a-922b-a3366ec86379Post:fc5e37b4-3aa1-4314-b53b-f6ce0172ae9a">Re: Poll: How Small is Small? (WR)</a>:
[QUOTE]Btw, even with the "WR" in the post title, my mind went to a dirty place. Hee hee.
Posted by beatlesgirl25[/QUOTE]

Mine did too as I was writing the title..

goheels05

Well, when we were planning, if anyone at work would ask about the wedding, I'd tell them it was going to be really small, that way people didn't speculate about us inviting the whole office.  We invited about 180. 

RaiKai

For the record, I consider mine to be "very small" with 16 guests. We only invited some family members (not even all the immediate family) and friends we are closest too. It is a first wedding for us both, but we wanted a certain relaxed and cosy atmosphere (plus it is a DW).

I consider under 50 to be small (with the upper ends to be "small-ish"). .

3plus

I voted anything under 50 is small.  For me, 50-100 is medium, anything over 100 is a large wedding.

I'm having about 30 people which includes us and our children, immediate family with their SOs and three very close friends with their SOs.

Kati0105

To me, anything under 100 seems small just because 90% of the weddings I've been to have had between 150 and 300 guests.  We went to a 60 person wedding in May and it seemed very intimate to me (family and close friends only, I was actually surprised FI and I had been invited when I realized how small it was).  Our will be around 140-150 most likely, and that seems about average to me.

sarah0725

I voted under 50, athough I think our wedding of 85 is smallish compared to what a lot of my friends are planning. There's another definition of "small" when you're talking to someone who's not invited, though, and that means "too small to invite you."

Goldlie11

My wedding will be 30-50 people.  We're not 100% sure about what we will do.  I do consider it small.  I forgot who said it, but my mind does not automatically go to a 50 person wedding being in a home.  I don't know anyone here in NYC whose house can comfortably fit 50 people.  We will be doing it in a restaurant.  Even if FI and I do have a 50 person wedding, we won't include dancing.  I do agree that small weddings don't usually lend themselves to traditional halls, djs, and things of that nature.