Catholic Weddings

Question

Hey I need your guys' help.  We are inviting a little over 300 people to our wedding and my bridal shower guest list is growing too! I'm wondering how many is too many for a bridal shower? Thanks for any help ladies! :o)
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Re: Question

  • Jasmine&RajahJasmine&Rajah member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    edited January 2012
    In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_question-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:615Discussion:f33fde83-644e-4021-a649-13b1ad5e8508Post:105dd3f4-ec99-4b1f-bc5b-fff75bd9f53f">Re: Question</a>:
    [QUOTE] no one (not even you) will want to sit around for a whole hour while gifts are unwrapped.
    Posted by professorscience[/QUOTE]

    Anecdote time!  Clearly you have never been forced to attend a Middle Eastern girl's shower!  ;-D

    30 people sounds fabulous.  I have LOVED my friends' showers that were that size or smaller, and held at someone's home. 

    I didn't have the greatest time at either my bridal shower or, more recently, my baby shower.  Every single woman who was invited to the betrothal ceremony and the wedding was invited to both showers.  We had about 175 ladies at each and it was beyond exhausting. 

    Granted, this was a not a "real" problem.  I love my sisters and my mother for hosting and I am extremely, extremely grateful to them - and to my army of cousins who "ran" the gift-opening and re-packing process. But as the other posters have pointed out, it's not up to the bride. I had no say in the venues or the guest list, although I was allowed to help with seating arrangements and give my opinion on colors for the flowers - ha!

    Anyway, I hope you enjoy your shower!  And get those TY notes done as fast as you can!  You'll be on to wedding TYs before you know it!  :-D
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_question-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:f33fde83-644e-4021-a649-13b1ad5e8508Post:8ca10a2f-087c-474f-9367-d84cb7ac32ef">Re: Question</a>:
    [QUOTE]  We had about 175 ladies at each and it was beyond exhausting. [/QUOTE]

    <div>OMG, I can only imagine. I'm expecting about that many for my wedding alone and am aleady worried how I'm going to be able to meet with everyone there. How many did you have at your actual wedding?</div>
    Anniversary
  • In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_question-2?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:615Discussion:f33fde83-644e-4021-a649-13b1ad5e8508Post:8ca10a2f-087c-474f-9367-d84cb7ac32ef">Re: Question</a>:
    [QUOTE]In Response to Re: Question :  We had about 175 ladies at each and it was beyond exhausting.  Granted, this was a not a "real" problem.  I love my sisters and my mother for hosting and I am extremely, extremely grateful to them - and to my army of cousins who "ran" the gift-opening and re-packing process. Posted by Jasmine&Rajah[/QUOTE]

    WOAH!  That is a serious shower....  For my family and friend showers, there were less than 20 in attendance at each as we were limited by the size of the living rooms.  My sister, on the other hand, married into a big family and both her in-law aunt sets had almost 50 at each and hosted in a church hall.
  • Jasmine&RajahJasmine&Rajah member
    First Anniversary 5 Love Its First Comment
    edited January 2012

    Yes, the guest lists were crazy - and I had to go table-to-table to greet and speak to everyone.  Which is why I enjoyed my wedding day reception much more than the showers. 

    caiti2u, we had about 365 guests for the wedding day, and that is exactly why we had a receiving line after the Mass. Yes, it took forever, but it was preferable to spending the entire reception having to visit each table!  We planned that the reception hall, which was about a 20-25 minute drive from church, had cocktail hour ready as soon as our Mass was over.  This way, everyone could leave the church and go immediately to the reception to sit down and get some food and a drink!  (Some of our relatives "clutched their pearls," so to speak, over the fact that we didn't go table-to-table.  :-)  But it was the best option - and we made sure that the receiving line was only us and both sets of our parents, so it would move along.)

    By the way, shawna, from my family's experience with large showers, my suggestion if you're having lots of guests is to do the following:

    - Have dessert/coffee served, or the dessert tables "open," while presents are being done. 

    - Also, have a couple games going during presents ("wedding word" scrambles, which can be left on the table along with pens wrapped in a ribbon, and the timer game - if the timer goes off when the bride is opening a present, that guest wins a prize.)

    - Lastly, work out a present assembly line.  My family has this down to a science!  If your shower ends up being a lot of guests, and is going to be at a venue, ask for a microphone to be set up.  (This is helpful for speeches as well.)  If the hostess is anything like my mother, she'll want to make sure that everyone hears when their present is opened. 
    First, someone will "halfway" open a gift, so you don't have to take extra time undoing ribbons or wresting with tape.  Then, the person "on microphone" opens the card and announces, "This next gift is from Aunt Jane Doe," and then when you open the gift, she'll say, "It's the bedding set!"  Meanwhile, a few other people are taking the gifts, taping the cards to them, and re-packing them up (while of course, someone is writing down what all the gifts are for your TY list.) 

    Whew!  That was lengthy - but I hope it helps!

  • Perfect thanks gals!  My mom and sister are throwing my shower and it sounds like they are inviting a lot of girls.  I know what you mean about the gifts, that just gets painful for everyone and lots of thank you's too :o). I know I don't have a lot of say in who comes, but I wanted to know what you guys thought.  Thanks for the help!

    Jasime... thanks for the tips, sounds like agood idea. I will definitely keep that in mind!

    Thanks again ladies!!
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