FI and I were talking about our guest list last night, and our venue has a few options for ceremony spaces. The guests we're inviting are from all over the country, and some are elderly, so at this point we aren't sure who will be able to make it. If we have less than 120 guests attend, we can have our ceremony on the patio overlooking the golf course easy, right? If we have over 120, we'll have to rent a tent to be set-up about 30 yards from the clubhouse and have the ceremony there. I made some calls about tents in our area and did the math. Between the tent/side walls, chairs, draping, etc. this would add approx. $3K to our cost (yuck). Our guest list is trimmed already and we're hovering right around 150.
Here's where it gets tricky. At a lot of weddings in my hometown, a good amount of guests will skip the ceremony and just attend the reception (I don't know why, but often times this is the case). Rather than invite 150 people and obligate ourselves to a tent (that we may not even need), is there a polite way to ask guests to RSVP to the ceremony and reception on the response card, so we have an idea of how many to expect at the ceremony? *puts on flame retardant sut* TIA!