Is it wrong to cut off booking at a certain number of guest ???

[lrdavis23]

Quote:

Originally Posted by big3n09 I totally understand that if you sent them a STD it may be rude to cut them out but if you were having a local wedding and you had to give your head count by a certain date and they didn't RSVP, then what? That's what I mean by setting a more realistic cut off date because believe it or not some people may book a few weeks in advance. I have had 2 friends have destination weddings and they ran into the issue of having guest book weeks in advance and then they had to add them into their budget. I would try some of the suggestions that have been provided as far as adjusting your budget, I'm even going to myself. It is a blessing to have so many people want to come all the way to a DW but we still have to be real about what we can and can't handle. I'm shocked myself with our amount of people but I'm sure we'll figure it out and our DW will be all we hoped for.

At some point I will have to cut off maybe like 2 months before because like you say at some point decisions have to be made as far as budget, reception site, ordering items I want to take, programs, menu cards etc..... I don't want to be stresing at the last minute because some guest choose to wait a month before to book there trip, that is a bit inconsiderate of the bride and groom IMO.

After all the advice given on here, I have decided to not do OOT bags, a formal private welcome welcome dinner (we will have a informal welcome meet n greet), and I cut the excursions, this will save us at least 4K from the budget. so we will see how this works

[*Meagan*]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lrdavis23 At some point I will have to cut off maybe like 2 months before because like you say at some point decisions have to be made as far as budget, reception site, ordering items I want to take, programs, menu cards etc..... I don't want to be stresing at the last minute because some guest choose to wait a month before to book there trip, that is a bit inconsiderate of the bride and groom IMO. After all the advice given on here, I have decided to not do OOT bags, a formal private welcome welcome dinner (we will have a informal welcome meet n greet), and I cut the excursions, this will save us at least 4K from the budget. so we will see how this works

Cutting all of those are out are definitely money savers!!

[*Lo*]

Wow!! that's awesome so many people have decided to join you!

 

I think we might face the same problem as now we have 130 save the dates ready to be sent out. I am positive that a lot of extended family won't come but I'm sure there will be some surprises. In the end i figured the more the merrier, HOWEVER the venue is maxed out at 80. So I have thought about it and if for some reason more than 80 people decide to make the trek I will switch to a beach ceremony which can accommodate more people and there is another terrace that can have up to 120 I believe. It wouldn't be what I had envisioned but hopefully doable. I guess my advice would be to try and have a backup plan.

 

But as everyone said until the balance is paid in full people might drop out. Do you expect many more to book?

[lrdavis23]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gossip girl Wow!! that's awesome so many people have decided to join you! I think we might face the same problem as now we have 130 save the dates ready to be sent out. I am positive that a lot of extended family won't come but I'm sure there will be some surprises. In the end i figured the more the merrier, HOWEVER the venue is maxed out at 80. So I have thought about it and if for some reason more than 80 people decide to make the trek I will switch to a beach ceremony which can accommodate more people and there is another terrace that can have up to 120 I believe. It wouldn't be what I had envisioned but hopefully doable. I guess my advice would be to try and have a backup plan. But as everyone said until the balance is paid in full people might drop out. Do you expect many more to book?

Yep, there are at least 15 more people who told me they are making there deposits by wednesday if not by today. The gazebo can hold 100 people and the terrace I want holds 80, I hope we don't go over 80 I really don't want to have my reception in the ballroom, that kinda defeats the whole feeling of having a DW. but at this point I'm just gonna roll wit whatever comes lol... and go get a second JOB lol... just joking

[Tam]

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Originally Posted by lrdavis23 Tam and SSNM, I have ask the TA if me and Mike can get our room for free since we have soo many quest that have booked, Im waiting to hear what she will say. I hope so because we now have 57 guest confirmed. I would hope the resort would do that being that we will have 30 + rooms booked with them under one event.

They should give it for free, that was part of our offer when we were booking. For every 16 rooms booked, one room was free ... we had an even better one but it would have had to have been booked within a week of finding that out.
We still didn't even manage to go for free We were just short a couple of rooms which totally sucks a$$...
ANyways, all that I was trying to point out was the hotel totally does do that, I don't think it is part of a tour company...

[Tam]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lrdavis23 At some point I will have to cut off maybe like 2 months before because like you say at some point decisions have to be made as far as budget, reception site, ordering items I want to take, programs, menu cards etc..... I don't want to be stresing at the last minute because some guest choose to wait a month before to book there trip, that is a bit inconsiderate of the bride and groom IMO. After all the advice given on here, I have decided to not do OOT bags, a formal private welcome welcome dinner (we will have a informal welcome meet n greet), and I cut the excursions, this will save us at least 4K from the budget. so we will see how this works

We aren't even doing OOT bags for everyone, just our wedding party... I really don't think it's necessary though it's cute while you're down there, but really afterwards no one cares...
We are just going to do travel mugs for everyone from discountmugs.com. they have pretty good prices... the ones we chose don't even match with our colours, but they're really cute... blue with palmtrees all over them, almost shadow like... we're not evn putting our names on them, just maybe the date and place?? haven't decided that yet.

Once again, I started rambling. My point to all that was if you want to do something for everyone, it could be something small like that and at least people could use it again... beach towels are always useful too, but can be expensive...

[lrdavis23]

Ok ladies so I have a update from our travel agent, she contacted Dreams and is drawing up a contract and guesss what, we will be able to get our room/stay for free because we have more than 25 rooms booked at the resort..... so this will definitley be able to help us cover some of the additional cost that we were not expecting whoohooo i'm happy because I was worried if it would work out and now it will definitley work out.

[SSNM]

I think I already said this but that's great! That will really make a big difference. I know for me and FI, our stay is a HUGE chunk out of our budget. A free stay really helps.

[bearbunny]

wow that is great..I def would not cute it off..it would be really rude to invite people then say oh you can't came we capped it at 80. I agree with your dad..feel blessed

[hockeymom97]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lrdavis23 I agree Sheree10, it is alot to think about and I am going to take your approach and make a list of must haves, and optional things pending number of guest. I think the first thing I would cut would be the private welcome dinner like you said and just have an informal gathering at the bar/lounge. I may also have to cut paying for an excursion for all our guest wheewww I don't event want to think about how much that would cost to pay for 80-100 guest to go on an excursion lol.... but I think by teh end of December I will have a better idea of how many people will really be there, give or take a couple guest may book at the last minute but most people need more time to make payments. Has anyone had guest book a month or 2 before the trip ?

Not to stress you out, but I've seen brides post on here about guests who literally booked the week before!!! I'm sure this is the exception, not the rule, but I'm sure it does happen to some people.

Quote:

Originally Posted by lrdavis23 Ok ladies so I have a update from our travel agent, she contacted Dreams and is drawing up a contract and guesss what, we will be able to get our room/stay for free because we have more than 25 rooms booked at the resort..... so this will definitley be able to help us cover some of the additional cost that we were not expecting whoohooo i'm happy because I was worried if it would work out and now it will definitley work out.

Congrats! I had a feeling they would give you your room for free because of the high numbers you have. I think our resort does the same thing - if you book at least 25 rooms, then your room is free. This should definitely help with your costs and depending on your final guest count as the day gets closer, who knows...you may be able to add back some of the things you thought you had to cut out