Thumper, if you end up shy of your minimum, invite your CC friends 
So this article kept popping up in my FB newsfeed, and I eventually opened it:
All I kept thinking was, OMG… are there really people out there who go to a wedding so they can do nothing but critique the choices an engaged couple make about what they want for THEIR wedding? I guess so. SMH
Anyway, this was one of the comments on the FB link, and I thought, “Hell ya!”
Completely agree with the part about how people should think twice about going to a wedding if the main purpose of going is anything other than sharing in the couple’s joy.
Is this a venue where the facility and the catering are provided by one company (like a restaurant or hotel)? If it is, and you find yourself on the short side when it comes to guests, you may be able to upgrade the food or drinks. When my daughter and her fiance visited the venue where they’re going to have their wedding, they were told that with their expected numbers, they’re right on the edge of meeting/not meeting the food and beverage minimum. The woman from the venue suggested that if the numbers run a little low, they might want to upgrade the appetizers. Another possibility might be to upgrade from beer and wine only (which is what they’re planning right now) to a full bar.
Of course, these sorts of adjustments don’t save you money, but at least you get your money’s worth.
We can’t do what you describe to meet our minimum number of guests. The $$$ per person are calculated on that minimum number of guests. We have to pay for the minimum whether we meet it…or not. Upgrades do NOT count.
But there is a little leeway in that count…they say. We will probably be charged for 80.
@thumper1, in that case, maybe a few more people could be given plus ones.
I think we have all of the plus ones…
Thumper, this is an early preview of the myriad details that will have your head spinning ,lol. So are you thinking 75 s the number? And all those will come? If you really like the venue, don’t have a close second or third choice, it may be simpler to pay for 85 and not worry about the extra $. (And later, there may be additional guests.) Often, you can work savings into another line item or two, make it work.
Teriwitt- I had to stop reading that as I rather liked some of the ideas. I like it when there is something different at weddings. Our wedding years ago was like a cookie cutter of all of our friends’ weddings.
@onward - right? I mean, we’ve seen many variations of those ideas at the weddings we’ve been to recently and they were really nice, but more importantly, they were what made the wedding special for that particular couple.
And much of that joy lies in the fact that the wedding planning process is finally finished.
Remember a few pages back when I was worried about when D2 was going to fly home for Christmas, and I wanted it to be a day earlier in case we had any major weather systems come through? And she agreed because her bridal shower is a Sunday brunch - so she and D1 (host) are flying in Friday night, and guess who now has a major winter storm heading here, set to arrive and last Friday afternoon-Saturday.
I have a sinking feeling one of them is not going to make it. And it makes me so sad. This was going to be her only bridal shower.
D1 just agreed to fly in Thursday night!!!
Awww – so great!!
AND… she called D2 to see if she’d come in on Thursday. They’re discussing her taking a red-eye in from LA on Thursday night/Friday morning!!!
I mean, really, won’t those airlines thank us when they realize there are two less people they have to rebook when their original flights get canceled??
Too bad she can’t get a reverse-bump compensation of some sort! JK
D1 actually got a sweet deal. When she changed her original flight from Saturday to Friday, the fare went down almost $100 (thank you Southwest for no re-booking fee); now changing one leg of that trip to Thursday night has added $40, but I’m not complaining! She does have to work Friday (which is why originally she was going to come in on Saturday), but can work from our home here.
D2 may be the problem. She’d have to switch from flying Burbank (10 minutes from her apartment) to Midway on Southwest, to American from LAX to O’Hare. And that flight will cost big bucks booking it at this point, but she won’t lose money on the Southwest flight. She will have the full amount as a credit in her account.
Do restaurants ever close due to winter weather in you area, @teriwtt? I know your area is used to snowstorms.
The brunch is Sunday morning, so we should be fine by then. Even if the storm goes into Saturday evening, the plows will have a chance to clear the roads by Sunday morning. Not too worried about that part. There ‘might’ be some places that close on Saturday due to this storm. I have to pick up the cake at noon on Saturday, but it’s only 3 miles away. Easy peasy. D asked for carrot cake of all things!
Last weekend when we had a major storm that started on Saturday (all Southwest flights into Midway were canceled that day), about 9:30 Saturday night, I realized I had three things I needed to get from Target in order to finish all my holiday to-do lists, so H and went out in the storm. Target was open until 11PM. When we got there, there were about ten cars in the parking lot. The store was pretty empty, but it was obvious they’d sent home some employees as only two check-out lanes were open, so it took us a few minutes to get through check-out. But they were open. The store is only about 3.5 miles from where we live and few cars were out on the road, so we had no problem getting there (I drive a mid-sized SUV). H even joked that we should always go shopping during snow storms.
This whole ordeal makes me so grateful the wedding is in CA in March! And we are flying out the Tuesday before the Saturday wedding.
Found the magazine “Wedding Flowers and Accessories” (a British publication) at Michael’s. The current issue out is Nov/Dec, and I did notice one article was “Your Essential Guide to Winter Flowers” which may or may not be helpful for any on this thread. I just thought it was good seeing different floral arrangements, and with an article “Fab florals that won’t break the bank - yay!” Included was a ‘flower planner and directory’ which has step by step essential guide on planning wedding flowers. Worth the $10.50 IMHO.
Totally surprised to see this at Michael’s and it fits the bill for us.
Our D just got engaged to her bf. We could not be happier for them. He’s a wonderful guy, amd we’re so lucky they found each other. They were part of a large group of friends throughout college, amd he said he waited for her to run through 4 or 5 bf’s before he convinced her their friendship was not just friendship. Ahhhhh!
Now my homework is to go back to the first page of this thread and re-read everything!