Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:00a.m.
From word go, we've always known we were going to have a small wedding. A reception with 100+ guests was about as far away from our ideal day as you could get.
We're both relatively private people you see, and we both hate having our photo taken (our poor poor photographer). Multiply that by 100 and we'd both be squirming with unease the entire day! And there's the budget to consider here too, feeding less people means spending less money!
This was a deciding factor when it came to choosing a venue. We wanted a space intimate enough to enjoy with our closest friends and family, but roomy enough so we wouldn't be packed in like sardines.
Our venue was the perfect compromise, with room for 60 people including the bridal party.
60 people seemed like plenty, room for extras even! Until we sat down and really carefully looked at our guest list.
It seems we miscalculated. We have seven people too many. Yup. Seven.
And that's after enforcing the general wedding rules when it comes to not inviting partners that we don't know well or haven't met, and sadly relegating Aunty Betty and Uncle Bill who we haven't seen in 10 years to the B-list, along with friends we were close with years ago, but have lost touch with lately.
We came up with a few possible solutions and last weekend I had a pow wow with my two closest friends to sound the ideas out. It seems the easiest and cheapest solution (the no partner rule) wasn't going to fly! So Plan B involves hiring a small marquee extension to fit an extra table in. Yikes, the budget wasn't expecting that.
The whole discussion lifted the lid on a can of worms, for example when does the 'plus one' rule really apply? And do people always assume their partner is invited too?
So if in a couple of months time you receive an invite to our wedding, count yourselves lucky; you made it to the A-list!