Your wedding day is a BIG celebration, and we don’t blame brides for wanting to include everyone in the festivities, but when that guest list starts to cascade into the triple digits, you may be left seeing nothing more than dollar signs.
The fact of the matter is there are plenty of benefits to keeping your wedding small—let’s call it intimate—other than the bill you’ll be presented at the end. In addition to saving some moola, you’ll be happy to hear that brides who have opted for smaller gatherings certainly didn’t regret the decision to not go big.
More Time With Each Guest
When the reception hall is packed with 300 plus guests, it’s hard to say hello to everyone, let alone spend quality time with the ones you love. After all, it is tradition for the bride and groom to personally greet each guest after the big “I Do,” which can be a time-consuming endeavor with even 100 people in the room.
By cutting down the guest list you’ll be able to spend more time chatting with each table, and more moments celebrating with your closest friends and family, too—not swapping niceties with your mom’s great-aunt twice removed.
Fewer Hurt Feelings
Hear us out—it may seem like a shorter guest list would lend itself to more hurt acquaintances, but that’s not necessarily true. If you have a small family-and-close-friends-only affair then coworkers, distant family, and your besties from high school may not be surprised to miss an invitation. If you invite 500 of your nearest and dearest then those people you leave out may take it a tad personally, especially if you just happened to forget them.
More $$$ to Splurge Elsewhere
A larger headcount immediately means more money earmarked for essentials like dinner, cake, and décor, which could leave less in the budget for those areas where you’d like to spend more such as photography, videography, or even really cool favors. The reality is, the more people you invite, the more expensive each of those little extras might be, driving up the cost of just about everything.
More Venue Options
A large party means you’ll have to find a place to host it, which is totally doable in San Joaquin County where vast wineries and event spaces open the doors to large parties, but the number of these oversized venues is less. If you have your eye set on a place with a guest list cap, you’ll have to adhere to it—or find somewhere else to get married.