I'm currently searching for a venue for summer 2020 and working on the guest list. Problem is all my family lives in Alberta and we're getting married in Ontario. Our current guest list is 89. Looking at my list of Alberta friends and family, it's about 30 people, at least 18 of whom I'm really not sure can or would want to travel. That's a HUGE discrepancy. FH's family are all here, so we're pretty certain most of them will be there (22 family, 16 friends so far). I've got another 19 friends on my end. Both of our friends lists can be cut down.
Ideally we'd have around 60-75 guests. I'm just really not certain how to proceed. If we invite all 89 and my suspicions are correct, we're at about 70 guests which fits nicely within my budget. But, some of them could surprise me and we end up with 85 and my budget is blown. Or, we could go with a cheaper venue, still end up with 60, then I get venue regret for going with something I didn't love. I haven't even gotten started on minimums!
To top it off, I'm a bit skittish about my family even coming here. Back when we got engaged at Christmas, we'd already known we wanted a destination wedding down south and communicated that to people. Long story short, we were woefully underwhelmed with the response and some who declined were very important to us, so we cancelled that idea entirely hoping they'd be able to at least travel within Canada. (I'm still a bit salty because it's actually not that much cheaper to travel and stay here, but that's another thing.)
Of the 89 on the list, 37 would be travelling. We're talking people coming from Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, California, Vermont and New York and ALL but 2 are from my side. I feel like I'm in the exact same position I was when wanting a destination wedding, only this time with rain and bugs.
If we have 60, I could afford a beautiful venue with the phenomenal food I love. But with 80-90, I can't. I hate the idea of B-lists but I'm wondering if this might be the type of situation where it might work? I really don't know. We're having dinner at my FMIL's place this weekend and we're going to discuss all this, but I needed to get it off my chest a bit.
