Our reception is May...Me and my FH have huge families and they are scattered all over the US. Problem one, how do we feed 300 family members? And that is a estimate not including close friends. Problem two, there are a lot of kids, what do we plan for them? How do we make sure the kids are not running wild? Problem three, I have no idea where to start. I have an enxiety attack everytime I think about it. Please give me some ideas, I am at a lost here.
Our reception is May...Me and my FH have huge families and they are scattered all over the US. Problem one, how do we feed 300 family members? And that is a estimate not including close friends. Problem two, there are a lot of kids, what do we plan for them? How do we make sure the kids are not running wild? Problem three, I have no idea where to start. I have an enxiety attack everytime I think about it. Please give me some ideas, I am at a lost here.
nhamer615
OK, I'm gonna try to help you out with this one as best I can. #1 breathe. #2 If your family really is scattered all over the U.S., that's actually a good thing. The farther people have to travel to attend your wedding, the higher the chance is that they may not attend. I have a big family, too. My suggestion is for you to create your DREAM guest list and put everybody that you can think of on it. Then, really go over each and every name and think about whether they MUST be invited, SHOULD be invited or WOULD BE NICE to invite. Think about who you truly would miss if you looked into the audience on your day and saw that they were not there -- those are the people who MUST be invited. For me, I cut off cousins at first cousins. That alone got the list down quite a bit.
Now, as for the kids issue, there are a couple of things you can do --you can have an adults only reception. Or, you can have a special kids reception in a different room. That's what we are doing for my wedding for kids ages 5-12 (any younger than that hopefully they'll be at home or sitting with their parents). I hired a guy from the youth program at the YMCA to supervise the kids, they will be in their own room at the reception with their own kids' buffet (chicken fingers, pizza bites, meatballs, fruit kabobs, veggie sticks, cupcakes) and some activities. They can come out if they want to, but the main thing is that they eat off the kids' buffet, b/c that's what keeps your costs down.
Sorry to be so longwinded. Hope this helps.
[url=http://www.TickerFactory.com/]
[img]http://tickers.TickerFactory.com/ezt/d/4;10716;95/st/20071006/e/Our+Wedding/dt/-1/k/a0c4/event.png[/img]
[/url]
bama, that is excellent advise and suggestions.
nhamer, you have to first figure out how much you can spend on your reception. Then you have to figure out if you can feed 300 people on that budget. If not, get to cutting! If so, way to go!
Personally, I'm having an adult reception. The only kids that will be there are the kids in the wedding and 3 of my neices and nephews. I wanted myself and my guests to enjoy themselves without tripping over kids or having to get up every 5 minutes to take someone to the bathroom. lol
Thanks, this is great advice. Me and FH will sit down and work on a budget and guest list. I will probably end up in therapy before it is said and done. I will keep you all posted.
nhamer615
nhamer I had a really nice long reply for you when I was at work. I got distracted and when I went to post it I was logged out! Go figure.
Anyway, since Bamabride and Askalot covered most of my points I'll just add this: See if you can locate a reception hall that will allow you to bring in your own food. This is usually less expensive than a "per plate" dinner at a banquet hall.
but heed the ladies above advice - YOUR BUDGET should be the 1st thing you and your FH work on and everything else should fall in line with that.