I may be freaking out a little too soon, but I think we are going to have twice as many people as we can fit/afford. My FH tells me today (after he mailed the last of the invites this morning) that he thinks that most of them will be coming to the wedding. The number of people that we can comfortably fit in the church, reception hall, and budget is about 100-120. With this new news, the guest list is looking a bit more line 160-175. With everyone getting cozy in the church, they could fit, but the reception hall can only really fit about 140-150, and the catering and cake means that each extra person is going to be another $50 each. That is a difference of up to $3800. My budget just can't stretch that far, and I can't very well uninvite people, but now all of the invites are sent. I am working as much as I can right now to try get a little OT, but I think I am screwed. Tip to all of you planning out there. Double and triple check all of your guest lists and numbers BEFORE you start sending invites.

So we decided to take the $1000 loss of the non-refundable deposit and we are cancelling our catering. We are going to have a "pot-luck" type of event. My mom, FMIL, and best man (as well as a few family and friends here and there) will be making the food. Should be lots of fun/stress, but it will be about $2000 cheaper (even after the $1000 loss) and it is not a problem if everyone we invited comes.

That's great that ya'll are doing a "potluck". Are you a member of the churhc that you are having the wedding at? The place we are doing our reception at we are getting farely cheap and they said they would do any kind of food that we wanted! Anywho back on subject... Maybe the ladies of the church would be available to help with food and serving stuff like that. Alot of churches will be more than happy to help out. When is you big day?

Well, we WERE planning to have some of the church ladies help us out, but now I don't know what we are going to do. I called the caterer and he said that because we are cancelling within 60 days (45 to be exact) that we owe 75% ($3275.78) and the $1000 deposit does not count toward that. The total if we go with them was going to be $4600 (so $3600 more once you count the deposit). seems rediculous that the difference between having the wedding catered and not catered is going to be about $350! Read your contracts girls. We may be getting lawyers involved, but this really sucks.

So we sorted out the catering. We adjusted the menu and we are going to be able to feed 140 people for the proce it was going to cost to feed 100. Feeling much better now.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Glad to hear you got things worked out the caterer!

Funny thing is, we were supposed to meet the caterer on Thursday to finalize the new plans and he was a no-show. Turns out he is one of the many people that is stuck in out of town because of the cancelled flights. Now he is super apologetic and while I feel sorry for him, me driving 20 miles out of my way and waiting 1 hour for him to not show means that I am going to try to get him to give us a couple of extra ppl for free.

Yeah, I would definately see what you can get out of it, ha ha.