PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

neesiepie Posted: Jan 14, 2004 01:40 PM

PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

My mom's whole family is in Peru. I think maybe 3 or 4 people from there will come to the wedding, IF I'm lucky. My dad's ENTIRE family is in Florida....so I can't even guarantee THEY will all come.
Anyone else have this problem? How can you count them when booking the catering hall when 90% of those invited live FAAAAAAAAR away and might not/most likely WILL NOT be able to come??????

TwoBugs Posted: Jan 14, 2004 01:48 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

It's a tough situation, I know. ALL of FH's family lives very far away, as do ALL of our mutual friends - and most of our OOT guests have financial issues or issues with taking time off from school/work.

We sent out STDs almost a year in advance to let all those people know that they need to start planning and saving their money now.

When it comes down to it, I have no idea whether we'll meet our minimum or not, but I have faith in our guests that they will find a way to be there if they really want to.

For your situation, you've given your guests a long time to plan a trip to the States. I really do think more will come than you expect.

september2004 Posted: Jan 14, 2004 02:02 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

as it stands 1/2 my guests are OOT and 1/2 are tri-state local.

my FMIL wants to send invitations to ~20 people in italy who we are counting on not coming. the only reason i say this is because my FSIL got married last year and only 2 came from italy. needless to say i do not like to send out invitations just to be 'polite' but i think i'm going to have to give in to this one...

we want to shoot for ~100 guests based on the preliminary list we made (keeps changing and growing). we guaranteed 80, the max we are willing to pay for is 125. we have a list of 178 (vendors included).

we sent out STDs to the 'must haves' already to get people talking. we have an idea who will try to be there and my mom is going to start making hotel accommodations. the trick will be 6 months from now when we have to send out the invites...

neesiepie Posted: Jan 14, 2004 02:06 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

Good idea about sending the STD's NOW....
We thought about maybe sending actual invites to the people who MOST LIKELY will TRY and come...and for the ones we know DEFINITELY won't....just sending them an announcement so we save money on invites.

shelly3950 Posted: Jan 14, 2004 02:08 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

I have same problem. My FH is from another country. WHat I did is have his mom find out who is coming now. We will not invite everyone (since his parents are each one of 11 children), only the ones who will definitely come. Then we will have a party in his country for all the peopel who can;t make it.

xjulietx Posted: Jan 14, 2004 02:20 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

Yeah, I'm in the same boat. FH is not from here and has a lot of relatives who WANT to come, but they need to apply for Visa's etc. and then get approved. I have also asked my FMIL to help find out who could afford the trip, lodging etc.

bridget&jimmy Posted: Jan 14, 2004 02:32 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

When I did my guest list I just marked the one that I though would most likely not come and then only guarenteed for about 70% of who I did think would come. But just make a note for the ones you think wont come. I also did this for my eparty and it worked out exactly right.

Bridget

Robeymuse Posted: Jan 14, 2004 02:43 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

That is hard to say. 60% of our guests are OOT. We already have about 60 people saying they booked their flights and hotels and we haven't even sent the invites out, just the STDs.

oakslady Posted: Jan 14, 2004 03:29 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

about 85% of the people who are comming are from out of town - that is why i sent the save the dates so early - it gave people enough time to save up for the trip - i wouldnt worry about who is and isnt comming - they will call you or if you want to get a general idea ask a few folks alot of the people have already written/called me to tell me they would be there - if given enough time i think alot of the family would end up comming
also tell your hall you have mostly out of town guests - my hall knows and said they can work with me on it if alot of the people cant come

neesiepie Posted: Jan 14, 2004 03:53 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

Posted by Robeymuse

That is hard to say. 60% of our guests are OOT. We already have about 60 people saying they booked their flights and hotels and we haven't even sent the invites out, just the STDs.

When did your guests start telling you this? How long prior to the wedding?

neesiepie Posted: Jan 14, 2004 03:54 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

Posted by oakslady

about 85% of the people who are comming are from out of town - that is why i sent the save the dates so early - it gave people enough time to save up for the trip - i wouldnt worry about who is and isnt comming - they will call you or if you want to get a general idea ask a few folks alot of the people have already written/called me to tell me they would be there - if given enough time i think alot of the family would end up comming
also tell your hall you have mostly out of town guests - my hall knows and said they can work with me on it if alot of the people cant come

is this in case you DIDNT meet your guarantee?

Maribelle7777 Posted: Jan 14, 2004 03:58 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

When you send out invitations (I didn't understand the question before I edited this), make sure they understand they HAVE to either send them back or let you know otherwise if they are coming or not. Explain that your hall (and most halls here) charge per person and the only way you can pay is by knowing who will be going.

When looking at halls, count everyone that you think ,even if you are pretty sure they won't but there's a possibility they will.

Then take about 20% off that final number. So if you count everyone (all friends, relatives, etc) and it comes to 100, take 20% off and that's 80. Look for a hall that accomodates between those numbers. Or whatever number you come up with.

Good luck

Tessie Posted: Jan 14, 2004 05:14 PM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

This is why i love this board. I have so many OTT guests and i feel so much better that i am not alone. It seem slike it will just take alot of planning.

oakslady Posted: Jan 15, 2004 05:16 AM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

yes that was if we didnt make our minimum. they were really cool about it - if after we get the responses we dont meet our minimum they are going to work with what we have

babybride Posted: Jan 15, 2004 08:09 AM

Re: PEOPLE WITH OOT AND OVERSEAS GUESTS

I have alot of relatives overseas so I sent STDs to them in September when I mailed them to the people here in the States. This way they had the date and hotel information. I too had to purchase alot of invites to send overseas just to be polite. My mom and I looked at the list and I truly believe all my cousins will come (some have booked already), but I know the older relatives will not make the flight. It is just too long. That is how I came up with my estimate for overseas and added that to the regular list as my estimate and kep that number in my head when we negotiated with the hall.