What happens if you have no shows or extra people?

Definetely lowball your final count by 4 or 5. (as long as you met your minimun). THings happen, babysitters cance, people get sick, people flake etc....
At my cousin's wedding she had a couple that drove from Cleveland to NJ and went to a yankee game the day before the wedding. They ended up eating something bad and were so sick they missed the wedding the reason why they came to NY and they were stuck paying for their plates.

This thread is so helpful!

My question is...let's say you give your hall a final headcount of 10 less just to account for no-shows...and say those people DO show up...how does it work if they do show up? How will the hall know to add places? And how do you pay for it that day? I imagine at the end of the night? I guess it's smart to have your checkbook with you that day, huh.

See, now I'm even more confused....you still have to give the seating plan to the hall right? and then they put out the placecards....? Won't they go by that to see how many to set?

We had to pay in full one week before. I paid for 150 but we had 153 on the list. I had to give them the guest list in advance and two days before they asked about the other 3. Turned out I had exactly 3 last minute cancellations so it all worked out.

Believe me, the halls will be paid. If you go below your min they will charge you, if you have no shows they will charge you, if you have last minute guests who show up they will charge you.