When it comes to planning for your wedding, the number of guests you have can make a big difference in terms of your approach. Preparing for 100 guests is going to be different than preparing for 300. There are certain considerations that you’ll need to make in order for everything to run smoothly on your big day. If you’ve never planned for an event this big, then you should take some time to appreciate how difficult it can be. Planning a large wedding isn’t completely different from a small wedding, but there are some elements you should consider.
1. Choosing The Right Venue For A Large Wedding
Perhaps the most important consideration to make is to find a wedding venue that can accommodate a large crowd. Our wedding venue at Olympia Banquet Hall can accommodate up to 400 guests.
When you select your venue, you want to ensure that it has not only enough room for your guests, but also enough room for them to mingle comfortably. You should also pay attention to the size of the dance floor and make sure it will be able to hold a good portion of your guests at one time.
It’s also important to speak with the manager to make sure that the air conditioning in the venue is able to keep a room cool that has a large amount of guests. With so many people in one room—especially if they’re dancing—there’s going to be plenty of body heat. You’ll want your guests to be nice and cool.
2. Have A Plan For Greeting Everyone
It’s customary to greet all of your guests at your wedding. Spending time with every single guest may be easy for a wedding of under 100 people, but for a wedding of 300 to 400, it simply isn’t practical.
Instead, you should plan to spend time at each individual table and speak to those guests as a group instead of stopping with each specific guest. You can make exceptions for special guests, but when planning a large wedding, you’ll need to take this into consideration. You don’t want to spend the entire night trying to say hello to everyone. Make your way to each of the tables and spend a few minutes at each one saying hello and taking photos.
3. Add Extra Time For Everything
With a larger amount of guests, things will naturally take longer. If you have dinner set from approximately 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm, you should consider adding an extra 30 minutes to accommodate for so many guests. No matter the dining style that you choose, it will take quite a while to feed so many people. Often, couples don’t account for timing when planning a large wedding, but this mistake can be easily avoided.
4. Avoid DIY Bars
You might want to think twice if you were planning on having a DIY taco bar as a late-night wedding snack. With 300 guests, a DIY bar is just asking for a traffic jam that stretches to the middle of your dance floor. Instead, have the tacos (or whatever it is) already made and handed out as a midnight treat.
If you’re planning a large wedding of your own, be sure to let these tips guide you a little. We’ve seen weddings of all sizes at Olympia, and common mistakes can be easily avoided. Good luck, and happy planning!
