It’s not what you expect to happen when your wedding day arrives, but it happens often enough that there should be a plan in place so you (the couple) don’t need to worry about it! And you can let someone else deal with these couple issues.
We’re talking about:
1) Unexpected wedding guests (they never RSVP’d, they decided to change their RSVP last minute or wedding crashers!) and
2) Late guests! Sometimes the traffic is really bad or the guests are just naturally late people – it happens! And sometimes they miss dinner!
There are a few ways to prepare for these. You know your guests and you probably know who might end up doing this. For unexpected guests, you can have an entire table in the back that is empty and ready to be filled. For example, usually the Officiant does not stay for the reception (unless of course they are family or a close friend). Sometimes they bring their spouse and end up staying! We would, of course, always recommend discussing this with your officiant and vendors before hand but that doesn’t always happen.
Let’s say you had a whole seating chart made and there are some last minute RSVPs that come in after the chart has already been completed. If you have a wedding planner or day-of person, you should already be giving them a list of guests, alphabetical with table numbers. The wedding planner would write in the new RSVPs and be around the seating chart as guests arrived to seat those late RSVPs! Otherwise, you can have someone let those guests know where they will be seated by texted them ahead of the event.
And late guests!
I’ve seen guests arrive so late that they missed placing their dinner order. Your venue/caterer should be able to provide a replacement meal or get that order placed ASAP but talking to your Maitre’D or catering manager.
And oh! Wedding Crashers! The horror.
This is usually at a restaurant or a venue that has multiple weddings going on at the same time. And hopefully that restaurant or venue has some type of security person who can ask them politely to leave. I’ve only dealt with this once, and the person walked up to the bar, got a drink and left – so it wasn’t the end of the world but just, the gaul! If you’re expecting uninvited guests to show up, discuss that with your venue so they can be on the look out.
Looking to get some help with planning for this or unexpected events that may happen on your wedding? Hiring a wedding planner can help you be prepared for all the good things but also all the surprise things. Schedule a consultation with us here: https://calendly.com/nessmcgovern/initialconsultation
