Planning for unexpected guests?

[Liz&Cailen]

Did you or will you have a game plan for unexpected guests? We're having a seated dinner and are doing a printed poster for table assignments. So what happens if someone just shows up? Do they pick their own table and ask a waiter for a chair? What if a whole family of four shows up unexpectedly? I don't think my family will do this, but I'm also not sure I would be surprised if they did.
If this happened to anyone, how did your venue/planner/mom/yourself deal with it?

On the other hand, did anyone underestimate the final count given to the caterer (knowing they make extra food anyway) in case of no shows?

[*TanyaJeanne*]

We planned for 20 people to not show up just in case. We thought it was a high number but I think around that many ended up not coming...then we had some people show up who didn't RSVP. I didn't have a seating arrangement but are you able to have a table or two in the back for extra seating?

Also, depending on who is serving your food sometimes they have a policy on making extra/less depending on the amount of people. I think ours made enough extra for about 10 people or so.

[Maria 05]

We had seated and we had a few extra show up. Luckily we had arranged a set menu and choices so that there were some extra dishes available. The best thing to do is talk to who ever is serving food and ask what the policy is if you have a choice menu Fish or meat then there will be extra food so there should be no problem as for seating you will find that say there are tables of 8 that as you plan who sits where I had to do that because it was to ensure harmony then you may find that some tables have an odd number and you can fit people in.

[*Tanya*]

The resort is supplying the food for our reception, and they told us to just give them the exact head count we're expecting, and if there are extras, there will be food available but we will only have to pay for what's consumed. :woo:

I didn't think to give a smaller number than we're expecting. Hopefully we don't have a ton of no-shows. That would be bad. :no:

[Winter_Bride]

We actually didn't plan at all for people showing up :lookaround: We had about 10-15 people who didn't RSVP, but we got ahold of them before the caterer needed the final count, and so the number we had for tables and food was the number of "yes"'s we got.

I couldn't imagine someone RSVPing no, and then changing their mind and showing up anyway unannounced, but that's not to say it doesn't happen. We just didn't plan for it at all. We had a few no-shows, but it was mainly due to illness.

[*Sarah*]

We didn't have a plan. Luckily it worked out that some "Yes"es didn't show and some "No"s did and it evened out. That being said, we also didn't have assigned seating so it didn't have too much impact for us.

I like the idea of having an extra table or two available. I wouldn't worry about having it all decorated like the others or anything like that though. IMO, you shouldn't have to spend too much effort accomodating those who either weren't invited or didn't RSVP.

[jillian]

We didn't have a plan because I would never RSVP No and show up so I wasn't even thinking it was a possibility. We did have a couple that we didn't invite show up and another couple come way past dinner though.

For the non-invited couple, one of the coordinators asked if we wanted to have him sit for dinner. One of my cousins and her date decided at the last minute not to come so that worked out easily. If that had not happened, that couple would have had to wait in another room until after dinner. They weren't invited after all.

Our venue set up a table off to the side for the couple that came late. I didn't know about any of this until we received our pictures. Had I known, I don't think I would have cared at that point but now... when I think about who it was and why they were late, well I want to punch him out.

Chances are you will have some no shows to counter the unexpecteds but ask your venue what they suggest. It's their business so they probably experienced it before.

If this is something that's causing stress for you, pick some one that will be able to make the decision day of on what to do.

[j's beautiful]

We didn't have a plan and as it was some people that said they were coming didn't so it wouldn't of mattered!

[*Tanya*]

We had four no-shows, two surprise show-ups, and two who had RSVP'd that they would be coming to the ceremony but not the reception, but then asked if they could stay for the reception. They didn't like my tone when I said, "Sure, fine whatever", so they ended up not staying. :heee: