HOW TO GET AHEAD BEFORE YOU EVEN START PLANNING!

He popped the question, hooray!!

Photos by Jill Caren Photo

Now everyone and their mom is asking you when you’re getting married. And where you’re getting married. And when you’re having kids. And what your social security number is. AND IT’S BEEN FIVE MINUTES.

Yep, yep, we’ve all been there. Hot dang your friends and family are excited for you, which is exciting! And scary. And overwhelming. So, how can you get ahead before you event start?

The first thing you’ll want to do after getting engaged is start a preliminary guest list. The first vendor you’ll need to book is your venue, and venues have capacity. At Hawthorne House, our capacity is 300 and we typically do guest counts ranging from 150-300 so if you are looking to have an intimate shindig with 50 or less guests, we are probably not an ideal choice. If you want to have every person from your hometown attend and are sending 550 invitations, we are probably not an ideal choice. Our couples tend to invite between 180-325 guests and hit between 150-300 attending. A general rule of thumb is 85% of your invited guests will RSVP yes, but YOU know your guests the best. If 100% of your guests are in the town where you will hold your wedding, you will probably have a higher percentage attend your special day. If 75% of your guests are coming from out of town you may be closer to the 75-80% range. Keep this in the back of your mind while planning, but always plan on the high end in order to be best prepared.

When making your guest list start RIGHT AWAY with splitting up age groups. Hawthorne House offers an in-house bar so we need the guest list split up into three age groups:

• 21 and up

• 5-20

• Under 5

21 and up is charged the full beverage fee, between 5-20 year old is charged a lower rate and any guest under 5 is free of charge BUT is still needed for the chair count. Use different font colors or highlight the cells in a spreadsheet to mark the age of the guest at the time of your wedding to get ahead of planning. This will save you hours later down the road when you need to turn numbers in!

Happy planning from Hawthorne House!