11th hour wedding guests...

Our guest list has waivered.  As you remember, we originally invited 218 people on our A list and then had a back up B list of about 10 - 15 people so that if enough people said they couldn't attend, we could bump up some B listers to invite that we had to set by the way side.  Family first and all that jazz.  Plus we had a lot of out of towners who originally said they'd be coming but then replied with a no after the invites were actually mailed.

And of course, there were those people that we forgot to invite or that our parents asked us to please include.  I was getting really worried.  Over the course of two months, AFTER our invites had been mailed out, our guest list grew from 218 to 243!!!  Our venue could only hold 202 people with the smaller dance floor.  So there was a chance I was going to have to put people outside on the patio :( 

Anyhow, all is well, because with just two weeks to go before the wedding we were at a number of about 195 total.  And we still had/have a couple of people that will be iffy right up until the very last minute so we are okay with that.

The cool thing is, that because we have had 46 people unfortunately not able to attend, I have about 6 empty seats at the reception.  So when my best friend from high school who now lives on the east coast posted on Facebook that she was coming to So Cal the same week as our wedding I immediately e-mailed her and told her she *had* to come to our wedding!  She didn't think I was serious but we were able to work it all out and now she will be coming.

Back in high school, my yearbook advisor was a very influential teacher in my life.  She wrote in my yearbook that I better invite her to my wedding one day.  Well, that was 20 years ago and I tried to search for her on Facebook and the internet but never found her.  Then randomly, with just 6 days to go until our wedding, she found me on Facebook!  And saw that I was getting married.  So I of course asked her to please come and told her how I never forgot that she wrote that in my yearbook.  She couldn't believe it, and was very honored so now her and her husband are attending!  That is just beyond random!  I am so super excited about this.  She knew my sister and my parents well, too so it will be so cool for all of us to reconnect. 

So funny...I was so stressed for a while about not having enough room for all of our guests and in the 11th hour, I had enough empty seats to be able to add some old friends that were very important to me in my life.  I was also able to let 3 of our friends bring a date with them which we had not originally planned for.  It was kind of a bummer that I was reprinting escort cards and table assignments and seating charts just up until 2 days ago (Monday of the wedding week), but wasn't a huge issue.  I am giving the final charts to our coordinator at our rehearsal on tomorrow.

Did you have any last minute guest additions?

Update:  As of a few days ago when I wrote this post, I have heard from 3 people that they will not be able to attend the wedding...so now I have even more openings I had not planned on :)  I think the most unpredictable thing about a wedding is the guest list!!!