At the same time, vendors, many of whom have suffered significant financial losses in the past two years, have made their guest count requirements clearer and stricter, said Leah Weinberg, a lawyer and the owner of Color Pop Events in New York.
“Virtually every wedding vendor has revised their contract after Covid struck,” said Ms Weinberg, noting that the number of guests is generally agreed upon when booking a supplier, although payments are made closer to an event. “They’ll say you can add to the number of guests, but you can’t subtract from it.”
To avoid the awkwardness of empty tables, or to avoid wasting hundreds, sometimes thousands of dollars when visitors drop out, more couples are now filling chairs with people they know loosely or not at all — welcome wedding crashers, if you will.
Learn more about the 2022 marriage tree in our ongoing Year of Marriage series.
On Thursday, Aug. 18, Heather Ecker, 39, a homemaker, and Jesse Cram, 33, a biochemist, plan to wed at a Rosecliff, a Gilded Age mansion overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Newport, RI. The couple, who live in Barrington, RI, have a guest list of about 70 people – but Ms. Ecker fears it will be even smaller.
“I just sent my save-the-dates, but I’ve already had a lot of verbal nos,” she said. “I don’t want to see empty seats, and of course I’ve already signed the contract for the food and drink,” she added, which will cost about $200 per person.
Their backup plan to fill seats? A list of strangers living in Rhode Island interested in attending, which Ms. Ecker found by posting in a thread in a private Facebook group.