Invitation wording?

[Yaaamiii]

So to save some $, my SO and I are just going to do a restaurant reception. They have a separate room that holds up to 100 people, but our list is like 80 something (hispanic families!). Either way, this is just 80 something no plus ones because A) we can't afford it and B) because if we let people bring plus ones, we'd obviously go way over the 100 limit. I'm trying to figure out the following:

1. Is there a polite way of saying on the invites that we're not allowing plus ones? Like..."we apologize for the inconvenience, but due to restaurant size restrictions, we are not allowing +1's"....or something of the sort...
2. Should I just hope that not all 80 something people show? Because I'm really worried people who weren't really on the guest list will show up anyway...other than cutting the list, which my SO and I have tried to do multiple times, I don't know a way around this one .

[TaraMarie]

You only brig a guest when the invitation is addressed to Mrs Sally Smith and Guest. If it is addressed to Mrs Sally Smith, then she comes alone.

[Schlafmütze]

We're inviting 60 people. We made our own invitations, in both german and spanish. The ones for the germans have more information on it, than the spanish ones.

In the spanish version, bellow the RSPV part, we wrote the word "cupo" or quota?!? in english?. There I plan on individually writing how many people that person or family is allowed to bring. Cupo: 1 or, 5, etc

Why for the colombians and not for the germans? simple: in Colombia and in many latin countries, even if it is addressed to Mr Andres Lopez, that person might think it is cool and OK to bring a 1+ just because.
With the cupo thing they get the message in a very simple way, no need to find long or complicated wordings.

Feel free to add me to your contacts. I am finishing our invitations this week and I plan on blogging about it -private blogs- Good luck!!

[nicole]

On the RSVPs, I wrote "___ seat(s) have been reserved for your party" and put 2 or 3 or whatever depending on if I was inviting a couple or a family. So just putting "1" would make it clear that they can't bring a guest.

[dglynn77]

You only brig a guest when the invitation is addressed to Mrs Sally Smith and Guest. If it is addressed to Mrs Sally Smith, then she comes alone.

Although this is true, NO ONE actually follows this or knows this rule. It is a great idea to add it to the invite!!!

[dglynn77]

On the RSVPs, I wrote "___ seat(s) have been reserved for your party" and put 2 or 3 or whatever depending on if I was inviting a couple or a family. So just putting "1" would make it clear that they can't bring a guest.

This is a great idea!!! It is still polite but perfectly clear!

[Yaaamiii]

Although this is true, NO ONE actually follows this or knows this rule. It is a great idea to add it to the invite!!!

Yea that's my thing. I know that's how it's technically "supposed" to be, but I know people are gonna be like "oh they won't mind if I just bring my sister..." and if everyone did that well, we'd be screwed!

Thanks guys for your replies
I think I like nicole's wording the best, though the cupo thing would work fine too. I'm just wondering if it would seem rude or not, I don't know..

[Bluejay Belle]

Yea that's my thing. I know that's how it's technically "supposed" to be, but I know people are gonna be like "oh they won't mind if I just bring my sister..." and if everyone did that well, we'd be screwed!

Thanks guys for your replies
I think I like nicole's wording the best, though the cupo thing would work fine too. I'm just wondering if it would seem rude or not, I don't know..

I don't think that seems rude at all. As long as you're accounting for people who are married or have long term partners, and/or children (if you're inviting them), I don't think people will be hurt by it. I like Nicole's wording as well, it's nice and concise.

[Yaaamiii]

On the RSVPs, I wrote "___ seat(s) have been reserved for your party" and put 2 or 3 or whatever depending on if I was inviting a couple or a family. So just putting "1" would make it clear that they can't bring a guest.

Wait I just thought of something...what if I put 1 seat has been reserved for your party and they think "oh that means I can bring one more person" ? D:

[lucybelle]

Wait I just thought of something...what if I put 1 seat has been reserved for your party and they think "oh that means I can bring one more person" ? D:

Well can you put "a seat has been reserved for you and ___ seats for your party"? (that sounds not as nice, but oh well)

Or maybe do you have a wedding website where you can clarify? Like put on the invite "please visit our website" and on it explain 1 seat= you. 2 seats= you +1.

[lyonsgirl]

I did what nicole suggested on our RSVPs, and didn't have any problems with uninvited +1's.

Granted, people ended up showing up that weren't on the guest list at all.... they just... appeared at the reception. MIL's thought was "well, we KNOW Aunt Barbara and Uncle Sam won't be showing up, so Jane & John can come instead!" Annoyed me so much. Told my SO it annoyed me. He didn't see the problem. I'm still a little frustrated because all of them are in a fair number of our reception photos so I can't even pretend that they weren't there.

[Xanahtas]

On our invitations we put "(peoples names) are invited" on the ones for families/couples and "You plus guest are invited" sort of thing. I always assumed that if it was just your name on the invite that you weren't allowed to bring a guest unless it states Plus One...?

Either way, you could put little tickets in the invitations as an enterance ticket and only put one in the invitations for the people without guests? That way its one ticket per person so should stop people bringing guests. Maybe im just making no sense here

[peppypenguin]

Although this is true, NO ONE actually follows this or knows this rule. It is a great idea to add it to the invite!!!

Really? I find that surprising. And rude. I would never think of bringing a guest if the invitation was just addressed to me.

[dglynn77]

Really? I find that surprising. And rude. I would never think of bringing a guest if the invitation was just addressed to me.

Absolutely. And it is rude. But people say things like, "I saw it was addressed to me but I knew you didn't want me to come by myself and be lonely..." People always think they are the exception to the rule.

[lucybelle]

Really? I find that surprising. And rude. I would never think of bringing a guest if the invitation was just addressed to me.

I was invited to a wedding, just me. My SO was in town and so I wrote the couple and asked if I could bring him. I asked very politely and gave them a way out saying "if you're trying to keep it small, I understand..." They let him come! I was so psyched! It was the greatest wedding I've ever been to