Large weddings provide beautiful, festive atmospheres where you can get married surrounded by all of the people who are important to you as a couple and, often, important to your families.
Usually lavish affairs, large weddings are generally seen today as having more than 100 guests, and are a wonderful option if you have a wide circle of family and friends to celebrate with.
A big wedding makes for a big celebration! Large weddings are usually grand events, with lively, vibrant atmospheres. The sense of community that comes from celebrating with so many loved ones can imbue your wedding day with a true sense of occasion and joy.
Although having more than 100 guests is generally considered a large wedding by modern Australian standards, this definition does of course depend on cultural backgrounds.
While the bride and groom are undoubtedly the stars of any wedding day, in some cultures the wedding is equally expected to be an event for their families and the wider community, bringing together extended family, old and new friends, coworkers, friends of the parents, and even acquaintances to join in the revelry.
These expectations can add pressure to what can already be a stressful time, as you need to strike a balance between tailoring your wedding day to be what you and your partner want it to be, while still honouring your family and traditions.
If you can get that balance right, however, and find the perfect ways to weave cultural and family traditions into your big day, it can make the importance of this huge life milestone feel even more poignant.
Bigger guest lists do also mean that there's more people to organise, cater for and keep entertained, but this can be balanced out by the fact that you'll often have more people assisting with the day, from family members and close friends to expert vendors.
And speaking of expert vendors, I highly recommend hiring a wedding planner and/or a wedding coordinator (they are different jobs - you can read about the overlap and differences in their roles here).
Speaking purely from a logistical perspective, having a larger guest list is going to complicate the planning process, as you'll need to scale up your venue size and all of your supplies, think of ways to keep your varied guests entertained throughout the day and consider crowd safety, especially if guests will be moving between different locations. Trying to organise a large wedding can easily become overwhelming!
To save your sanity and your time, having a professional help navigate the planning will ensure that nothing is missed and that your event is organised to be both spectacular and safe.
diverse guest list
A guest list of this large size allows you the room to include the widest circle of family and friends, ensuring that your community can all be there to celebrate this momentous occasion with you and your partner.
You shouldn't have to worry about excluding anyone that you'd like to share in your day, and the higher number of invitees means that people can mingle and chat amongst themselves. Knowing that the majority of your guests are already friendly with someone else who's attending can take some pressure off you as a host, and can add to the celebratory, lively mood of the day as old friends and family reunite.
The larger guest list also means that you can ask more of your closest family and friends to be part of your bridal party, too, providing more bonding experiences throughout not just the actual wedding day but the lead up to the big day, too.
lively atmosphere
Big weddings equal big parties, with vibrant, celebratory atmospheres. The larger bridal parties getting ready together means that these weddings often start out already bustling, with energy that continues to grow as the event goes on, ending with a raucous, party ambience for the reception.
With so many people attending, your guests should be comfortable socialising and making conversation, either through existing friends and extended family catching up, or your different social circles meeting and mingling for the first time. The dance floor is likely to be full and you're sure to create many beautiful memories that will be cherished by every one of your guests.
There's such a joyous atmosphere that comes from celebrating a milestone event with a larger group of loved ones, and you'll feel yourself surrounded by love for the entire day.
grand scale
A wedding is one of the few chances that many of us will have to splurge on a truly lavish affair, and having a large wedding allows you to make the most of the grand scale of the day. They can be fairytale events, with extravagance and grandeur that we rarely get to experience in our day to day lives, making your wedding day feel even more special than it already will.
Filled with lavish decor, elaborate floral arrangements, stunning backdrops and countless fine details, a large wedding can be absolutely awe-inspiring for both you and your guests. The spacious venues needed for big weddings can also provide room for entertainment and show-stopping extras that your guests will be talking out for years to come.
With so many people likely travelling for the event, too, it's not uncommon for large weddings to be multi-day affairs, with both official and guest-organised events often taking place in the days surrounding the wedding - that can mean that you have more time to catch up with guests that you might not have time to see during the reception.
chance to honour culture & tradition
Depending on your family heritage, having a large wedding may be an honoured cultural tradition. Milestones such as wedding days provide incredible opportunities to look back on everything that you've achieved up to this point in your life, and to honour the people who helped you with all of those achievements - whether they can attend the wedding in person, or in spirit.
Sharing particular wedding customs, or even just hosting such a grandiose event in and of itself, can help strengthen family bonds, and foster a true sense of community and understanding between yours and your partner's families.
more complexities
As the size of your guest list increases, so do the complexities of coordinating all of the details of the day. The logistics of organising invites and RSVPs, seating charts, catering for different dietary requirements, planning activities and transportation, not to mention safety requirements, all become more difficult as the guest list gets higher.
More vendors and coordination will be needed to ensure that your guests have all of the information that they need and are kept comfortable and entertained throughout the day.
You might feel more pressure to include things that you don't necessarily want to, but that you know your guests will be expecting, which can lead to you feeling like you have to compromise - which is not something you ever really want to do when planning your wedding, even if it is sometimes required.
higher costs
Generally speaking, the more guests you have, the more your wedding is going to cost. With every guest added, you're looking at higher catering and bar costs, and will require either a bigger venue or additional furniture rentals - or both. You'll definitely need to consider your over all budget when planning your guest list, as you'll be surprised by how quickly the per-person costs can add up.
If you're stretching your budget over a larger guest list, it can sometimes mean that you're unable to provide higher calibre or more personalised experiences for each guest. It's important to remember not to lose the quality of the day in the quantity of your guests.
a busier day
A bigger wedding often means a bigger bridal party, which means that your schedule for the day will be busier, and have less wriggle room for the inevitable small delays that happen on every wedding day. The more people who have to get ready, especially when their hair and make up are being professionally done, the earlier you're going to have to get up and get going, and the longer your day is going to be.
It's also harder to keep track of larger groups to ensure everyone's running on time and knows what they're supposed to be doing, which can increase stress.
less intimate
Although it's an amazing experience to have all of your loved ones there to celebrate your wedding with you, it can be difficult to find the time to actually see them and stop to speak them all on the day. You won't get to connect deeply with every guest, and if having the chance to say even a quick word to each of your guests is one of your goals, it can be all too easy to get stuck in hosting mode and spend most of the night circulating instead of celebrating - or, perhaps even worse, stuck standing in a receiving line for half of the reception.
A large wedding is what a lot of people think of for their dream, traditional wedding.
They're full of revelry, high spirits, and the warmth that comes from celebrating such a momentous occasion while being surrounded by your loved ones. They're always grand spectacles, either lavish and sophisticated soirées or raucous and wild parties - or they can switch between those two, as the night goes on.
You'll definitely need to build a strong team of vendors that you trust absolutely to ensure that your day is safe and goes to plan, but, with a little help and a lot of love, a large wedding is always sure to be an amazing party that will provide you and your guests with joyous memories that will last a lifetime.
A large wedding is certainly a tricky thing to coordinate, but there's just one type of wedding that might have it beat when it comes to potential complications - and grand scale. If you'd like to host your wedding in a far off place, you'll definitely like the next article in this series, which is about destination weddings.
