Low Wedding Attendance + Rehearsal Dinner

It looks like we have a final number of guests for our wedding... and its really low... Which is surprising and sad because before we planned our wedding we called up friends and family and sat down and talked with people to find out if they would be making the trip to california or if they would be able to make it based on work and other circumstances.
 
By doing that we narrowed the list down from 100+ people to 70 people who told us one way or another that they would be there to support us. We used that number to dictate all our packaged pricing with the wedding planner company... and ordered everything accordingly. 
 
Now fast forward a month before our wedding and after hounding down people and finding out via text message who was and wasn't coming i'm shocked to say its under 50 people. 44 people have confirmed yes... 3 are still maybes.
 
On one hand I understand some people who can no longer make it due to changing circumstances... But for others i'm honestly shocked out of my mind that they are no longer coming. 
 
For one, my half sister, despite living just 30 miles away and having no work conflicts for my wedding weekend isn't coming... nor are my 4 nieces... and I just don't have the energy to process why... especially when she was so excited for it when I told her about it months ago and she was honored to be invited...  
 
Again, another couple in particular actually offered to cook all kinds of food for the reception ... and now they aren't coming so they can take a last minuet family vacation the weekend we are getting married... While I understand that their son is planning on joining the military and that this is their last summer together before he goes away (i'm not cold hearted folks)... but what I don't understand is why they need to do it THAT weekend when they have had my wedding date for MONTHS and don't have issues getting time off for work since they both work from home and take vacations all the time whenever they want to. They literally just pick when they want to have time off and take it...  So why not do the family vacation the week before?


On the other hand I'm also upset because we ruled out locations that would have been cheaper and more suited to a 50 person wedding because people told us they were coming... We passed up a cute gazebo overlooking the ocean because we couldn't put more than 50 chairs there... Literally we could have cut a good $1,500-$2,500 from what we spent... and a whole lot of stress...
 
In better news, I do get to mark another thing off my wedding "to-do" list... I've planned our rehearsal dinner!
 
I finally sat down with my fiance and we made the list of people we needed to invite to the rehearsal... and the results were staggering... Out of the 47 people now coming to the wedding, 25 of them... (Basically HALF the people attending our wedding) will be at our rehearsal.
 
Since 100% of SCB's family is coming out on the same day for the wedding, (and staying at the same place), it would be incredibly rude to invite only 2 of his 3 brothers to the rehearsal and the dinner that follows ... especially since they have traveled out here to celebrate with us... 


So we are basically having our big old huge family dinner a few days before the wedding and then just cake and punch and appetizers at the real reception. So here's the break down for the rehearsal dinner:

• Me
• South County Boy
• My MOH
• My Bridesmaid
• My Bridesmaid
• My Bridesmaid from Utah
• My "Bro" and escort/Groomsmen
• SCB's Best Man
• His Brother in the wedding party
• His brother in the wedding party (and his wife, plus their 2 kids-- 0ne who may be our little ring bearer)
• His brother who isn't in the wedding party (plus his wife and their 4 kids...)
• Our Officiant
• My Mom
• His Mom & Dad
• My sister & her Fiance (because hell would freeze over if she wasn't invited.)

I had $300 set aside for this expense... so when i started calling places I realized we were going to be really tight money wise... then I remembered my original catering idea and made a few phone calls.

Stone Fire Grill can accommodate the lot of us in their restaurant (so no catering and delivery fees & no hassle trying to cram us all in my mom's house) and they specialize in HUGE family style dinners. They have meals geared up to feed 20 + people for $170.00 and the food is amazing. We are talking Tri tip, chicken, mash potatoes, salad, and bread sticks!!!! mmmm 

So we will start out with their "Feast" that feeds 20 and if we run low on things we can just order more sides or more platters of chicken and meat. =) its the perfect place for us to go because its budget friendly and fantastically yummy!!!