Even the cake was in tiers is our series tips for weddings. The title comes from an overused and not so funny wedding speech joke, "It's been an emotional day...". What advice did you wish someone had told you before your wedding? We're collating all the etiquette and expertise here.
There's advice floating around on wedding websites that says you should plan as though 10% of your wedding invitations will be declined. Which probably means you're safe to invite more people than you can seat or afford to pay for. What's less predictable is the number of people who wont make it at the last minute because they're ill or something comes up.
You could spend your last few days of preparations on the phone to your caterer and venue updating them on meal numbers and seating plans, but my advice would be to consider who else you could invite. Sure you might not have known them long, but new friends or colleagues would love an invite and if you'd love them there then why not? It might even be that on the day people turn up for the ceremony without being invited who you're delighted to see. So be flexible, enjoy their company and show them to their seat.
Their name might not be on the table plan, but I don't reckon they'll mind.
There's a clever little trick for working out your table plan on this website.