Cultural Differences

As our invites have now gone out, and our final guest count is about 100 people larger then what we were aiming for, a concern came up between both sides of our family, but mainly from Mr. H's side. In Mr. H's Hispanic culture, it is not unlikely for invited guests to bring along uninvited friends with them to the reception. At their parties, the more, the merrier.

Unfortunately, we will not be able to afford for this at our wedding, and the room for the reception is already nearing it's max capacity. Another concern was that, although stated as an "Adult Reception" in our invitation suite, Mr. H's mom is still worried that her family will not understand this and they will show up with their children.

After MUCH discussion (heated, at times), Mr. H decided that it would be best for us to send out an individual card to each of his family's guests in order to clarify that no children and no uninvited guests attend the reception. He also wanted to be sure that the note was in both Spanish and English, so this is what we came up with last night:

English:

We are looking forward to
celebrating our wedding with you
on September 27, 2008!

To be sure that there is no
confusion, we ask that you please
do not bring children or any
guests that were not listed on the
invitations to the reception. Due
to limited seating, attendees with
children and uninvited guests will
be asked to leave at the door.

We appreciate all of your
cooperation and can’t wait to see
you next month!

Spanish:

¡Esperamos celebrando nuestra boda con
usted en el 27 de septiembre de 2008!

Para estar seguro que no hay
confusión, nosotros requerimos que haga
el favor de no traer niños y ningúna otra
persona que no fuera enlistados en las
invitaciones a la recepción. Debido a
asientos limitados, los asistentes con
Niños y personas no convidados serán
permitidas en el salon.

¡Apreciamos toda su cooperación y
esperamos su presencia para verle el mes
próximo!

Mr. H's mom decided how the Spanish version would be worded after I came up with the English side. I was super hesitant to send these out, but Mr. H and his mom feel that this would be one further precaution we could take to curb any uninvited guests showing up for the wedding.

Have an of you had to worry about uninvited guests attending your wedding? How did you keep things from getting out of control?