Wedding programs help inform your guests of the order and timing of your wedding ceremony events. Thus, you’ll be printing and distributing them for the benefit of your guests. However, straightforward as it may seem, knowing how many wedding programs to print can get tricky because of various factors to consider.
Knowing how many wedding programs to print will depend not only on the number of guests and participants attending, but also on the number of wedding vendors and organizers. Generally, you would want a program for every guest and participant and about twenty to thirty programs extra.
As a blanket rule, it’s better to have extra programs than not enough. In any case, it’s wise to count out the number of programs you’ll need to print days before your wedding. However, to do this accurately, you’ll need to know a few crucial things first.
Why Print Wedding Programs?
Wedding programs inform all those attending your wedding of the order of events before, during, and after your ceremony, as well as any important persons and readings. This is to help orient all your wedding participants and ensure that they’re all looped into the process.
Traditionally, wedding programs were only handed to guests. Nowadays, with the ease of printing and the popularity of large weddings, it’s more practical for all those attending– from VIPs to wedding vendors– to have a wedding program to keep track of the flow of events and smoothly synchronize everyone.
Who Needs a Wedding Program?
The base number of wedding programs to print for your wedding depends on the count of people who’ll need it for your wedding. In general, you’ll need wedding programs printed for the following participants:
- VIPs (parents, closest relatives, the man of honor, maid of honor, etc.)
- Guests
- Grooms
- Bridesmaids
- Ring bearers
- Children
- Wedding MC
- Assistants such as planners and coordinators
- Wedding vendors (photographers, DJs, etc.)
- Officiants (priest, lawyer, or non-official officiant for a symbolic wedding
- Concerned venue staff
With that said, the first step to figuring out how many wedding programs to print is to have a solid count of all those mentioned above. Once you’ve figured out that number, then you can start plotting the number of programs you’ll need.
How Many Wedding Programs to Print?
While others may recommend only printing two-thirds of the total number of guests and participants to account for late arrivals or absent guests, you’ll prevent much more potential hassle by printing a little more than that.
For instance, what if all or more than two-thirds of the guests do show up? What if someone as minor as the assistant of the DJ needs to have a program to do a crucial task? Therefore, it’s much better to have a little extra to cover your bases, than to have a little less.
Final Thoughts
As stated above, wedding programs help prevent much hassle for your guests, attendants, vendors, and staff. Count out all those who’ll need a wedding program, and always strive to print a little more than the total count to guarantee that everyone is on the same page.
Always remember that the purpose of your wedding programs is to orient all those attending your wedding. By understanding this, you’ll best identify those who will need it the most and thus print out the correct number of programs.
