Carnival Brides, how are you handing invites for non sailing guests

Carnival gives couples a max of 50 non sailing guests but my fiance and I have WAY MORE than 50 people who are wanting to attend the wedding but not sail ( mostly families with small children). I don't know how this information even got out to my extend family because I only told 3 older aunts that they didn't have to sail with us.

Have any of you run into this problem? How are you handling it?

I was thinking of just extending the non sailing option to only our nearest and dearest and inviting the rest of the family who does not wish to sail to the welcome dinner we are hosting the night before the cruise but I'm not sure if that's tacky or rude. Help!

I sent my invites out in batches. I sent the first batch to "must haves", immediate family and people who just had to attend, they had one month to respond, after those were returned, I sent out a second batch, to just as many spaces as I had left and so on.

This takes some planning in advance because I gave each batch 30 days to respond, for me it really only took 3 sets of mailing.

I had to be very strict about my lists and I prioritized our guest list. Basically, I sent out 50 invites first, the second group were however many slots of non sailing guests I had left, and the third group ended up rounding out our list.

By the third group I was sending out invites one at a time as I was getting back responses with "regrets".

On my invites I had a space to check if you were coming and sailing, if you were coming and not sailing, and if you were not able to make it. I was surprised at the people who chose to sail, even from the third batch.

I am doing the same thing in a way. I love in Tampa and sailing out of Port Canaveral. If people are choosing not to sail, and they are within driving distance, I am saying to allow for as many family members as possible, we are not allowing kids. If they are coming from out of state, then obviously they can bring the kids.

Then, I have 2 sets of invitations. One set gives the options of sailing or not sailing. The other only gives the option of sailing.

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I had an "A" list, "B" list and "C" list. The "A" list was given the options of sailing or day guest or not attending along with an RSVP date. The "B" list was given the option of sailing or not. All of my RSVP deadlines were 4 months out. then the C list went out after we got our original number and decided we had a few more guests that we could invite (mainly work friends).

My mom got a little too excited and told some of her friends that we had never met that they could come for the day. We had her correct that information - especially since they were for her friends. They were on the B list and seemed to completely understand.

If y'all don't mind me asking, how did you do your invitations then... Did you have the same invitations with different rsvp cards??? LOL bare with me I guess I'm alittle slow on the uptake...

I think I'm going with MINTED or ZAZZLE for my invitations and RSVP cards so I guess I can order different version of the same stationery to mail out. Thanks ladies

I'm getting married in the Bahamas so everyone sailing will be in attendance. I'm not sending invites to those who have already RSVP'd no. I bought my invitations back in December at the same time I purchased my STD's. Luckily, I have enough.