To answer the number of guest question for our wedding, we invited I think 175, 140-150 responded they'd come and about 130 only showed up.
It was a prefect size. You knew everyone and you could get around to talk to people.
Not sure if we'd do the big wedding again. Much rather spend the money on something useful like a house down payment.
Although, I was actually doing some finalization on our first house the morning of our wedding. We got engaged 21 months before our wedding (Suz' sister was getting married the year before us - or the year we got engaged, so we waited a year). We had the hall, the church, the DJ (friend of Suz), the photographer, and everything else done over a year ahead of time. So the summer before we got married, we went house shopping and bought a house.
Would have much rather had the cash we dropped on the wedding to use around the house though.
Suz says DS should get married in Mexico or on a Caribbean island. We'd pay for his and his brides vacation and anyone in our families. It would be cheaper.