% Attendance for Destination Wedding

I should probably add that 21 of the 151 are plus ones. 11 more are family members that won't come, but will throw a fit if they don't get in an invitation.

Invite the number of people you can afford, and that your venue can accommodate. Most likely you'll come up short, but you can never, ever, be too sure.

We budgeted up to the full 130, figuring anything we saved would just be a bonus toward the honeymoon. :-)

I definitely get erring on the side of caution, but not inviting more than 130 seems a little too cautious. Does that sound insane since I'm so nervous? Ugh, this is so hard!

Send the STDs and that will give you some direction. Who reserves a hotel. That will let you know now isnt the time to worry about that

Thanks, @Faran! I don't think I'm following you though...once I send STDs I'm committed to inviting those people, so don't I need to know now if I'm inviting too many over our 130 max?

I am also having a DW and invited more people than can fit in our venue. Our venue can hold up to 150 and we invited 171. We're honestly expecting somewhere between 75-100 to come, but my stepmom (like you) was freaking out about what if more people come than anticipated. Our RSVPs are rolling in and so far we are staying pretty close to the 50% mark for accepts and declines. At this point I think we will be lucky if we get more than 75, but that's what I wanted so I'm not upset.

I think what you're doing is perfect. If you already know of 11 people that definitely aren't coming, you can expect quite a few more to skip it because of travel costs.

April have you talked to your family about your DW wedding?? We were going to get married in Jamaica and we made sure we talked to the super important people before we made ANY definite plans. Maybe talking to them first will give you a better idea. I would talk to people. See what their vibes are. I actually had my dad talk to his family because I was scared people would lie and be nice to me and more honest with him. I had an aunt say she wouldn't show up bc of the price involved. So you kind of get an idea of what people are willing to spend or not spend. And believe me. Not everyone is going to go to you DW wedding, as much as I think everyone would like to, not everyone can afford it.

You're awesome, @JulieR! That's exactly what I needed to hear! I've wanted to be around 100 from the start, so I'm perfectly fine with more people declining because of the travel. We'll have to move locations if we're over 130 and the only reason why we're even having a full-blown wedding in the first place is because we love the venue. Makes it hard not to panic even though I know realistically we'll be under. Just needed someone to help talk me off the ledge! :-)

Yes, @Brit12, we talked it over with all of our "must haves" before we booked anything. Pretty much everyone that I absolutely have to have there is in our wedding party. It's not a matter of the people we really want not being able to come, it's more that we'd like to extend the invitation to other close friends and extended family on the chance they'll be able to make it while recognizing that it's a lot to ask. I know not everyone will come, but wasn't sure if I was inviting too many extra beyond our venue max.

Plan for 100% attendace. So don't invite more than 130 (but make sure you, your fiance, your vendors, etc are included in that count).

On average, for a destination wedding, you can usually count on about 60% of people to come. Obviously there are exceptions to every rule, and there are groups who have up to 90% show, but usually the general rule is 60%. For your group, I would venture to guess about 75-90 would show, 78 being 60%.