"Destination Wedding" Guest rsvp

I would play it safe and only invite the absolute max number of people that you want at your wedding. Sure, not everyone will come, but there's no way to know 100% just how many will RSVP no. If you invite 262, there's a very real possibility that you could have 262. Probably not super likely, but I wouldn't count on having just the right amount of no's. Good luck!

I think inviting 262 and hoping for only 200 is really risky. 2-3 hour drive isn't really that far. I would probably send 220 invites at the max.

Do you have a minimum #? FH and I invited about 225 people, but our final # for the reception is ending up at 117 (about 10-ish people are coming to the ceremony, but aren't able to come to the reception). It stinks because we have to pay for 125 people (our minimum), even though we're not at that # (minimum was a count, not $ amount).

We ended up sending invites all over the country. My family is mostly local to St. Louis (where the wedding is). FH's family is all over the country, but the majority are around Chicago (5-6 hours). Our friends are spread all over, but since I grew up here and went to school just 2 hours away, almost all of my friends are either from St. Louis and/or live in Kansas City (4 hour drive).

In our case, the low RSVP rate was due to:

1) People allotted +1's who aren't using them (either their SO is unavailable that weekend, or they're not dating anyone)

2) Large % of FH's family not coming (understandable, but we didn't expect it to be that low)

Unfortunately, there's no great way to predict other than on an individual basis, but even that is tricky.

View Quoted Comment

My FMIL gave me her list and said that she is positive about 30 people on it will not show up. We also invited a decent amount of out of state (mom's family lives up north) that will not show. It was more of a courtesy invite. Of the 260, around 35 are children. I feel like inviting 250 would be a safe number to get the target amount but I honestly don't know. There is no minimum. It was a set amount for 200 and under and then the cost went up for more people (300 max capacity). I don't know why it's like this honestly because we have to bring in all of our own vendors. We COULD have more than 200 but then we'll have to up the food, alcohol, cake, etc. and that gets expensive.

I think every family & friend group is different. We invited 225 and had a total of 125 attend. But we invited full families, military families, plus ones, elderly guests, my family is in ranching so taking time off to travel for weddings isn't super common, etc. All of our guests (besides 6) were 1+ hour away and more than 50% were 1,000+ miles away.

Every wedding is different, but I would cut some of the guests that are from the "definitely not coming" category! Things like this will always work out the opposite of how you want, so if you hope 62 people RSVP "no" they will definitely RSVP "yes". I think your plan of 250 is better! Even though it's only 12 people, it makes a difference! I would say try to get to 245 if you can!

I live outside of Houston and we’re getting married in Austin. I’m from Seattle and his family is local is Texas. We ended up having an extra 20 people say yes since everyone wanted to come to Austin. We’re at 96 and we’re originally wanted to keep it around 80. That drive isn’t far and if it’s a city people want to visit and can make a vacation out of it, they will come. I’m happy with our final count.

View Quoted Comment I also come from a ranching family! We only have around 20% invited out of state though. Everyone but 20 are over 2 hours away. I know there’s no magic formula but your situation makes me feel a little better. I’ll probably try to cut 10 people off and invite 250. I guess if we go over, we go over! It’ll work out.

View Quoted Comment

Yeah we had no idea what to expect. We budgeted for 175, but expected around 150. We ended up with 125 which was less than we thought but also more than enough the day of & allowed us to spend more on the bar & food.

View Quoted Comment I’ll try to cut to 245!!! Some I’m 100% sure on because there’s just too many factors (live in NY, don’t have the money to fly down here, etc.) but I agree! I’m sure some will show that I wasn’t betting on. If we go over some, it won’t be the end of the world. Just prefer not to😂

View Quoted Comment

For sure! Especially since you're paying for most it too!

View Quoted Comment Oh no! We’ll very possibly go over 200 with the invite list. A lot of these people are FH’s friends parents. We’re gonna have to have a talk about them I guess. Lol Where in Houston do you live? We’re actually in the Woodlands/Spring area! My fiancé works for the Conroe fire department!

Cut kids and plus ones to start. That should help cut a good chunk off the top.

Hi fellow Texan bride!!! I was born & raised in San Antonio, where we both live now. My Fiance moved to San Antonio from Houston about 4 years ago. We are having our wedding here in SA. We have traveled to Houston a couple of times for friends weddings, we don't mind the drive (about 3.5 hours). We suspect most of our Houston friends and family to attend our big day. Like you said, the distances are fairly common here in Texas. Personally, I would try to cut down the list and not count on the decline RSVPs to be high.