guest Count: Invited vs. showed up

I’ve been wondering this same thing so I’m following this

Well my wedding wasn’t NYE... but we had 190 RSVPIg yes and had 186 show up! The people who didn’t show up texted or called us and informed us they were sick— also we invited about 198?

View Quoted Comment Oh wow, that’s a really good percentage turnout!! Mine isn’t on NYE, but it’s on Jan 4th so I’m assuming some people will still be recovering from traveling from the Christmas holiday.

Following this! I’m curious as well. Our invites just went out. We invited 225 and I’m praying we get down to at least 200 or less. 🤞🏾

Invited 81, 79 RSVP’ed Yes, and all 79 showed up. To be honest, we did check the date with grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and bridal party before booking it.

View Quoted Comment Mines January 4 too! 2019 or 2020? Give me 28 days and I can answer that for you! I will say we invited 186 and had 130 rsvp to come when the majority of the guest list is out of state!

We invited 154 and ended up with 122 at the ceremony and 118 at the reception. One guest plus a separate family of 3 came to the ceremony, but informed us in advance that they would be unable to stay for the reception.

We had 2 no shows which irritated me - one of those people ASKED for an invitation and then decided she didn’t feel like traveling for the wedding, so her husband came alone. Another was a friend of mine, who went back and forth for weeks over if she was bringing a date or not, finally said she wasn’t and then didn’t come at all. I was pretty hurt. I haven’t heard from her since and the wedding was almost 2 months ago. And yes, she’s fine, I’ve seen her posting on Instagram regularly since the wedding.

We had 4 (I think?) people text us 2 days before and say “sorry but now we can’t come” which was annoying.

It sounds like we had a lot of declines, but we had a fair amount of out of state people who we hoped would be able to come but weren’t exactly shocked when they couldn’t. So we were ok with the declines. It actually allowed us to add TONS of upgrades to meet our minimum cost, so our guests were treated like kings! I’ve had so many people comment on the insane amount of food and drinks we had, so it all worked out.

How do you keep track (on your wedding day when you are so busy) of who actually RSVP'd "yes" but did not actually show up?

View Quoted Comment

That is a good question because I was wondering the same thing!

We invited 173 and had 118 RSVP yes and show up! We expected closer to 135, but we had several families decline (one of 5 people and one of 6 people) which definitely brought the numbers down. We didn’t do STDs so that may have made a difference. Looking back, we would have invited half of the number we actually invited.

Invited 135 (people we actually thought would come. We sent invitations to some family overseas we didn't expect to come. courtesy plus ones are also included in this number).

107 people rsvpd (children were invited, but 7 decided not to bring them.)

101 came to the ceremony. (2 called and said theyre sick, 1 was in the hospital and their spouse went with them, 2 no shows)

97 came to the ceremony (2 were fighting and decided to leave after the ceremony, 2 had evening events and couldn't stay)

Ooos 97 came to the reception *

I’m inviting 70 people. I’ll tell you how many come next November lol

I just went to a food tasting today and the maitre d said that if im inviting 220 (like I am) only 175 will respond yes. I think he is wrong cause everyone I talk to is pumped to come but we shall see

Wedding was Dec 30 -- invited 300, 195 RSVP'd yes, 190 actually showed up on the day of. We knew that we would have a large decline rate because my extended family is spread out all over the country. Our ideal number was 200, which we got!

Following this! We’ve had lots of advice to tell our venue a few people less than RSVP yes, so I’m curious what some of you actually experienced.

View Quoted Comment I would not do this. I told our venue a few plates more! You can't count on no shows and I would hate for them to not prepare enough food.

View Quoted Comment I’m concerned about that too! Although everyone keeps telling me we’ll absolutely have no-shows (we’re inviting 225 so the odds are high) and that the venue will be happy to add on a few extra plates the day before vs. reduce numbers. I’m hesitant but our venue also isn’t inexpensive per person, so just a few no-shows will be pricey! Anyway, definitely curious what the stats are from other weddings and if anyone’s used this tactic.

We invited 125, 75 RSVP'ed yes and 72 came. We didn't have any no-shows the day of, but we did have a a couple people drop out the week/day before. We did an out-of-state wedding and most people needed to travel. No one gets 100% rate of people invited to those who attend. Always have enough plates for the people who have RSVP'ed yes, but wait until the last day possible before giving your venue the final number. And if your venue allows, and you have had people cancel, re-adjust. Our venue let us adjust the number until three days before our wedding. I've been to a lot of weddings and used to work for a caterer, and have not heard of anyone showing up after RSVPing "no." If a wedding runs out of food, either not enough was ordered for the folks who RSVP'ed yes OR the caterer doesn't have enough experience to gauge properly.