Guest Count

I know you said it's not budget related but why would you ask? each scenario is different. Depends on how close you are with guests. OOT vs In Town guests....Invite only what you can afford or want to have.

To answer the questions, we wanted 150, invited 185 (could afford that), and got 155 yes's and 147 showed up.

To me it seems to be about 30% decline rate. There are been numerous threads and that seems to be about the number.

I invited 30 people and we had 21 show up. So even at a small scale, I also had a 30% decline.

I was told time and time again by countless vendors to expect at least a 30% decline rate on average. All RSVP's are in now and we had a 14% decline rate. People I thought would be a FOR SURE decline (invited for family obligation really more than anything) actually accepted. Glad I didn't bet the house on that one! There's really no way to know. If you absolutely don't want more than 200 to come, then don't invite more than 200....that's really the only way to play it safe. I've seen people here say they had a MUCH bigger decline rate than average too, so you'll get answers all over the place really.

ETA: We have people coming from 7 different states from CA to NJ and several in between as well...and STILL the 14% decline rate. I only mention that because I notice some people saying their decline rate was higher because of so many out of towners...lol, not always the case

One of my DDs had a 4 percent decine rate. 4. In the middle of Michigan winter. Another one was married in the Spring and had about an 18% decline and one was married the day before Father's day and had a 37% decline rate. be prepared moneywise and spacewise for 100% attendance.

I know a bride whose MIL SWORE all the elderlies in the family would not attend but needed a courtesy invitation. She SWORE they would not come. Well the matriarch of the family was 94 and flew from the other side of the country to attend because she knew it was the last time she would see the extended family gather. Word got out and ALL the elderlies came so they could see her one last time. The bride and groom paid for a family reunion they were promised would not happen.

I think average is about 20%. We invited 255 and exactly 200 RSVP yes. We had 3 people not show up. It really depends on location, travel, day, time etc. You can't really judge on anyone else.

We're inviting 50 but the venue planner said to expect around 40.

We invited about 400 (from what i remember, that is with pllus ones and people we knew would not be able to make it). We estimated 325-350. Final count was 301 and the 291 showed up.

I think it really depends on your situation. We had a 10% decline rate, but we started small (110) and had our wedding on a Saturday night in the city where about 80% of our guests live, making it a pretty "easy" wedding to attend.

I think it depends on where it is, the day, and time. I remember long ago weddings were on Saturday, always, without mention, it was just assumed. I have been to 2 Friday and 2 Sunday weddings this year, and only one Saturday wedding. The Friday and Sunday weddings are becoming more and more popular. Plus travel. I think the more variables the more likely you decline rate will increase.

We invited 43 total 42 RSVP'd yes but, we actually had 33 show up after a few last minute cancellations.

I always think a bride should stick to her original list. When you sit there and dwell on it then that's when you start adding people you don't really need. If those 30 extra people didn't come up in your mind right away then maybe they don't need to be invited. Just a thought.

I was having the same dilemma. I have a feeling most of my guests will come. We have to pay for 100 guests no matter what (the room we picked is 100 guest min) so i wanted to stay around 100-110 people. SO i was thinking about inviting 120-125? I'd rather pay some extra and have people come and enjoy themselves rather then leave people out and have to pay for people who aren't there! I just want to make sure i can afford to pay for ALL invited LOL in case 100% come (doubtful) good luck... this is think will be hardest part of planning!

@SwoleMates2016 its not really last minute people as much as just new friends. FH and I recently moved to a different state in May and now have new friends and coworkers that are being added to the list.

@Lauren17 that would really stress me out, what if you invite 125 but 25 or more can't make it?? I didn't know place did a minimum guest count too.

@NowASeptMrs and @Mrs.CK We plan on budgeting for everyone we invite. We didn't really make our own limit for 200 because of money, I think neither of us just wanted any more than 200 people possibly coming. I wanted a small wedding, FH wants a big one. We settled on 200 people but I consider that a big wedding. I don't like being in the center of attention position.

We had a 23% decline rate on a holiday weekend. We invited 130 and 100 people RSVPed and came (no no-shows!).

We invited 234 and 148 have RSVPd yes. That is a 37% decline rate for us. I would image 25-30% is probably closer to normal. Our wedding is a weekday during the holidays. Most of our guests had the time off, but some had to work and a few older guests were concerned about driving in the winter. Most of our guests are local or within driving distance, but a few are flying in and making a holiday trip out of it.

Our ideal number was 150-170 max (even though we could afford everyone) so we're happy.

ETA about 10% were people who live on the other side of the country who we knew wouldn't be able to make it, but wanted to invite anyway.

We invited 130, and have started getting RSVPs back. We have 35 yeses including ourselves and 10 nos. We know of another 10 who will definitely not be attending, but who haven't sent in RSVPs yet. I'd say we're expecting about 105.

We had a pretty high decline rate, about 40%. But it was out of town for both of our families and all of his friends so we expected a higher than average decline rate.

We're aiming for about 130, and inviting around 150ish. I know that almost none of my dad's side of my family will come out (my sister just got married in October and none of them came since they're all out of state), but we're still not sending out more invites than we can afford. I think it honestly depends on your invite list, where they're located and how willing they are to make things work in order to attend.