Guest List Count

You should plan for every single person to accept your invitation. Obviously the odds are that won't happen, but it's possible.

It’s safer to mentally prepare for 275 to attend if you invited 275. It’ll save you stress later on and save money if you don’t prepare correctly. Just remember to make sure your venue can accommodate that many people if you’re inviting over your original number. It might seem like an obvious thing but again, it will save you from stressing later.

Depends on how many guests are local, if the date falls on a holiday weekend, etc. Don't invite over your max hoping for decline. Budget for all to come, then the money that you would have spent on the declines can go towards something else.

Agree about NOT inviting one person more than your can comfortably accommodate with both space & budget. Sure, the odds are there will be some declines, but I have read on this forum about shockingly high number of weddings with nearly 100% acceptance rates. Daughter's target was always 100 guests, and we knew some international and elderly guests would decline, but they had to be invited. Ultimately, invitations went to 127 people. Space definitely wasn't an issue, and although we preferred a smaller number, if all 127 accepted it would not have been a problem covering the cost. They ended up with 101, but we would have been fine if it was 127. Good luck! Guest list is one of the toughest parts of most couples' planning!

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YUP, great advice.

So we invited 248 people and are hoping for 200. It's an out of town wedding for essentially everyone so we expect that this will help in shaving some RSVP's down. That being said, if all 248 people do come, we are able to afford all of them. Don't go in with the mindset of "this person will 100% not attend so I can invite them and it doesn't really count!" I did this and some of those people have already messaged me to let me know they "wouldn't miss it!" The ones you write off seem to be the ones that surprise you! I believe rule of thumb is 20% decline rate but I've noticed cases on here that 95% of the guests rsvp yes. There's really no way of knowing

You should plan for every person you invite to attend. That probably won't happen but you need to be prepared for it in case it does. Out of 68 invited, 65 came.

I would say i had about 20% decline

Our venue holds 240 but told us 250 would be no problem... then I experienced a Google sheets glitch, and sent out invites to 285.
We started receiving RSVPs last Tuesday. So far 7 children are being sent to a babysitter, and 2 adults declined.
We have 27 more people invited who are 500-2,000 miles away. So we are assuming that at least 10 of them will decline.And hoping that another 12 or so children get sent to a babysitter.
If you're okay with 275 people showing up, go ahead and invite 275. If 275 seems like a nightmare, don't do it. This is causing a lot of stress and overthinking on my part.

I would invite 250. You never know who will RSVP, who will ask to bring a plus one (unknown kids or relationship), who you'll want to add, etc.