Guest list is giving me anxiety

Yup. Luckily we don't have a minimum/ maximum but my guest list got out of control on me. We ended up at about 180 when I was initially expecting about 100. Right now it looks like about 130 with about 13 of these being kids.

I am flipping out over the guest list because FH wants to invite all the kids in his family and all his co-workers. We can only comfortably seat 128 people (16 tables, 8 people to a table). If we eliminate kids, we can invite all his coworkers, if not we will be table cramming which is something I DO NOT want to do. If we have one person over 128 RSVP I really do not know what we will do.

That's pretty much how it happens. You get your early birds who RSVP right away....but most of your RSVPs will come in about 1-2 weeks before your deadline.

As I see people or hang out with friends/family - I ask them, "hey are you able to make it?" and update my list that way as well.

We invited 246 and I am so stoked that we have 183 coming - even better than what I was expecting in regards to responses!!!

We started with 149, we wanted 110 at the highest number of guests to attend... it was really touch and go for a week or two but ended up with 85 yes, and 64 declined, we had given all a 1 and a few kids had been invited. 42 declines came from out of town guests that just can't make it. Either way I'm fine with the ones coming, it has actually put us below budget

I just looked over my guest list and I "think" that out of the 34 OOT guests about 14 won't come for sure. The other ones are maybes and could really go either way, though I already have 4 oks from out of towers.

That leaves us with 112 local guests. So, hopefully the 20% decline rate will apply. FH can be weird… so I wouldn't be surprised if quite a few people don't show. Now, that I am typing this out, it makes me feel better. lol

We started with 176 and have 122 confirmed. I went through what you are going through, and started getting excited when the no's rolled in, lol. Don't worry it'll level out.

Thanks Rachey

We started around 180 and are looking at somewhere from 106-115 once all of our rsvps's are in. We got a TON of yes's right away and I panicked because our venue can only comfortably sit 150 with an absolute max of 175. The no's came later for us but it all worked out!

Expect about a 10-20% decline rate and a no-show rate of 1-2% or about 1-2 people (due to deaths, accidents, sudden illnesses). With your guest list, you won't have difficulty meeting the minimum and would probably get 130-135 at most and 110 minimum.

You might want to give your venue a slightly lower number than your confirmations if they hold you to your final count. Find out first if they can accommodate extra plates and if so, subtract 2-3 plates from your final count to allow for no shows.

Let's say you have 125 confirm. Tell your venue your count is 122 (if they can handle walk ins). If all 125 attend, then you'll only have 3 extra meals and your venue will charge you. If you have three no shows, you don't pay for no shows because the venue never knew they were coming. See?

We had two no shows at our wedding. Final count was 146. 144 showed. Our venue said we had six extra meals so the total count was 150. We were puzzled by this until we added up the four vendors (two photogs, DJ and wedding planner) and OURSELVES.

I wanted 100 people. All my estimates are for 100 people. I ended up with 165 invited. I don't even know how it got that insane.

Luckily FH is from the south and we have a lot of our of town friends who I know can't make it. I'm hoping to end at 120 maximum.

I wanted 250-275, we hit over 300 and had to request the bigger room at the hall...ugh

Yes...we're creeping up on 200 guests...and they're all from out of the country, lol.

We are inviting 169, and hoping for 120. As of now we have 36 yes and 5 no's, however we just sent out our invites last week and the deadline isn't until mid June, so we've got a while. I love getting emails saying people have RSVP'd, makes my day

Side note, we CAN accommodate all the people that we invited, we would just prefer it to be smaller. We also have some out of state relatives who we know won't be attending, but were invited as courtesy.

Is anyone else stressing rentals? I only booked 10 guest tables with 8 guests at each. That means 80 people not in the bridal party. I'm beginning to think I should add on two more just in case we have a full turnout. I can always cancel them two weeks before. The other option is to stick a few people at the ends to make up the difference. The head tables will seat the entire bridal party which won't be factored in.

For those with a little fewer Yes's than the ideal number, but it's good enough, are you afraid that there will be a few No Show's and there'll be too few people?

LivelyBride, I definitely see what you're saying. I will keep that in mind. I will have to see who confirms and if I think there are any "flaky" people in there. The venue prepares 5% more food as the final head count. However, my vendor meals are included in the 5%. So, I'll see where I am at with the final numbers