Guest list vs. actual number attending

Hi Ashlee! You'll probably be fine, but for your own peace of mind you never want to set yourself up for being over-capacity or over-budget!

Is your wedding in-town for all of your guests? That can also affect attendance rate a lot! We invited around 260 guests and had 180 guests attend the wedding, but 70% of them were a plane flight away from the wedding so we knew there would be a lot of declines! We also had an adults-only wedding and (correctly) assumed that a lot of OOT parents would decline.

100% in the same situation. Our max for our venue is 150, with my current invite list at 160 and I am HOPING that our actual number is around 120. It has been so stressful thinking about all the numbers because the budget is all about the guest list for catering, cake, rentals.

If you can fit and afford 145, then invite them all as generally less end up coming (though i've read exceptions on here). I had 85% of those invited attend my wedding. If you don't have the space or the money, then I wouldn't risk it by inviting more than you want.

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Agreed! I'm doing the same! But for us looks like relatives of my FH that didn't attend his first wedding are wanting to attend ours! I'm very flattered that they want to attend but they were part of the "probably not attending" chunk I was counting on!

I think this depends on the reason for the 125. If this is a capacity maximum for your venue, or a budget limitation, then yes, absolutely cut the list back. Don't send out invites you cant 100% support financially or spatially, even if you anticipate a polite decline. If you just "envision" 125 for no particular reason, but could easily accommodate 145 then go ahead and send out the invites.

If I were you, I would cut it if you can. Like think this way, let's say for example you have a great aunt Marsha on your side of the family, and you haven't seen that person in over 10 years and they don't talk to you, I would say don't bother or worry about inviting them. I usually stick with this philosophy close friend and close family. I do have someone that I have seen in 18 years, but I have talked to them every day I have known this girl since was a kid she been here through every heartache and pain. So invite those close to you that you talk to a lot more. and you will be surprised how fast your list cuts itself