Guests invited vs. guests attending

You should base your guest list off of your budget, not your budget off of your guest list. Decide how many people you can realistically afford to host and don't invite a single person more. Yes, you will get declines, but it's not smart to invite more than what you can afford. There's no way to determine how many people will decline your invitation. What if each and every person does attend? Where does that money come from?

I would only invite the people you can pay for. Our max is 120 people so we have that many people on our list. We also have a B list (some people find this rude but I don't think it is) of people who know they are on the list and will be invited once we start to get declines.

I agree, base your guest list on your budget. Don't go into crazy debt for a one day party. Like Jessica, we also have a B List. There's family we need to invite first and once we start getting declines, we'll send out invitations.

I would invite based off of your budget. I thought I would get lots of no's but I haven't had a single person say they couldn't come.

You need to plan on how much you can afford and make your guest list match. Or shop around for cheaper catering ideas. The original caterer we were looking at was like 30 dollars a person but what we ended up going with was 13 which definitely made our guest list more accommodating. Cuts are a part of the planning process you will hear people talk about an A list and a B list. You need to know your crowd for invitations as well. Personally i know most of our guest list will come (all immediate family) but the kids of most won't be coming. So while everyone was invited I have already had siblings confirm nieces and nephews won't be in attendance. We have had a few cousins decline but other than that most have already RSVP'd yes. I think if your guest list consists of a lot of friends and family then you can expect a decent number of declines but when its predominately family especially if you're close they will be more likely to come.

It really depends, every group is different. We invited 225 (we included all kids & spouses & plus ones for single wedding party members). But over half were out of state, and the ones in state were at least 1 hour away. The wedding is in a very small town so basically every guest has to stay in a hotel. We anticipated 150 people, and our final count is right around 120. I think typically people get way less "no" RSVPs than we did though.

I am in a similar situation. My FHs family is HUGE whereas I'm only planning to invite like 20 people from my family. At his brother's wedding about 80 of his family members were there and they invited around 100. At our wedding I plan to only invite the family members on his side that I have met. If I haven't met them by now, they aren't close so it's not necessary to invite them. Not everyone you invite will go, but you still should decide on numbers based on your budget.

It is EXTREMELY rare that everyone can attend. On average, 15-20% decline. BUT you'd never want to be caught in a situation where you couldn't afford the amount of people that RSVPed yes so I wouldn't rely on the average. Personally, we could afford 118 people, we invited 138 and 105 came. For us it was safe to say not everyone would come, my husband's family tends to not come to things so we knew not all of them would come, which is why we felt comfortable inviting more than we could afford

Your guest list should only allow what you can afford! We invited 276, knowing that about 270 would be the max we could afford. We ended up having 170 RSVPing yes to our wedding.

B-listing is rude, and you should definitely plan for 100% (i.e. have enough space, and enough budget to handle everyone invited).