How many guests to invite.

It's tempting, but you should always plan on a 100% acceptance rate. We invited 225 and had 200 come, which is almost 90% acceptance. That was for a Friday wedding at 4:30 in a Michigan winter. Depending on the venue you choose, you should only invite the max amount that it can hold.

You should never invite more people that your venue can hold. You really can't expect a certain number of people to not come. What would you do if everyone RSVPs yes, but you don't have enough room? You can't uninvite people. Some people have a low RSVP rate, but for others every single person comes. Put together your guest list, figure out who you want to invite, then find a venue that fits everyone.

You only invite how many you can afford. If you want to invite 100 I would personally go with the venue that holds 125 to give you some extra space and your guest aren't crammed in at max capacity.

Do not invite more than your venue can hold.

I was told 70% showing is rule of thumb. But I guess it just depends on your list. If a lot of guest or out of town/state many of them won't be able to come do to travel/affordability. If everyone is in town and close to you plan for 90%

So "they say" that 20% decline rate is average, 30% if the wedding is out of town. But you definitely can not depend on that!. Only invite as many people as you can afford to host and the venue can hold!

Example: Friend #1 got married on a Friday at 4pm on Cape Cod, destination wedding for every single guest and she had 90% of her invited guests come

Friend #2 got married on a Saturday in Charlotte, in town wedding for 50% of guests - had a 30% decline rate

You just never know!

We invited 310 and 300 rsvp'd yes and 292 showed up. Our max was 300 for the venue so we got lucky. You should go with the venue you love more. You can't count on people saying no because what if they don't?

OK so you plan for 70% to show up, what if everyone RSVPS? How do you tell them they cant come? keep the list under 100. Its not worth the headache.

Lovie - 70% might be a "rule of thumb," but you can't plan for that. Like I said, we had a lot of out of town guests and had 90% acceptance rate.

Ok then, given the overwhelming number of you who are in agreement we are obviously going to need to make some cuts. I guess our parents will get over it....eventually lol.

Thank you so much for your help!

There is no rule of thumb. Keep it to who you can afford and fit.

Go with the 125 venue if you want to invite 100 because you need to make sure you count your vendors