how many people from your guest list actually came to your wedding?

Only you know whether it is more important to you when it comes to a venue having all of the "perfect" details or being able to invite all of the people you want to share your day. Personally, I chose the latter. In 20 years am I going to be more upset that I didn't get the beautiful look that I wanted or that I didn't get to have all of my family and friends there, I think I'd be more disappointed not having the people.

You have about a year and a half until your wedding, I would keep looking. Maybe you will find something you love just as much that holds enough people. If you don't find anything, you can revisit the idea of cutting your guest list in a few months.

I can't speak from experience, but I think it would have to do with who you are inviting. Do they live locally? Are they family or friends? Do they work weekends? A relative that lives nearby is more likely to attend than a long distance friend that you don't talk to often.

A LOT changes in a year and a half. Our guest list grew and grew... still hasn't stopped growing haha Anyway I would wait until you have a firm guest list count and understand that even if only 50% of your invites show up, your guest list WILL grow. People like to invite themselves and everyone they know to your wedding. I would definitely wait.

We invited 106 and had 91 show up, which was higher than we expected. People really rallied to be there, which surprised us.

Were trying to keep our guest list small anyway as my FI and I are paying for a majority of our wedding. So I'm going for a more intimate/personal feel. Our original list was around 150. And now my second list is at 98 incl. my FI and I. When I look at our list right now I feel that 90% of the people will come. ...sucks I'm 13 people over the max!

We have a few OOT'ers. A majority of my side of the list is family and my FI's majority is friends. I wish I could tell the future and know who exactly will be there!

I think it is a good idea to err on the side of caution. The most important aspect of our DW was the venue. We know we can only comfortably seat 60 people. However, we sent out STDs for 94. Based on STD's alone, we are up to 57(including us). The inn is completely booked with our party. Our invites go out at the end of May. I am praying we get a lot of No replies.

Moral of the story...don't gamble. Try to invite only as many as you can fit, or be a wreck like me that we won't have the room.

Wow, yes that seems like a tough situation!

The place where were planning our venue at has a small room that I wanted to use for dj/dancing and has double french doors that open to a big patio. The room can only accommodate 50 people for a sit down dinner and the patio can accommodate 85 for dinner. The lady who is helping me out at the venue said other brides have used both the room and patio for dinner but I'd rather have dinner with everyone in one place out on the patio (so 85 guests). I guess if worse comes to worse we will have to use both the room and patio for dinner since the room has those big doors we can open them up to kind of alleviate the "separated" aspect of dinner.

I really am in love with the venue. When I saw it I felt like how you should feel when you try on your wedding dress. Like you "know" its the dress. I had the feeling like I "know" this is the venue! ...now the hard part is trying to work out all these little kinks

Thanks everyone for listening to me vent! geesh i'm already getting stressed out and we've just begun our planning!

My daughters guest list was 140. 134 showed up.

My guest list was 100 but I ended up having way more people show up than expected (a surplus of about 23 people). Some of it was because people brought their children (some even friends of their children to keep their children company). Some people do not always follow the "Me plus 1" guidelines.

We're inviting 235, and our room fits 200. We're hoping for around 190. FH has a lot of family that lives out of state, and I have quite a few guests that live out of state or out of town, so hopefully we'll be ok.

As for chosing a venue, if budget isn't an issue and would like to invite everyone you have on your list (that is, you are not willing to compromise on cuts and are uncomfortable taking the gamble), I say find a bigger location. I fell in love with a place that only fit 160, but we weren't willing to cut our list, so we had to find another venue. :/ it happens

We're inviting 70 but we're thinking about 10 will actually come.... maybe I should add the fact that we're getting married in the Bahamas which is why not many people are coming

This is the formula we were told by our venue coordinator and it has helped somewhat with planning. She said that whatever number you have on your invite list about 30% will not come. Of that number, for the day of about 10 more people will not show up. I don't know how accurate that is but that is coming from years of coordinating many, many wedding for this venue. She also used to be a wedding planner. Hope that helps.

Thanks, this was a really helpful post! I really have no idea about who will show up because certain people I was CERTAIN were coming suddenly were going to be gone all summer...I can't wait for the RSVPs so I finally get a real idea!

You should count on 25% no(s) and no shows.

we invited 370 and 285 showed up.

I have always wondered the same thing myself. I am also really curious to know how it works if you end up with more people than planned, what do you do if there is no room or seat for them???

I am hoping that at least 25 people don't show up out of all the people that my FMIL has taken upon herself to invite.

We invited 86 and are at 73 rsvp'd yes right now. waiting on 3 more people.

Our venue is a max 100, we were at 110 and I think I've narrowed it down to about 104 with taking away some plus ones. My guess is about 85-90 people will come with out of town people that I am predicting won't make it...