How much is too much to expect guests to spend to travel to your wedding?

Expect more people than normal to decline than if you were having it local.

Like @coffeencolor said, you will get more declines just because of the distance.

We are doing a domestic destination wedding where every person will have to travel as well. However we are only inviting 18 people and even with that my best friend since 8th grade can't make it for financial reasons and I just have to accept that, though even if we got married locally she wouldn't have come since she isn't local to us.

You should get an idea of hotel costs and clear the costs with your VIP guests first.

I would only expect immediate family and maybe a few good friends. Other than that, it's an awful lot to spend.

We had family all across the country from AZ to DE, so it wasn't possible to make it so no one had to travel. We picked DE. Most of our immediate families made it, as did several close friends. Others didn't. I'd talk to some of your VIPs about their willingness to travel before deciding. Find out if the people who you feel absolutely must be there are willing to travel and that will help you decide if a DW to Savannah is right for you.

It really depends on your guests. I would travel just about anywhere for someone I care about. I'm in CA and I had people fly in from NY, IL, LA and NM. Everyone else drove 3-6 hours.

$200 could be too much for some while $2,000 is still within other people's budgets.

It varies based on the how far the venue is from the guest(s) in question, # of miles to travel, expense of accomodations and of course people's varying ages, incomes, socio-economic statuses and so forth.

Eta for clarity*

I'm from south Florida and our wedding was in Savannah, Ga. as well. We had guest that came from all the US. The closest guest drove 8 hours to get there. I think that people that want to be there will make the trip regardless of cost.

From experience I can tell you that Savannah is a cheap city to move around (my guest said they were able to Uber everywhere really cheap) and I had guest that stayed at airbnb's that were very affordable. The flight is probably the biggest cost.

Savannah is such a beautiful city that most of your guest will probably turn the trip into a mini vacation and thank you for giving them a reason to visit.

We ended up with 62 guest and it was the perfect wedding in my opinion.

No matter how much I love you I will not go broke or miss my mortgage payment to attend a wedding. I resent the "people who really want to be there will make it work" comments. Personally, $200 flight is in my budget assuming I can shop around for decent hotels. But that's me. This question is really personal.

You may end up with people at your wedding who have time and money to spend, not the people closest to you.

Thank you all for your responses. Our immediate families will be there regardless. 95%+ of people also have the option to drive a reasonable distance. I agree with all points raised here.

It also depends on the city and the person's station in life. When you're single and in your 20s, you can crash on a couch. If you're coupled up and with kids, not so much.

Also, $180/night got FH and me a stylish, popular hotel in Norfolk, VA last month. $180/night in NYC would be barely one click above roach-infested, hair-covered knocking shop.

You will be amazed either way I think. We did the same thing, domestic DW. It's November and we are from the Midwest, so like everyone is coming. My people are paying a few hundred for flights and $125 per night at the hotel. A lot of them are treating it as a vacation.

I'm having a domestic destination wedding. My FH & I are from the Philly area and we're getting married in Charlottesville,Va. It's a 5 hour drive, but I think most family will attend. Most family has said that they'd attend and most friends and family; they're looking forward to it. Hopefully most people will go to your wedding! Tell them about all the cool things they can do while visiting the area.

You shouldn't expect anyone to do anything for your wedding...

My FH and I are hosting our wedding about 2 hours away from our home in NYC, however most of my family are still in the UK and his are ALL over the country so 80% of our guests are traveling. My MOH is flying all the way from Sydney, don't expect anyone to travel for you...we have had a lot of declines but it's as expected. Unless everyone you know lives in the same town people will have to travel for a wedding so I wouldn't worry too much.

In October for my FH's cousins wedding we are each paying for flights ($250), hotel ($350) and a rental car ($270), before the gift and anything else. But we want to be there and we budgeted it for it.

My only advice would be give people plenty of time if they need to travel, we tried to give everyone a 14 month heads up so they can try to budget and get the time off work if they wanted to come. As opposed to telling people a couple months before and expecting them to drop everything, cough up a few hundred and be there.

I'm having a domestic dw as well. I live in south Florida, but most of our families are in Michigan and New Jersey. Out of 38 people invited, we only had 4 decline.

95% of our guests are travelling, internationally and domestically, including the groom. FH is stationed in NY and I live in Dallas so we are planning a Dallas wedding. Your wedding is almost a year away (hoping that is enough time to prepare for their travel). We are only inviting 100 people, but our families and friends all love to travel so it shouldn't be a problem for me. It may be a good idea to help with researching and budgeting (finding cheapest hotels, flights etc), but I believe it is still possible to have a decent attendance with proper planning.

About 120 of our 150 guests are OOT, with about 30 having to fly domestically, 5 flying internationally, and the rest have to drive 2-6 hours. Guests will come if they have a close relationship with the couple/their family and think the trip is worth it, also if they can afford it. But do expect a higher refusal rate. We are expecting a 20%-25% refusal rate because of travel (and because of that, we are inviting 180-185 people to target 150 guests). We are also sending out the STDs a year in advance and the invitations 6 months in advance so guests can make travel plans.

"but we liked the idea of a domestic destination so everyone has to travel."

You liked the idea of everyone having to travel? Or do you mean "we liked the idea of a domestic destination, but that means everyone has to travel"? I ask because the former is pretty rude.

We had a domestic destination wedding and yes, everyone did have to travel. We called all our VIPs initially (those we couldn't imagine getting married without) and they all said they'd come, so we went ahead with planning expecting a large decline rate. The wedding was held around the holidays and was in a location that was difficult to get to. The majority RSVP'd that they'd come. On the day of, a huge snowstorm kept around 10 people away. In all, 100 people showed up out of the 150ish that were invited.