Wedding Guest Percentages

I dont know if there's an accurate real percentage. I was told 80 percent would show up, yet I invited 86 people and 77 RSVP'd yes and our wedding is a DW with all of my side traveling to FL. A lot of the people I figured to be no's actually rsvp'd yes. So, you can get a pretty good idea, but there will be some people who shock you.

Sorry scratch the last part - didnt even realize your wedding was the day after mine..

I think the best way to get an estimate is based on your own guests. I read lots of different percentages but it all really depends on who you invite, time of year, etc.

To help give me an estimate of my top cost I did an excel spreadsheet with 3 columns, Definitely, Maybe and No. I put people who had already told me they would be there, my bridal party and my parents in the definitely category. People I was positive wouldn't be showing up (my friend who would be 9 months pregnant, etc.) in the No category. Then I added the definitelys and maybes together for the top amount we would end up with and budgeted based on that. Because really you're better off having too much set aside then not enough.

I did basically the same thing as mynameskatie - I did a Definitely, probably, probably not and definitely not and calculated based on the Definitely and Probably list.

That's a good idea! I have been just wildly guessing all this time...

We are hoping for right around 100-120 for our DW, but 348 were invited. Right now we have like 46 yes, 53 noes and a lot of people still to respond. We have had some surprises but more expected responses. He has a huge family so we had to invite everyone, and we booked a venue that we could feed 250 at, just not as well as we can with fewer people.

We also did a list of Yes, Probably Yes, Hopefully Yes, Probably No, and No to figure our estimate that I am currently working with.

Thanks everyone, I hadn't thought about splitting it up in the maybes, definitelys and nos...hopefully that helps. If weather is bad we can only seat 200...if weather is good we can 1000 if we want...so that's kinda the trick. But I haven't sent invites out yet and want to play it safe...and then yet is will be sad not to have invited very many if the weather is great!

Hi Jenni,
The basic rule of 20% loss is what you can estimate, then take into consideration the out of town guests, usually 25% loss with them. Also the larger your guest count, the more loss will occur. When you have a smaller guest count, you have already narrowed it down to the ones who will attend, like family and close friends.
The first few weeks after sending the invitations, many will respond yes, which panics most brides, but as the date approaches, the ones not responding are most likely not going to attend. Give yourself plently of RSVP time between the wedding date and when you need to give your caterer the final count so you are not stuck paying for those guests that don't reply. BTW It's okay to call your guests to get a response.
Have a fabulous wedding!
Robbin

If you have venue restrictions I probably wouldn't invite many more then the venue could hold. If you ended up with 90-100% acceptance (Which is always a possibility) and it rained, what would you do?