What's the average number/percentage for who will actually show...

You need to act like everyone you invited is coming. That's the only safe way to plan.

We had 310 people invited, 296 RSVP'd yes and 292 showed up. So we had a 6% decline/no show.

Thanks...we will need to reconsider the list...or cough up more dough

I definitely agree with mimitrue. If your inviting 200 people plan for that amount. My close friend invited exactly 100 people and 99 showed up. I would say out of 200 guest expect about 175 but again plan for 200.

All of them

I've been told it's best to plan like everyone is coming.

There's no way of knowing this. If you're far away, a holiday weekend, when kids are in school....all these things will impact your guest list. You have to plan like everyone is coming.

We're a destination for most of our guest list, so I expect slightly less than 50% to attend. My friend that just got married has a huge family and they had 80% RSVP yes, and only 60% attend. Ugh!

Why 150? Is that a minimum?

I'd say invite who you are hoping will show up and if less show up, you can save some money!

Assume 100% are showing up. If you assume only 150 people are going to show up and more than that come, you're going to be in a pickle.

Plan for 100% attendance. You can't take an average because the average doesn't account for your specific group which may move mountains to show up to your wedding no matter what.

You need to plan like everyone will come. We got married on a holiday weekend in the middle of summer, we invited 126 and 98 people came (77%), we had 0 no shows.

Definitely reconsider the list. I was just talking to someone at work who said she and her H invited 200 ppl. All but one person came. Invite what you can afford as of now. Did you send out STDs to all 200?

Only invite those who you can afford if you have 100% attendance. I've heard of people with the north of 90-95% mark.

For us, we have a 26% decline rate. So, we invited 212 guests, and we have 157 attending. Our decline rate is so large because 70% of our invitees have to travel 2.5+ hours. It makes sense for our guest list.

ETA: Words are hard

If you invite 200, expect to pay for 200. That's how this stuff works. You invite what you can afford to pay for.

What happens if you invite 200, only have the money for 150, and all 200 show up?

Common sense says this isn't that difficult. And yes, 100% attendance can and does happen.

A bride on here said that every single one of her guests RSVPd yes they're coming and one RSVPd no .. Every single guest who RSVPd yes DID show and the only guest who didn't show from her guest list was that one who RSVPd no

We invited 145. 120 RSVP'd yes. 114 showed up. Two couples had damn good excuses (wife fell getting ready for wedidng and went to Urgent Care, the other the husband got a cancer scan back and it wasn't good-both couples reach out to us after the honeymoon), the other couple no one has heard from in a month and I'm kinda worried about them.

@S&J - I did send just about all of them STDs. Based on everyone's input, it would be a bad idea to actually invite everyone. It's terrible not to, considering we sent STDs. Clearly I have royally F'ed up. We cant afford if 200 adults showed up. Some of those on the list are children; 1-5 year olds are free and 6-11 years olds are deeply discounted due to the kids menu. Thanks for the input. I'm going to re-crunch my numbers...

We invited 240 but knew 100% on a few that they would not come (it was more of a curtesy invite ) we already have 16 declines and it's not all the ones we know will be declining. We can still host the number if everyone would to say yes from now out but I am hoping for 180 or less saying yes lol. You can either invite all and budget for all and hippie to save money with no's or cut the budget.

Is your wedding a destination wedding? Will a lot of your guests be traveling from far away? That could mean a lot of declines.

To be on the safe side just make sure your venue is big enough for everyone and that you have the budget to feed and host them!

It really depends on whether your guests are local, when it is, etc. Ours was in a kind of weird spot, but directly at the end of our family reunion. So, essentially all of the people that ever come to that family reunion came this year and stayed for the wedding, but we had high decline rates from other contingencies, for whom it would require travel from the opposite coast (we're from California but had spent the last long while on the East Coast and just moved back-- almost none of these friends came). Overall we had just over 50% attendance.

We invited 154, 102 have said yes, 30 declined. 22 are still outstanding.