Worried About Wedding Turnout

Honestly I would keep in mind that your turnout definitely might be lower than you expect

Yes, I would say this is normal for COVID. Many people have been doing girtual showers. I atrended a baby shower and bridal shower, both virtual and over 50 people werw online for both of them.

I’m sorry you were disappointed with your turn out. COVID has turned everything upside down but I feel everyone deserves to have the “full experience”. Personally, I wouldn’t let anything stop me from attending a loved ones special event and I’ll happily wear masks etc. It’s super helpful that your wedding will be outdoors along with masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer. That should make guests feel a little safer. I hope you get the perfect turnout. If you have a wedding planner they can help remind guests about RSVPing.

I, personally, would not attend a bridal shower right now. I’d send a gift and definitely rsvp no, but I agree with others, a lot of people are doing virtual or drive-by showers.

COVID has changed everything right now..... and that has to include our expectations too. I think one area that is being hit harder than weddings are the pre-wedding events. It seems that guests are deciding to skip those and choose one event to attend, and that’s the wedding (yet still no guarantee with that attendance either). But unfortunately we can’t pretend like these are normal times. However I’m glad that your shower was still beautiful.

We sent out 125 (60 households) invites, have gotten 47 yes’s back. Granted 2 of them is our pastor and his wife so he has to be there since he’s marrying us, and another 26 are immediate family. So we have 19 guest who aren’t related to us coming, most of which are actually my coworkers and their spouses.

I honestly would be okay to have no more then 75 people because it makes things safer. I’m still waiting on 51 response though. My rsvp date is Monday so we’ll see what happens then.

I only had 3 people who weren’t family come to my shower.

Bridal showers are on my non-essential list right now. I have no desire to congregate in even moderately-sized groups of people where they are sure to be ones who aren't taking any of this seriously. And if I did show up and there were 70 people (or 140 if it was couples??), I'd probably drop my gift off, say a quick hello, extend my best wishes, and leave. I'm so sorry and I hope your wedding turnout is better...sounds like you've got all the right safety protocols in place and having it outside should definitely help!! COVID sucks.

My shower had 13 people attend which was fine, it allowed us to socially distance ourselves. For my wedding we have 87 people attending, we invited 170 so we had a 52% decline rate. It's something that we just have to accept. I think the hardest declines were from my FH's extended family who live in upstate New York. The governor there put a travel ban on our state and if anyone travels here they must quarantine for 2 weeks upon coming back. It is what it is, nothing I can do about it. But I'm not going to stop living my life just because of the virus either.

My mom and sister-in-law are planning a couples shower for mid-September because they want me to have the experiences they had leading up to their weddings. I was surprised but I think they are taking precautions. It will be outside in my SIL’s backyard, hand sanitizer readily available, and it’s written on the invitations to social distance and bring your mask. I think it’s 16 people total invited (including me and FH) and so far 10 (mostly family) have RSVP’d yes.

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All of this. 100% agree.

Depends on your circle and how much risk they’re willing to take. Are your invitees more adverse to risk or more vulnerable to the virus? Or more carefree? I was invited to two baby showers this summer: one in person and one virtual. I could not get comfortable going in-person as I had no way of knowing how seriously the other guests were taking the pandemic. I felt terrible not attending, but I couldn’t risk my health over a party. The virtual one was different but still something I enjoyed and looked forward to.


I know it can really, really hurt when loved ones decline a wedding invitation. If you’re comfortable and ready for that possibility, carry on. If you’re not ready for it and will resent people for their choices, consider if you can postpone a year or more to when there may be a vaccine.

Nothing is "normal" or predictable right now. No one can tell you what is "reasonable".

But even in non-pandemic times, you can't base wedding attendance off of a shower. Showers are far less important events than weddings, and many people prioritize their time, travel, and budgets accordingly.

Yea, I'd say that's very normal for pandemic numbers, but that doesn't make it less disappointing. My shower is in 2 weeks and the wedding is in less than 2 months and I'm not even excited anymore, just depressed. I don't know that the wedding will happen and if it does I know it won't be like I imagined.