decline rate of guests and did you have any children at the wedding?

bonitatinabina

I'm doing my guest list right now and was wondering what the decline rate of everyones was? Also did you have an adult only wedding reception?

jodyk23

I think the decline rate varies greatly depending on your family and OOT guests. See my current guest list response in siggy. You should plan on everyone that you invite attending.

We invited kids to the wedding. They aren't counted in the above. I have 11 kids attending so far out of the 35 invited.

cmkuno

I've heard 20% is about average, but like Jody said, you really need to count on everyone you invited coming.  Imagine what a disaster it would be if you invited more people than could physically fit in your venue, and they all accepted!  

If you're just looking to get a general idea, I'd talk to your family and FI's family and see what they think.  With a few exceptions, the parents have so far been dead on about who generally attends family weddings and who doesn't.  Some people just aren't up for traveling for weddings, even if it's just a 2 hour drive.  On the other hand, I've been pleasantly surprised that a few people I thought for sure wouldn't come (because they live so far away) have told me they're already making plans to come!   

ETA: We're having an adult only reception.  Only exception is (a) kids in the bridal party, (b) FI's sisters 2 boys, since they're immediate family, and (c) kids who are older than 12 and are part of a family with kids over 18 (I didn't want to break up families, especially those coming from out of town).  That's only a total of 7 kids.  

Melgor78

like ppl said I've heard 20% and make sure your venue can hold everyone you invite  just in case.

Our venue can hold 100 more than were inviting so were inviting everyone we want to.  It also depends on the time of year.  Mines around the holidays and I'm hoping that it doesn't cause ppl not to come.

Adults only

blackberryaddict

We have been pretty firm about the no-kids policy, nobody below the age of 21 is allowed to my wedding.

Over half of the guests at my wedding are from OOT. I had a higher decline rate than 20% , because most invites were sent to OOT people and/or they weren't allowed to bring kids. 

 

 

morticia7867

I haven't sent out invites yet, but I am thinking I will have a higher decline rate since a) the wedding is OOT and b) the only children invited is FI's son and my 14 year old cousin who is a jr. BM. We are paying for our own wedding and I couldn't justify spending that much money on someone's kids who i barely see and who won't appreaciate our wedding or all of the hard work and money put into it.

boogerbearoriginal

We didn't allow kids except the nieces/nephews in the wedding. We had a higher than expected decline rate which I know for several people was because they had trouble finding a sitter.

FWIW I would plan on enough space for everyone. The chance of 100% attendance is rare, but what if you planned on 20% decline rate and only got 10% - that's not stress you want in the few weeks before the wedding.

culbycheese

We had a pretty small RSVP decline, 11 out of 151 people (9 kids- bridal party only), but there were still a few people who said yes & didn't show up, and someone who RSVP'd plus 1 then came alone, but that was only 3 or 4.

We kept out list BARE BONES and pretty much knew we'd have a relatively high attendance rate. We only invited people we knew personally- and had a history with- besides my moms next door neighbors which were my one gimmie to shut her up. I can imagine the larger your list is the greater the chance of a high decline rate.

I definitely agree with PP's to plan for 100% attendance though- our venue only held ~150 comfortably, so that helped us when telling people (ahem MOB & MOG) that we didn't have room for extras.