How many "yes" rsvp's should I expect.

futurecptkirk

My mom pushed for me to over-invite people as she "knew" her part of the guest list wouldn't come. My wedding is in 60 days. She just informed me her poker group (12 people) is thinking about coming and her employees (8 more)... If I hadn't ignored her and planned for 100% I would be in a world of hurt right about now. I invited 198 for my venue that holds 200, giving up invitations for friends I would have loved to be there because I didn't want to put myself in that position where too many people RSVP yes. 

bdawnb

Expect 100%.  We had about 105% at my daughters wedding.  Yes, that is correct.  People who were not invited, people we delibrately did not invite still showed up.  I noticed the venue sitting out chairs right before the ceremony started, but assumed they had somehow neglected to set everything up originally and was too busy with other things to ask, it wasn't until the pictures came back that we realized what happened.  Other than the two toddlers that showed up, they sort of stuck out in the crowd.   The two young men from Australia my son-in-law went to school with for a year? There   All my relatives that  live out of state? All there.  Son-in-law's family from out of state? All there. Friends they had grown up with that are scattered across the country? All there for a low key,  afternoon wedding. We invited 200 people, had 2 couples decline and still had around 210 attend.   The crashers were teenagers who were part of the youth group my daughter and her husband had been sponsors of for several years. Fortunately because it was an afternoon wedding we had opted for a buffet so the food was not an issue.

And please, please, do not B List. 

redoryx

kmw201 said:

Thank you all for the advice so far, I don't want to come across as inconsiderate with the "B" list idea, we truly would love to have all of those people come but are on this strict occupancy # and I certainly don't want to plan poorly and have too many people rsvp and be freaking out. I was just curious if the 20% decline pattern usually held true. This is a second wedding for me, 1st for fiance that we are paying for ourselves but my mom has mentioned a few friends that she would possibly invite if there's room.

This confuses me. Your venue holds 100, your guest list is 140. That means you'd have to have closer to 30% of your guest list decline before her friends could be accommodated, not the 20% you're asking about.

Also, if this is a strict occupancy issue, that 100 is probably going to also include you, your FI, bridal party, vendors, etc. So your actual guest list needs to be less than 100. 

katenan89

I think the A and B lists are extraordinarily smart. We did it that way. We had 210 individuals on our list and expected 165-ish (we factored in who lived out of state, out of country, friends vs. relatives, etc.) Anyways, we sent STDs to the A's and when we got back "no" RSVPs we sent just invites to the B's. 

Ultimately our 165 estimated came down to 123 which wound up perfect, but nearly 50% of our invites were returned "no" which is rare!

I do agree with the posters that say if you have 140 people, your venue needs to be able to hold everyone - don't assume people aren't going to show!

frenchiekin

katenan89 said:

I think the A and B lists are extraordinarily smart. We did it that way. We had 210 individuals on our list and expected 165-ish (we factored in who lived out of state, out of country, friends vs. relatives, etc.) Anyways, we sent STDs to the A's and when we got back "no" RSVPs we sent just invites to the B's. 

Ultimately our 165 estimated came down to 123 which wound up perfect, but nearly 50% of our invites were returned "no" which is rare!

I do agree with the posters that say if you have 140 people, your venue needs to be able to hold everyone - don't assume people aren't going to show!

Did you ask for an RSVP from your guests on the STD?  Confused.

ShesSoCold

katenan89 said:

I think the A and B lists are extraordinarily smart. We did it that way. We had 210 individuals on our list and expected 165-ish (we factored in who lived out of state, out of country, friends vs. relatives, etc.) Anyways, we sent STDs to the A's and when we got back "no" RSVPs we sent just invites to the B's. 

Ultimately our 165 estimated came down to 123 which wound up perfect, but nearly 50% of our invites were returned "no" which is rare!

I do agree with the posters that say if you have 140 people, your venue needs to be able to hold everyone - don't assume people aren't going to show!

aurianna

lovesclimbing said:

You really ought to expect 100 percent acceptance, with a few exceptions.

I'm one of those people (I'm in the minority here) who think you can expect and know for sure that some people will decline.  My cousins who live half way across the country who visit every three years and just came for a visit six months ago? Extended relations who also live half way across the country who haven't left the state in decades? Some of H's extended relatives who have either never visited Alaska or haven't in years?

We had a cake and punch reception and did not do RSVPs.  My mom and I went through the list and marked people with either a yes, a no or a maybe. Everyone that we marked as a "no" ended up not coming, just like we thought. We invited over 300 people and bought cake and planned for about 120.  We had about 100 show up. So our attendance was probably about 30 percent, but again, a lot were courtesy invitations to relatives who lived a long away.

This is something you have to be careful about. We live in Alaska.  You can't really drive to get here.  Yes, you can, but it's not like a few hour drive you can do over a weekend.  It takes two days from the lower-48 at LEAST, and that's assuming you're driving fast and it's summer. Flying from the lower-48 is at least 3 hours, and that's coming from Seattle.  So it was not far fetched to think that lots of my extended relatives would not spring for at least two separate flights adding up to 4 to 8 hours of flight time just to get here not including the return trip. 

If your extended relatives just live a couple states away, you may not be able to count on it as much as we could.

You were lucky. Do not encourage others to do the same thing. You didn't bother to get a headcount and could have ended up with half the cake you needed? That is dangerous.

We had a wedding in STL in January. Hubby's family is from MN. That's a 9-12 hour drive (longer if it snows) or a $200+ round trip plane ride. I never imagined some of his parents' friends would accept their invitations. They did.

People can surprise you.

Plan for 100%. Always.

[Deleted User]

katenan89 said:

I think the A and B lists are extraordinarily smart. We did it that way. We had 210 individuals on our list and expected 165-ish (we factored in who lived out of state, out of country, friends vs. relatives, etc.) Anyways, we sent STDs to the A's and when we got back "no" RSVPs we sent just invites to the B's. 

Ultimately our 165 estimated came down to 123 which wound up perfect, but nearly 50% of our invites were returned "no" which is rare!

I do agree with the posters that say if you have 140 people, your venue needs to be able to hold everyone - don't assume people aren't going to show!

That's gross.  And a terrible way to treat your friends.

TheCheeseWench

katenan89 said:

I think the A and B lists are extraordinarily smart. We did it that way. We had 210 individuals on our list and expected 165-ish (we factored in who lived out of state, out of country, friends vs. relatives, etc.) Anyways, we sent STDs to the A's and when we got back "no" RSVPs we sent just invites to the B's. 

Ultimately our 165 estimated came down to 123 which wound up perfect, but nearly 50% of our invites were returned "no" which is rare!

I do agree with the posters that say if you have 140 people, your venue needs to be able to hold everyone - don't assume people aren't going to show!

You have extraordinarily bad manners, and clearly do not know what STDs are for. They are a notice to SAVE THE DATE well in advance, not a request for any indication if someone plans to attend. Did you ask your guests to respond twice? I'm guessing you had a 50% NO rate because people figured out they were B listed.

TheCheeseWench

kmw201 said:

Thank you all for the advice so far, I don't want to come across as inconsiderate with the "B" list idea, we truly would love to have all of those people come but are on this strict occupancy # and I certainly don't want to plan poorly and have too many people rsvp and be freaking out. I was just curious if the 20% decline pattern usually held true. This is a second wedding for me, 1st for fiance that we are paying for ourselves but my mom has mentioned a few friends that she would possibly invite if there's room.

@kmw201 be careful with this, especially if you are already concerned with numbers. We told the Mothers they could give us a "wish list" of people they would LIKE to invite, but made no promises. FMIL's list was FIVE people under the TOTAL number of guests we wanted to have at the wedding. She has a very large family, and didn't understand that we would rather spend our evening enjoying time with our friends and close family, instead of making smalltalk with a bunch of distant relatives one or the other of us hasn't ever met/seen in years. We ended up accommodating as many as we could with our budget, and while she SWEARS many of them are just courtesy invites and won't attend, FI & I have already made a follow-up trip to the city where we will marry (7 hours away) to select a new ceremony site because we just can't count on that. If the extras don't show, fine. If they do, there is a chair, a meal, and a bar budget allocated for them. Oh, and it's people from her list (really OLD people) that are doing awesome things like adding guests to their RSVPs and giving their invites if they can't go to other relatives who were not invited. Oy.

As PPs have said, B listing is a HUGE no no.

lovesclimbing

aurianna said:

lovesclimbing said:

You really ought to expect 100 percent acceptance, with a few exceptions.

I'm one of those people (I'm in the minority here) who think you can expect and know for sure that some people will decline.  My cousins who live half way across the country who visit every three years and just came for a visit six months ago? Extended relations who also live half way across the country who haven't left the state in decades? Some of H's extended relatives who have either never visited Alaska or haven't in years?

We had a cake and punch reception and did not do RSVPs.  My mom and I went through the list and marked people with either a yes, a no or a maybe. Everyone that we marked as a "no" ended up not coming, just like we thought. We invited over 300 people and bought cake and planned for about 120.  We had about 100 show up. So our attendance was probably about 30 percent, but again, a lot were courtesy invitations to relatives who lived a long away.

This is something you have to be careful about. We live in Alaska.  You can't really drive to get here.  Yes, you can, but it's not like a few hour drive you can do over a weekend.  It takes two days from the lower-48 at LEAST, and that's assuming you're driving fast and it's summer. Flying from the lower-48 is at least 3 hours, and that's coming from Seattle.  So it was not far fetched to think that lots of my extended relatives would not spring for at least two separate flights adding up to 4 to 8 hours of flight time just to get here not including the return trip. 

If your extended relatives just live a couple states away, you may not be able to count on it as much as we could.

You were lucky. >>>>>>>Do not encourage others to do the same thing.<<<<<<You didn't bother to get a headcount and could have ended up with half the cake you needed? That is dangerous.<br>
We had a wedding in STL in January. Hubby's family is from MN. That's a 9-12 hour drive (longer if it snows) or a $200+ round trip plane ride. I never imagined some of his parents' friends would accept their invitations. They did.

People can surprise you.

Plan for 100%. Always.


-----boxes-----


I can't bold on mobile. To the arrowed. That is why I said you have to be careful with that sort of thing and be careful when you only live a couple states away. We were careful, and we had plenty of extra cake.

A 9-12 hour drive from St. Louis to Minnesota is nothing compared to a lower-48 to Alaska drive, especially a to-Alaska drive in the middle of winter. Nebraska to Alaska is a 55 hour drive one way, according to Google Maps, and those were the closest relatives to us that we knew for sure weren't coming.

I have cousins who just recently got married. H and I would have made a 9-12 hour drive to see them get married without a second thought. But a 44 hour drive to Washington state (one way)? Out of the question. We would have had to take a week off work!

Plane tickets just from Anchorage to Seattle are about $200 a month out right now. And those are summer fares, which are generally cheaper because there is more competition on the route. That doesn't include the other legs of flights.

Sorry, but it's not really comparable.

[Deleted User]

We're expecting about 50% from my side, and 90% from both his side and our mutual friends. While the venue we've chosen will accommodate 100% of our guest list, we built our budget assuming we would have about 30% decline rate. If we're wrong and go over budget, we will deal with it, and possibly allocate honeymoon funds towards head count instead. In the end, I think it's going to be very unpredictable because my side is travelling quite far, but I am interested in seeing how close my predictions are once RSVPs start coming in. The guest list is coded depending on whether I think they will show up, won't show up, or honestly have no clue. I'm only sending out one or two courtesy invites to people I know for absolute certain won't make it. I wish they could, but the time of year isn't possible for their jobs. I would never plan for less than 100% turnout, even though FI really wanted to. When an invite comes in that says YES and I was expecting a NO, I want to be dancing out of excitement, not spending my last few weeks of engagement in pure stress mode.

ILoveBeachMusic

For our daughter's wedding we planned (budget and venue) for 100% but expected 75% based on who we knew would travel and because of the wedding being on a holiday weekend. Actual yes RSVPs are 69%. We will see how many no shows we have.

princessleia22

Spoonsey said:

We're expecting about 50% from my side, and 90% from both his side and our mutual friends. While the venue we've chosen will accommodate 100% of our guest list, we built our budget assuming we would have about 30% decline rate. If we're wrong and go over budget, we will deal with it, and possibly allocate honeymoon funds towards head count instead. In the end, I think it's going to be very unpredictable because my side is travelling quite far, but I am interested in seeing how close my predictions are once RSVPs start coming in. The guest list is coded depending on whether I think they will show up, won't show up, or honestly have no clue. I'm only sending out one or two courtesy invites to people I know for absolute certain won't make it. I wish they could, but the time of year isn't possible for their jobs. I would never plan for less than 100% turnout, even though FI really wanted to. When an invite comes in that says YES and I was expecting a NO, I want to be dancing out of excitement, not spending my last few weeks of engagement in pure stress mode.

I think it's okay to have some prediction of a % of attendance, but just make sure your venue & budget can accommodate 100%.  Even if you had an "ideal" budget for 70% attendance, it sounds like you still had a backup plan to properly accommodate 100%.  You had other funds you could tap into if needed. I invited around 80 people, but expected only 40-50 to attend (destination wedding). I did most of my planning based on 50 people. If all 80 had shown up, I would have been thrilled and my venue/vendors could accommodate them and I had available funds that could be added to the budget, so all 80 would have been hosted exactly the same as 50 would have been.  In the end, only 25 were able to attend, but we had a great time. 

hyechica81

had a saturday evening wedding in june weather was amazing, we planned on 100% attendance venue required 100  person minimum guest count  they had two rooms one that could fit 60 and the other room 400 

we invited 166 we had only 116 around 29% decline, people we thought wouldnt come did and people we knew would come didn't 

we had a couple at the last minute call us and let us know they were unable to make it due to some unforeseen circumstances  we were able to get a refund from the venue for those meals.

we did a full sit down evening dinner 5 course sit down dinner hot and cold appitizers open bar 

dj cake and centerpieces were also included with tax and tip we spent 85pp

AddieCake

katenan89 said:

I think the A and B lists are extraordinarily smart. We did it that way. We had 210 individuals on our list and expected 165-ish (we factored in who lived out of state, out of country, friends vs. relatives, etc.) Anyways, we sent STDs to the A's and when we got back "no" RSVPs we sent just invites to the B's. 

Ultimately our 165 estimated came down to 123 which wound up perfect, but nearly 50% of our invites were returned "no" which is rare!

I do agree with the posters that say if you have 140 people, your venue needs to be able to hold everyone - don't assume people aren't going to show!

A and B lists are extraordinarily rude, not extraordinarily smart. Ugh.

charcoalandblush

princessleia22 said:

Spoonsey said:

We're expecting about 50% from my side, and 90% from both his side and our mutual friends. While the venue we've chosen will accommodate 100% of our guest list, we built our budget assuming we would have about 30% decline rate. If we're wrong and go over budget, we will deal with it, and possibly allocate honeymoon funds towards head count instead. In the end, I think it's going to be very unpredictable because my side is travelling quite far, but I am interested in seeing how close my predictions are once RSVPs start coming in. The guest list is coded depending on whether I think they will show up, won't show up, or honestly have no clue. I'm only sending out one or two courtesy invites to people I know for absolute certain won't make it. I wish they could, but the time of year isn't possible for their jobs. I would never plan for less than 100% turnout, even though FI really wanted to. When an invite comes in that says YES and I was expecting a NO, I want to be dancing out of excitement, not spending my last few weeks of engagement in pure stress mode.

I think it's okay to have some prediction of a % of attendance, but just make sure your venue & budget can accommodate 100%.  Even if you had an "ideal" budget for 70% attendance, it sounds like you still had a backup plan to properly accommodate 100%.  You had other funds you could tap into if needed. I invited around 80 people, but expected only 40-50 to attend (destination wedding). I did most of my planning based on 50 people. If all 80 had shown up, I would have been thrilled and my venue/vendors could accommodate them and I had available funds that could be added to the budget, so all 80 would have been hosted exactly the same as 50 would have been.  In the end, only 25 were able to attend, but we had a great time. 

I agree. This is more or less how we approached it. Our venue can accommodate up to 550 people, so size was never an issue. We invited 240, but both my mom and my dad's family do not have the means to travel or the interest in doing it. The vast majority of them have never left the state. We knew there was a very strong likelihood that they wouldn't come. So we started out with a budget for around 180-200. We knew that if we needed to, we could trim back the $45 steak and chicken buffet to a $20 chicken or vegetarian plated dinner. Fortunately we ended up being right - we'll have around 160. But even if we were wrong, we had a plan and would make it work for 240.

BUT this is VERY much a know-your-crowd situation. Not everyone can do this. EVEN IF you think you know, you need a Plan B. We knew that EVEN if my entire family decided that this would be their first out-of-state vacation in their lives, we had a plan.

aurianna

lovesclimbing said:

You were lucky. >>>>>>>Do not encourage others to do the same thing.<<<<<
We had a wedding in STL in January. Hubby's family is from MN. That's a 9-12 hour drive (longer if it snows) or a $200+ round trip plane ride. I never imagined some of his parents' friends would accept their invitations. They did.

People can surprise you.

Plan for 100%. Always.

-----boxes----- I can't bold on mobile. To the arrowed. That is why I said you have to be careful with that sort of thing and be careful when you only live a couple states away. We were careful, and we had plenty of extra cake. A 9-12 hour drive from St. Louis to Minnesota is nothing compared to a lower-48 to Alaska drive, especially a to-Alaska drive in the middle of winter. Nebraska to Alaska is a 55 hour drive one way, according to Google Maps, and those were the closest relatives to us that we knew for sure weren't coming. I have cousins who just recently got married. H and I would have made a 9-12 hour drive to see them get married without a second thought. But a 44 hour drive to Washington state (one way)? Out of the question. We would have had to take a week off work! Plane tickets just from Anchorage to Seattle are about $200 a month out right now. And those are summer fares, which are generally cheaper because there is more competition on the route. That doesn't include the other legs of flights. Sorry, but it's not really comparable.

The bold just indicates how people can be very different and why you still could have ended up very burned.
You might drive 9-12 hours no questions asked, but I would not.
BUT, if it was a wedding I really wanted to go to, I wouldn't bat an eyelash at paying $200-$400 for a plane ticket. Your not getting RSVP numbers and then only having cake for half the guest list was very irresponsible and you should not be encouraging other posters to do the same thing.
Seriously... how hard is it to at least get a headcount?
You opened yourself up to screwing guests that very well may have traveled incredibly long distances, out of cake (btw, hopefully your wedding wasn't at meal time?)
What if even 10 more people came than you bought cake for? Just 3% more yeses on your guest list than you intended... disaster.

In situations like these, why even invite the 200 guests you cared so little about you didn't even bother to find out if they were coming before you decided not to buy food for them? Sending a few "courtesy" invites to people you know won't accept is generally fine by me, but only if you can actually host them should they decide to come after all. Completely discounting them before the wedding's even happened makes it seem like it was just a gift grab (even if it wasn't).


You might have a point that it isn't comparable. I wouldn't want to go to a wedding in Alaska that was only serving cake, where the couple didn't even care to know if I planned on coming or not. But even with that, you still got lucky.

Lurkers, get a headcount or have food and chairs ready for 100% of your guest list.

Pupatella

I agree that you should plan for 100% (even 105% like a PP has said is smart!!).

Our venue holds 60, and we originally wanted to invite 50 people total.  We were given the advice to invite 65 people because 15 would most likely decline.  I am SO happy I did not listen to this advice!!  Not only are all of our 50 guests coming, but your guest list can change a bit throughout a year of planning (think of marriages, divorces, breakups, etc.)  Our final count is now at 54 (that means we are at 56 including the bride and groom).  

I'll add that most everyone is traveling for us, so they told us way in advance that they were definitely coming, but I would still plan for 100% attendance even if most guests are local.

Also, I agree with having no B lists.  Make sure there is room at your venue to invite everyone you want!!  

[Deleted User]

Knottie9076833 said:

I agree that you should plan for 100% (even 105% like a PP has said is smart!!).

Our venue holds 60, and we originally wanted to invite 50 people total.  We were given the advice to invite 65 people because 15 would most likely decline.  I am SO happy I did not listen to this advice!!  Not only are all of our 50 guests coming, but your guest list can change a bit throughout a year of planning (think of marriages, divorces, breakups, etc.)  Our final count is now at 54 (that means we are at 56 including the bride and groom).  

I'll add that most everyone is traveling for us, so they told us way in advance that they were definitely coming, but I would still plan for 100% attendance even if most guests are local.

Also, I agree with having no B lists.  Make sure there is room at your venue to invite everyone you want!!  

I agree with adding this cushion.  Because while I had my single cousin on the guest list with a guest so I could include a potential SO or a plus one for him, I didn't intend on him getting married to a woman with three kids.  AND they're pregnant, so add one more to the count.  If I already had a venue with guest list at the tippy top of the max it could hold, I'd somehow have to find 4 people to bump from the list if I wanted to invite my cousin's whole new family.

princessleia22

Knottie9076833 said:

I agree that you should plan for 100% (even 105% like a PP has said is smart!!).

Our venue holds 60, and we originally wanted to invite 50 people total.  We were given the advice to invite 65 people because 15 would most likely decline.  I am SO happy I did not listen to this advice!!  Not only are all of our 50 guests coming, but your guest list can change a bit throughout a year of planning (think of marriages, divorces, breakups, etc.)  Our final count is now at 54 (that means we are at 56 including the bride and groom).  

I'll add that most everyone is traveling for us, so they told us way in advance that they were definitely coming, but I would still plan for 100% attendance even if most guests are local.

Also, I agree with having no B lists.  Make sure there is room at your venue to invite everyone you want!!  

Yes, family situations can definitely change in the year or so between first creating a guest list and actually sending out invites.  But, another thing to consider, is if your maximum is based on venue capacity, don't forget to include your vendors in that count.  Venue capacity is often based on fire regulations and that includes everyone in the room, not just guests.  If you go over, they may start kicking people out, which you really don't want to have happen.  So, planning for more than 100% could also be used to make sure you include DJ, wedding coordinator, caterer, serving staff, bartender, photographer, and any other staff that may be present.

lovesclimbing

aurianna said:

lovesclimbing said:

You were lucky. >>>>>>>Do not encourage others to do the same thing.<<<<<
We had a wedding in STL in January. Hubby's family is from MN. That's a 9-12 hour drive (longer if it snows) or a $200+ round trip plane ride. I never imagined some of his parents' friends would accept their invitations. They did.

People can surprise you.

Plan for 100%. Always.

-----boxes----- I can't bold on mobile. To the arrowed. That is why I said you have to be careful with that sort of thing and be careful when you only live a couple states away. We were careful, and we had plenty of extra cake. A 9-12 hour drive from St. Louis to Minnesota is nothing compared to a lower-48 to Alaska drive, especially a to-Alaska drive in the middle of winter. Nebraska to Alaska is a 55 hour drive one way, according to Google Maps, and those were the closest relatives to us that we knew for sure weren't coming. I have cousins who just recently got married. H and I would have made a 9-12 hour drive to see them get married without a second thought. But a 44 hour drive to Washington state (one way)? Out of the question. We would have had to take a week off work! Plane tickets just from Anchorage to Seattle are about $200 a month out right now. And those are summer fares, which are generally cheaper because there is more competition on the route. That doesn't include the other legs of flights. Sorry, but it's not really comparable.

The bold just indicates how people can be very different and why you still could have ended up very burned.
You might drive 9-12 hours no questions asked, but I would not.
BUT, if it was a wedding I really wanted to go to, I wouldn't bat an eyelash at paying $200-$400 for a plane ticket. Your not getting RSVP numbers and then only having cake for half the guest list was very irresponsible and you should not be encouraging other posters to do the same thing.
Seriously... how hard is it to at least get a headcount?
You opened yourself up to screwing guests that very well may have traveled incredibly long distances, out of cake (btw, hopefully your wedding wasn't at meal time?)
What if even 10 more people came than you bought cake for? Just 3% more yeses on your guest list than you intended... disaster.

In situations like these, why even invite the 200 guests you cared so little about you didn't even bother to find out if they were coming before you decided not to buy food for them? Sending a few "courtesy" invites to people you know won't accept is generally fine by me, but only if you can actually host them should they decide to come after all. Completely discounting them before the wedding's even happened makes it seem like it was just a gift grab (even if it wasn't).


You might have a point that it isn't comparable. I wouldn't want to go to a wedding in Alaska that was only serving cake, where the couple didn't even care to know if I planned on coming or not. But even with that, you still got lucky.

Lurkers, get a headcount or have food and chairs ready for 100% of your guest list.

We wanted them to come.  If they could have come, we would have been overjoyed. We didn't ask for RSVPs from anyone. Not because we didn't care about them, but because it was a cake and punch reception and overbuying servings would not break the bank.

And I genuinely don't think I "got lucky."  Every. single. person. we marked as a no did not come. Again, people do have to be careful, but I do believe it's possible to know for certain that some people won't coming.  I'm talking about traveling from Nebraska to Alaska in the wintertime. Or relatives who are physically unable to travel. Or people who live a similar extremely long distance away. I'm not talking about inviting people who live two states over and could hop in the car and drive over in half a day. 

MandyMost

You need to be able to physically and financially accommodate 100% of your guest list, assuming every single person on your guest list has a significant other by the time that invites go out. Period. No exceptions. I don't care if Grandma is totally immobile and 18 states away and hasn't had a date since 1954. If you put her on the guest list, you assume she's coming and bringing her new significant other and make sure you can accommodate that. 

SP29

Since we're talking about venues, guest lists and capacity, in addition to the great advice above, just wanted to add....

realize that when your venue tells you a room can hold X guests, it is usually a pretty full room! Be sure to ask if you were at the max (yes, including your vendors), where would all the tables go?

Our venue room held 110. When I asked the coordinator about that when we toured the venue, I think I made a bit of a face (realizing the room was small- which for our wedding, I loved), and she even said, "Yeah, it's tight, but we can make it work". Then I asked about tables, and she said with a bigger wedding, tables go on the dance floor for dinner then get moved for the dance.

Moving tables off the dance floor is something I am not cool with- I think a guest should have access to their seat the entire night.

There was a larger room there if we had needed it, but we had 72 guests in attendance. I believe we had 9 tables of 8, plus the WP table (with SOs!), and that number of tables worked out perfectly. I couldn't imagine having more in the room!!