FI and I were hanging out with a couple of his SA friends yesterday (both originally from Bombay but have been here for a few years). Anyway, we started discussing a friend of FI's who'd told us for months that she was coming to our wedding but never sent in the rsvp card. We'd planned to count her as a yes, but then she no-showed on a shower and so I asked FI to pin her down and she finally said she wasn't coming. (For a pretty lame reason that is too long of a story for this post.) Anyhow, when we were talking about this, my focus was very American-like and centered around the fact that we were about to pay for her and her husband and that she hadn't bothered to tell us she was in fact not coming. The friends didn't seem to entirely "get it." After they left, FI and I were talking and he was saying that the focus for Indians is much different - whereas it's not so bad to rsvp no here, it's much worse among Indians. Which now has me worried about no-shows. A lot. Our wedding's pretty far away and I can already sense some of his friends being sort of flaky about coming. So, my question is, did any of you have a substantial issue with no-shows? Do you sense that there are a lot of people among SAs who will say they're coming to save face but then not show? More so than with other weddings, if you know? Advice? I really do not want my parents to pay for 30 people who don't show up.