numbers numbers...

therockisblinding05

How do you when you have narrowed down the guest list enough? FI and I are shooting for a 200 person wedding. Venue caps at 240. Right now we have 273. There are 40 people whom we can say w/ 95 percent certainty WON'T be there. (They have either told us flat out already or are part of my family from up north who won't travel for anything). I am nervous about inviting over capacity but FI thinks that w/ the people who we can almost say for sure aren't coming, that we should be solid since we are only sending out 233 "real" invitations. Is that true? Inviting at capacity means cutting 30 more ppl, and I would hate do to that and then find out that the finals numbers were much lower than 200 and know that we could've invited ppl that we didn't... help much appreciated!

Pretty Parula

Tough call. Seems to be about standard that roughly 20% of your guest list will not attend, so maybe that can help you find your happy place. GL

cjbwifey2010

I know exactly what you mean! I'm going through it right now!

We are trying to stick at 200 and on Sunday we had 231 on the list, which was a cut from 275 that we originaly had. We have about 70% of the ppl coming are from out of town. A lot of them say they will be here, but there are some that we know are a family of 6 and just can't afford to take everyone down here for the wedding. So we broke it down like that...

we did the family and friends for sure we want there, then the maybe family, and then the maybe friends. This brought our number down to 191 at this point. I feel like i dont mind inviting 200 so i will be sending out some extra invites, even to those that wont make it. My parents have a couple of their old friends they want to invite but know they wont come and want me to send an invitation simply out of respect. I still dont know about that one, but i do know for sure that even though my venue can seat 250 comfortably, my budget isn't for 250 ppl! LOL.

So...with all that, go ahead and invite about 20 more and I think you will be playing it safe.

HTH!!

aondera

you can always make an "A" list and a "B" list, and once you know for certain that you have people from the "A" list that arent coming, invite the "B" list people.

The only thing with assuming that people arent coming, is that WHAT IF they do come? What if they get your invite and decide that they want to come, even if they told you that they wouldn't, or if they normally don't travel??  I'd be afraid of that.

Good luck, and I know what a PITA it can be!!

MCO100

I agree with pp-do an A list and B list. You just have to remember to have a different RSVP date for the B list invites. Plus, your invites should go out a little earlier than usual to accommodate the B list invites you might send out.

Theresa626

If you post this on national boards, they'll look down upon an A and a B list, but they can go f  themselves (sorry to be offensive). In all practicality, I think this would work best for you.  Put everyone who you think won't come on the B list.  Don't invite any more than 240 people and start sending out B list invites when you get some no's back.  I would never invite over capacity.  You never know if people might suddenly decide to come and that would be awful to have no where for them to go or to have to change your venue last minute. 

AileeneG

I agree with the A and B lists. I would just make absolutely certain that none of the guests find out that there are 2 lists, and also that they all have enough time to RSVP.

cjbwifey2010

Oh i love the idea of having the two different RSVP dates. That will definitely work out for me! It's not my post, but i'm taking some advice as well! In my case, i guess i did an A, B, and C list! But it will all work out. Now that you mentioned waiting a little and then sending out the other invites, I will stick to that. It is a lot easier.

erin72682

I completely agree with the A and B list and also second the F the national boards comment ... potentially offensive but true!  Although I would say put all the people that you think are definite no's on the A list and make sure to follow up with them.  If they are indeed definite no's then you should know soon and for every no you get you can stick another invite in the mail.  Also, you should try to make sure that groups of people on your guest list that might be closely associated with each other (i.e. might talk to each other about their invites) don't cross over between A and B lists.  Can't have anyone finding out that they were on the B list!!!