Guest list growing like a weed!

kirch1le

My guest list is a lot bigger than I expected so it got me thinking about how many people will actually come to the wedding. So here's the question, how many people came/are coming to your wedding versus how many you originally invited?

Gwenwhyfare

Originally, we invited 125 (my Mom started randomly inviting people without me knowing after invitations went out..) - we're at 92 right now. Only invite what you can afford to pay for. That should help you in deciding who is invited. Cutting the guestlist off at first cousin's helped for my side of the guestlist.

Another question, too - who is paying for the wedding? FI's family graciously offered to help with the reception, so they get more pull on who is invited on their side.

emarston1

You always have to assume 100% attendance.  Even though this is very unlikely, you need to ensure you have a seat/can pay for each person you invite.

So if you can only accomodate 125 guests, you only invite 125 guests.

corinne2010

Ditto pp. Only invite what you can afford. Unfortuantely we didn't do this and our guest list ended up being 315! If everyone came, some people would have to stand because our venue only held 300. We ended up having 250 which is what we budgeted for. However, we had quite a few OOT guests that couldn't make it. If your family is more local, they're more likely to come. PP also made a good point. If you're not paying for the reception, unfortunately there's not much you can say/do regarding the guest list. Both my parents and DH's parents offered to pay for the reception so they got the ultimate say in how many people were invited.

We also cut our guest list off at first cousins on my side. My cousins have lots of kids and it would just be so expensive if we invited them all. Try to draw a line somewhere. If you haven't talked or seen them in over a year, I would cut them from my list.

jodyk23

I invited 176 and only had 109 attend. I had alot of out of town guests that couldn't make it. My parents contributed most of the money for the wedding and reception, so I asked them who of their friends they wanted me to invite, but as far as family, I only invited those I am close with and see alot. As for friends, if you wouldn't hand them $50 (or what your per person price is) and no expect them to repay it, don't invite them.

EricsHunnie

we invited 274 and got 208. your going to get all the yes's first and the no's towards the end so don't freak out too much!

cmkuno

We invited about 130 and ended up with only 90.  If we had known sooner that so many people couldn't make it, our plan was to add some friends.  Unfortunately, the whole A list/B list thing fell through because so many of our guests never bothered to RSVP at all!  It wasn't until about a week or two after the deadline when I'd finally called all the non-responders that we learned how low our count would be.  

I have read that the average decline rate is around 20%, but I've also heard stories of brides who had nearly 100% of those invited attend!  So even though 100% attendance is unlikely, it's just too big of a risk to invite more guests than you can seat or afford.  

gedufty

Our list started at 225. We got it down and invited 198. So far 125 have RSVP'd, only leaving about 21 people (who probably aren't coming) left to RSVP. We couldn't really afford more than 175, so we are happy with the results. It was totally worth cutting people off the list. I am sad we didn't invite a lot of friends and distant (but close) relatives, and parent's friends, but it's the simple fact that we can't afford it. I did think we would have at least 175, but oh well.

LindsayTiz

Like pp said, plan for everyone to attend.   I am planning for nearly everyone to attend, just based on the shower.  For the shower we invited 125, and 120 attended!  That being said, the bulk of our 383 guests are family (HUGE families on all sides) that live in MI so I'm guessing most of them will show up!