So, based on what I had read here, plan for 100% attendance. Despite wanting a small wedding, mine and FI's parents are funding the entire shebang. FI's parents had a ridiculously large guest list......around 120 people, not including any of FI's friends. Mine was much smaller, but in total, we invited around 200 people. Knowing we had a fairly large number, we looked places that could accommodate that size, and FI and I were both sad because some places we would have really liked to have our ceremony/reception were out, because the capacity was only between 125-150.
Flash forward to 18 days before the wedding.....out of 200 invited, we are barely going to break 100 guests. My side has had almost no declines, but out of my FIL's guest list, only 53 are coming. Oddly enough, FI and I are going to get the wedding we want, because we only wanted around 100-115 guests, but, we booked a space that can hold up to 250, and I feel like we are barely going to fill it. I'm also sad that if my FIL's had been more realistic about sending invites (we sent at least 15 to italy, where all those invited were 80+ years old) we could have booked a more intimate venue. I think that they were counting on a lot of people who had attended FI's sisters weddings would come to ours, but his sisters got married 9 and 7 years ago, so a lot of the elderly people who came to theirs have aged, and travel is out of the question for them (out of 120 guests for his sisters' wedding, about 75 came to both events). Anyway, not much to be done about it now, I just wanted to vent a bit that we now have this huge reception space, and I feel like we will struggle to make it not look empty.