How many of your guests do you expect to show up?

hannahc7891 · July 2011

This question is for those who have mostly out-of-towner guests. We're inviting about 140 and expecting around 100. Most guests will have to fly. Anyone in a similar situation want to share how many invitees they expect to attend?

I've been going with this "around 100" number for awhile, based on some percentages I've read - but now I'm worried I may be off.

Thanks everyone!

Kate504 · July 2011

we have a guest list right now of 330, but will be taking a few off. That does include children. I know of about 32 people that will be unable to attend due to travel (some are older (in their 70s-80s), will be in town for mardi gras so they wont be traveling twice and others are having children close to the wedding and will not be traveling).

Most of my family will definately come. When it comes to his family I never know, they are the ones traveling and I don't know them at all. Right now it is just speculation.

NO2012 · July 2011

One coordinator I interviewed told me to expect 80% of your invitees to show up to a Nola wedding. All of the coordinators I talked to told me to expect more people than whatever the standard wedding percentages are (which I don't know what that number is) and to certainly not treat it as any other destination wedding (mine is destination for me, my FH, and everyone invited). They all said people will see NOLA on the invite and will want to come. Not sure if this helps. I am sitting here with my draft guest list as wevspeak and wondering the same thing. I meetvwith my coordinator tomorrow afternoon in NO and will repost if I learn anything more helpful.

hannahc7891 · July 2011

Thanks for the feedback. This is helpful. I've read 75% is a good rule of thumb, but I've definitely found that people are enthusiastic about NOLA and happy to have an excuse to come. I've had some people I thought were "maybes" at best who said "can't wait!" as soon as I told them and they've already booked their hotel rooms.

NOLAbridealmost · July 2011

We invited 90 and 65 came. A lot of the no-shows were FI's relatives who he hasn't seen in years and years.

wmh6 · July 2011

Pretty much our entire guest list was OOT other than our co-workers. We invited 288. Around half were elderly or family aquaintances which we didn't expect to attend, but my mom still insisted on inviting. We had around 100 yes RSVP's, and then 19 of those did not show up for the wedding.

Kate504 · July 2011

My FI's fmaily is from mississippi and when they find out the wedding is in NOLA they can't wait to come, the ones that I know anyway.

DenyseS · July 2011

I'm going to assume they will all show even though I already know of maybe 10 out of 80 that will be invited that will not come. I am only certain of 40 but my wedding is still almost 8 months away. I am doing save the dates now b/c March is a very popular month in NOLA and I want to be sure people get hotels etc that they want if they don't want the one I blocked rooms at. 80% are people from out of town.

And I have had a few say they might make it that I thought would'nt b/c well it is NOLA lol

meganb1977 · July 2011

I think most of ours will come...we'll probably invite around 80 and expect around 70 guessing that some of my out of town family might not come and a few local people will have a conflict. But I'm sure you've already read to plan on 100% attendance, in other words, not a good idea to assume some people won't come and go in over your head inviting more people than you can afford!

hannahc7891 · July 2011

I have read that "assume everyone will come" advice. I also know that there are at least 10 people, right off the bat, who either live out of the country, will have just had a baby, are ill, etc., and won't come. If we end up with 130, we won't go broke or be unable to fit everyone in the venue . . . but it will make things a little interesting! I think what I'm learning here is that everyone's situation is different, and it probably depends somewhat on the size of your wedding. Let's just hope people actually fill out those darling little RSVP cards.

Thanks to everyone for the help!

wmh6 · July 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_louisiana-new-orleans_many-of-guests-expect-show-up?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:84Discussion:992cdba8-581e-4483-8565-fa42b44b389bPost:1dbf72e7-5c53-48be-b586-9c4671d08b46">Re: How many of your guests do you expect to show up?</a>:
[QUOTE]ILet's just hope people actually fill out those darling little RSVP cards. :)
Posted by hannahc7891[/QUOTE]

<div>Good luck with that :) We had to hunt down about half of our people. Then some would say they weren't sure yet when it was only about a week away. So frustrating! After our experience, I will never be late sending RSVP's back to anyone else!!</div>

Kate504 · July 2011

Just don't post on you facebook page about being annoyed about people not sending RSVP's back. That is what a girl whose wedding I was in did and people started responded that they did and if they were coming or not, etc.

I thought it was rude on her part.

LOLways · July 2011

Ew facebook RSVP sounds nasty.

I think you can have some RSVP on your wedding website, so that's another helpful thing so that their only option isn't to remember to send that card back. I find a lot of folks I've talked to re: recent weddings for coworkers put the card aside and then completely forgot about it and didn't RSVP on time.

I'm basically expecting half of the 300 I invite will not RSVP at all, so I'm glad my planner is going to be the one dealing with the phone calls, etc. that come with that.

Queen Jane · July 2011

You should budget for 100% But, of course, I'm sure everyone has an idea Of what their numbers will be. We are inviting 170 and thinking we will have around 100. It's a DW except for 4 of FI's friends who live in Nola.

How many of your guests do you expect to show up?

Re: How many of your guests do you expect to show up?

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