Rule of Thumb.

[Deleted User] · May 2011

Is there a general rule of thumb/ percentage of people that will RSVP no to go buy. I have 175 listed but will 175 make it, no? I know some will RSVP 1 instead of 2 or wont' be able to make it..but how do I know when making my A-list/B-list confirming room for X amount of people. Do I confirm the venue with amount of people that I am inviting, HELP i'm sooo over analyzing this! hahaha.

maddie7 · May 2011

Yes, the rule of thumb was accurate for my wedding and my friends too. 20% will be no, hard to think, right, you think everyone will come! ha ha
http://boards.weddingbee.com/topic/on-average-what-percentage-of-invited-guests-reply-no-to-wedding-invitations

altimat873 · May 2011

You usually dont have to confirm the exact number until 2 weeks, 10 days before the wedding. You really should only invite the amount that you plan to have/can afford/can accomodate etc, but generally not everyone is going to say YES obviously. I went with the 80/20 rule as an estimate but who knows. I started off saying 130 people and now my guest list is up to 183, so Im hoping only about 150 will say YES but there is that possiblity that there will be more.

[Deleted User] · May 2011

yeah it's hard...i look at the list and i'm like "how are they going to say no?" LOL they've been waiting for this day as long as I had! hahahaha

Reymiguy · May 2011

In Response to <a href="http://northjersey.weddings.com/main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_rule-of-thumb?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:90Discussion:452c3b3d-07c7-456c-a474-99d13e39329aPost:c55d4386-58cf-48a7-aa45-495ebdbf4b19">Re: Rule of Thumb.</a>:
[QUOTE]yeah it's hard...i look at the list and i'm like "how are they going to say no?" LOL they've been waiting for this day as long as I had! hahahaha
Posted by NicShev43[/QUOTE]

lol funny .. I am glad this question was asked im afraid that if I ivnite a 150 and cloe ppl and they all say yes im screwed lol

maddie7 · May 2011

My husband and I only wanted 125, and we sent out close to 160 and we ended up with our 125. When early "no's" came back we could even send out more invites if we wanted to, but we did not have an A and a B list, I mailed them all out at once and we got the number we wanted Our final number was due 5 days before the wedding.

mbcdefg · May 2011

I wouldn't depend on any kind of "rule." We wound up being very surprised at who accepted and declined the invitations to our wedding. 175 probably won't show up, but you really don't know ... I think we had a 70% acceptance rate, and we were expecting a bit higher than that. Plus we had people added on and dropping out in the days before the wedding, and when we were walking into the reception hall they handed us a Post-It saying two people wouldn't be there. Ugh.

Also, I'm not entirely sure what your situation is ... are you looking to establish a minimum with your venue and you're wondering what number to choose? Or are you trying to guess at how many guests you should tell them are coming? If it's the latter, can't you just wait until you get the replies and then go from there?

kristen8040 · May 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_rule-of-thumb?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:452c3b3d-07c7-456c-a474-99d13e39329aPost:c55d4386-58cf-48a7-aa45-495ebdbf4b19">Re: Rule of Thumb.</a>:
[QUOTE]yeah it's hard...i look at the list and i'm like "how are they going to say no?" LOL they've been waiting for this day as long as I had! hahahaha
Posted by NicShev43[/QUOTE]

<div>You would think that, but a lot of issues come up, especially travel, work, and most of ours were people who had spouses or "and guest" not bringing someone. </div><div>
</div><div>We invited 187, and as of right now having 139, so 74/26.</div>

jchristel · May 2011

We invited 241. 40 RSVP'd no, so that left us with 201 (about 83%). The week before the wedding, 6 people dropped out (several were hospitalized for real, 2 were just a-holes) and 4 just didn't show up at all (also a-holes).

We ended up with 191 which was 79% of the total we invited.

JoBell123 · May 2011

If you're wondering because of room size, don't invite more than the room can hold. When FSIL got married all of my FIL's side came (all friends and they even had an extra family member show up last minute!). Though I'm hoping not everyone can come, I want the room to not feel super crowded as I'm worried it will.

cutiepie12702 · May 2011

We just put down our required minimum as our headcount. We are inviting 40 over that but we know they all aren't coming and are hoping to stay as close to the required number anyway. We have budgeted to pay for everyone we are inviting, but for the venue's purposes we are only guaranteeing the required minimum.

Reilly626 · May 2011

Negotiating the lowest number you can is key. When I booked the economy was way down so the guarantee # was only 100! It was such a help!

cindyn9178 · May 2011

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_new-jersey_rule-of-thumb?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:90Discussion:452c3b3d-07c7-456c-a474-99d13e39329aPost:b2398a34-d659-4522-a13f-09eede8d9be8">Re: Rule of Thumb.</a>:
[QUOTE]Negotiating the lowest number you can is key. When I booked the economy was way down so the guarantee # was only 100! It was such a help!
Posted by Reilly626[/QUOTE]
This.
We only have to guarantee 120 people.. we are inviting 188, so we're thinking we'll get about 150.

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