Decline Rate

ande7903 · April 2014

I'm just curious of people could share their decline rate for their destination weddings. I know all situations are different but I know I will be inviting a lot more people that will be able to attend. My venue holds up to 40 people and we will probably be inviting about 60 with all the +1's etc. Did anyone have a large decline rate or very few declines? I might have to look at a different venue but I also don't want it to feel empty if we only have a handful able to make it... Decisions, decisions..

vegasgroom · April 2014

We invited about 130 and had 125 attend; including an 85 year old great grandma. I would not assume people can't go unless they've told you they can't because Vegas seems to cause the unusual to occur.

missmo14 · April 2014

We invited 100 and will be having 30 attend. Although thats a 70% decline rate, Vegas is an international destination for us. Im assuming US brides have higher attendance rates. VG your attendance rate is what DW nightmares are made of.

ALWAYS plan or have a back up for higher attendance. Our existing plans couldve fit 60 guests and there were options to move our ceremony to accommodate more guests and also hire an additional banquet room and host our reception cocktail style if all 100 attended.

With such a small attendance we have been able to add to our reception a super premium bar, upgraded chairs and linens, additional appetizers, entrees and desserts. To take up some "space" we have a photobooth and a scrapbooking guest book station.

Its a lot less stressful to do it that way than stress about a venue that potentially cant accommodate all of your guests.

AllyIdo · April 2014

We invited 60 and 48 are coming. People love Vegas!!

ktbabe530 · April 2014

we invited 79 and 56 are attending. although we had one invite herself and about a dozen others ask to come that we had to say no to.

Rosebubbly · April 2014

Good thread! I've been wondering the same thing. We were hoping to keep it 40 or under but will have to invite about 60. Looks like I'm in the right ballpark especially with airfare being so pricy for my dates.

ssteele04 · April 2014

we invited 55 and 23 are coming

Valeriecruz82 · April 2014

We invited 50 and have 36 attending.

annathy03 · April 2014

We invited 216 and 105 are coming. BUT that decline rate includes a lot of plus ones where singles opted not to bring a guest, and we're getting married easter weekend and not inviting kids, all of which increased our decline rate within our circle.

I would recommend being prepared for 100% attendance so you don't have to stress about fitting everyone in your venue, but also look for a venue whose minimum is in line with the guest count you expect to actually come. It's nice to be able to upgrade the bar and all that and we're adding some things, but there's no way I could have spent double my original per person cost and felt like I wasn't just throwing money away.

wrigleyville · April 2014

We invited 43 and had 43 show up. 100% acceptance does happen. Please do not plan on declines. It's too risky.

shoebunnie · April 2014

We only invited 13 and 9 are coming. My brother and his FI dropped out this week.

greeneyezkat · April 2014

We only invited close friends and family. We invited 60 only about 28 will show although I have a confirmed 19 right now. Our family is filled with 1st responders and they have to bid for their time off. So they are trying to be there just waiting on their number to come up.

KikiMira · April 2014

We invited 79 and 53 are coming. Never assume any declines, everyone loves Vegas!

vegasgroom · April 2014

annathy03 said:

We invited 216 and 105 are coming. BUT that decline rate includes a lot of plus ones where singles opted not to bring a guest, and we're getting married easter weekend and not inviting kids, all of which increased our decline rate within our circle.

We did no kids too; sorry E board. Now that I'm a parent, I'd still have done no kids; I wouldn't bring my crying baby to a friend's wedding lol.

vegaswedding23 · April 2014

We invited 85 and have had 37 buy flights and still have a couple of maybe's, we're a DW though

annathy03 · April 2014

@vegasgroom, E board is actually fine with not inviting kids, just not drawing attention to it on the invites with wording like "Adult Reception" or "No children". We had two lines on each RSVP card (we did give a plus one to singles so no one would have to travel alone, but most aren't bringing one) and wrote out the invited guest names on the lines so all they had to do was pick a meal or check regrets

ssteele04 · April 2014

We are having our kids there, kid friendly wedding:) not everyone loves vegas, my mom is livid we are getting married in vegas, same with my sister

mistiqnunu · April 2014

We live in Los Angeles/family is in San Jose and we invited 110 with 80 in attendance...

ande7903 · April 2014

Thanks for all the input. I will start looking at alternative venues that accommodate all invitee's.

alicialfisher · April 2014

It was a total crapshoot for us - we invited 110 and were betting on 60-65, but have ended up with 45 (which is great news!). There were about 15 people on my side that were surprising declines, but they had tried to make it work and couldn't.

[Deleted User] · April 2014

My numbers will probably be more like @alicialfisher - we're inviting 150 but expecting 65. We have room for up to 105 plus already knew of a lot of people who wouldn't make it (older relatives, etc) but they're included on the "invited" list anyway. We're also from all over the country but focused on the Midwest and east coast, so it's quite a haul for some people and several relatives don't live near a major airport.

It looks like none of my mom's brothers or their families will come - that's 20 people alone. And I'm sure there's more disappointments to come - but last night an uncle on my dad's side RSVP'd yes and I had no idea they were planning to come!

I have a spreadsheet (I'm a nerd, what can I say) when we were putting together the guest list that has just tons and tons of info - inner/outer envelope labels, addresses, and checkboxes for whether we'd sent STD, Invitations, and Thank You notes.

I also included 4 columns for tallying up numbers. The first three columns are from when I was planning - I entered the # from each household that I thought were "Likely", "Maybe", or "Unlikely" to attend - I put in a guess and then updated if I heard word otherwise.

The total sum from the "Likely" column I calculated 98% attendance, "Maybe" I calculated 40%, and "unlikely" 5%. The fourth column is for the actual confirmed # of attendees - I fill it out when an RSVP comes in. So far my estimates are pretty close, and we made sure there was lots of wiggle room in the venue since the list is so big!

Decline Rate

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