wedding guests...

ciara_q

hi,
there will be about 120 invitations sent out for our wedding, but does anyone know the average % of invitees that DON'T go?
just trying to get an idea because every cent will count...
ciara

Minatauro

Hi,

I saw that some couple in america used statistics to determine the number of guests. I believe it was confirmed to be about 10% that did not turn up.

Staplor

You'd do well to get 100 guests.

What's best of all is the "Sorry I can't go, here's €50 enjoy the day".

Hopefully you'll get a few of them, I got 2 or 3.

ciara_q

hi staplor
thank you
was it more than 10% no-shows for you do you mind me asking
c

ciara_q

thanks Minatauro

sweetie

there's a difference in how many invites are turned down and then how many accept and can't go on the day but i would say 15/20% of your total. We had very strict numbers for our wedding and couldn't invite some people we wanted. On the day 5 people who had accepted missed it for various reasons and their dinners whilst paid for were wasted.

Minatauro

Hi, sorry they were in Australia.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25980076

cookiecakes

Be careful of expecting people to turn down invitations. We invited 151 adults to our wedding and 149 came! We'd expected more to decline but thankfully we had budgeted for everyone coming! So make sure you don't invite more than you can afford!

Staplor

It depends, mine was in August, so I banked on some people being on holidays and the wedding was in Limerick, all my side are based around Dublin, so the travelling is a factor. The day is another thing, if you go week day a lot of people will be in work. 10% would be safe enough I'd imagine.

lazygal

We had a 10% decline rate for a Friday wedding in May. I know people who had declines of up to 40% though.

When you say every cent will count what do you mean? Is it the cost of hosting the wedding or the counting of cash gifts? Don't invite people if you can't afford to have them there.

Oh and you might have no shows on the day. It depends on the venue policy whether you'll have to pay for them.

D3PO

OP I dont really understand your logic. You seem to indicate the reason you would like to know is the budget is tight.

Dont invite people if you cant afford it, just as people say dont rely on cash gifts also dont rely on a percentage of guests not accepting. If you invite somebody then plan as if they are going to go.

FWIW we invited 202 and had 164 attend, the time of the year, day weather your inviting persons from abroad and a whole host of other things will determine how many declines you get. There is no set figure.

Vojera

You can't really nail it down to a percentage. It depends on so many things, what day of the week the wedding is on, how far the venue is from your home place, how close the people you're inviting are to you.

We invited 200 people, including kids, and we had 120 guests on the day. However, we fully expected a high decline rate because the wedding was on a Thursday and it was three hours away from where I'm from. Nonetheless, we budgeted for everyone coming. There's no point having to panic over where the money is going to come from.

Staplor

No need to panic either, you'll get plenty of cash gifts to bump up the payment to the hotel. When I was checking out, I gave all the cash to the hotel and topped it up with a bank draft.

clint_silver

as others have said, you can help your percentages by having it on a saturday nearby. we had it on a bank holiday saturday in dublin and only had 4 refusals out of 160 IIRC where most of the crowd had a short taxi ride home. most refusals are "just dont want the hassle". take away the hassle, and theyll come to the wedding.

Budget for everyone but the hotel know youll get x% of refusals so will expect you to ring up and say 160 is now 130 so many days or weeks beforehand

dont expect anyone to the afters no matter how many you invite.

Toots

We invited 123 and had 4 declines. Honestly, budget for 100% attendance otherwise you could find yourself in a tight spot if more people accept than you were expecting. This exact thing happened to my cousin, they had the wedding abroad and a lot of their guests would have been coming from various different countries. They were expecting the wedding to be fairly small but nearly everyone they invited actually ended up accepting and it was a fairly big wedding in the end. As far as I know it ended up costing them a fortune.

Staplor

Staplor wrote: »

No need to panic either, you'll get plenty of cash gifts to bump up the payment to the hotel. When I was checking out, I gave all the cash to the hotel and topped it up with a bank draft.

:eek::eek:

homemadecider

Staplor wrote: »

No need to panic either, you'll get plenty of cash gifts to bump up the payment to the hotel. When I was checking out, I gave all the cash to the hotel and topped it up with a bank draft.

Or you could, y'know, have a wedding you can actually afford?

cookiecakes

OP, I wouldn't be waiting on presents from guests to pay the hotel if I were you. We had to pay our balance in full 3 working days before our wedding and many people only gave their gifts on the day so we would have been really stuck if we were depending on it. My advice is budget your day so that you're spending on the things you really want and cut back on the things that you think you need but aren't too fussed about. It's totally possible and will make sure that you're having the day you want. If you are inviting 120, then make sure you budget for 120 saying yes. Yes, people decline but if you don't budget for them what the heck will you do if they all say yes?! It will save a lot of headaches and rows if you plan now..It will be totally worth it the week of the wedding when you know everything is budgeted and paid for!!

cmbutterfly45

Definitely budget to have enough to cover all your guests. Imagine how stressed you would be on your wedding day knowing you didn't have money to pay for it, what if nobody gives you cash and you get gifts instead!

On the numbers we have sent 190 and are expecting about 130-140 but may be less as a lot of our friends are abroad and can't come.

whiteandlight

With smaller numbers around the 100 mark you are talking close friends and family. Most of those people will come if at all possible so I'd definitely be budgeting for everyone

Gatica

We had roughly 30% decline rate, we expected maybe 20-25%, but it was a Friday wedding so it was understandable. Other have had less declines.

Just be on the safe side and budget for everyone attending, we did, even though we knew many wouldn't be able to come. How embarrassing would it be to be tearing up cards on the day to get a few bob together?!

December2012

We invited 80. And 80 came. Don't invite everybody if you can't fit everybody.

paulbok

Invited 230, had 180 on the day.
we wanted everyone invited to attend but knew they all wouldn't/ couldn't with holidays booked etc.
about 10 of those invited we knew wouldn't go, elderly neighbourds that don't go to any weddings, but still need to be 'asked'.
Had 3 no shows on the day due to illness. The hotel did say to expect around 25% of invitees to not attend.
definately don't be banking on no-shows to reduce the costs, plan for everyone to attend.

sawdoubters

I invited 400 and 395 showed up

clartharlear

It seems most people are assuming the OP is hoping for a percentage not to turn up - my feeling is that it's a worry that a significant number of invitees won't be able to make it.
What if you've told the hotel the number will be around 120-130 and you turn up with under a hundred?

LNH666

actually that's a good point clartharlear -our wedding package is for a minimum of 120 guest - currently guest list is 160. I should check what would happen if say 40 people couldn't make it on the day. Does the price per person rise.
And nothing to do with budget as such we have budgeted for the people we are inviting with the price we were given.

Gatica

That's what happened to us, we agreed on numbers of 130 with the hotel on booking. The contract said there would be a surcharge for numbers under 110. We ended up having only 106 guests. I calculated the difference between paying surcharge and paying for 110 guests and at 106 it was cheaper to pay pay surcharge, but I think at 108 it was better to just pay for 110 guests. (In any case, it was still cheaper than paying for 130!)
We budgeted for full numbers though.