I would ideally like to have my final guest count in the 80-85 range, but we will be inviting around 100 guests. So I was curious...how many guest did you invite and how many did you actually end up having? Thanks for helping!!!
We invited about 160 guests and about 125 actually attended.
Some things to keep in mind are 1) destination wedding 2) # of OOT guests 3) time and location of your wedding like Friday wedding vs Saturday night wedding 4) if its on a holiday weekend 5) size of family.
I used a system I found on this board. For each guest, I assigned a percentage of likelihood that they would attend (50%, 95%, etc) in excel and then took a weighted average of the total. It actually gave me a pretty accurate estimate of how many guests I can invite to get to our ideal attendance level. I'm also a big finance and math geek so don't laugh!
I invited 101 people, including the officiant and his wife, and we were aiming to have at least 85 to hit our minimum that we guarunteed to our reception location. The due date for the RSVPs is today and not all the guests have responded (ARG!) but we expect 79 including the total who have already responded and our best guess for the ones who haven't. To be more specific, 67 have RSVPed yes, 11 no and 25 have not yet responded.
So it seems to me that your numbers are right on track, especially if you sent out save the dates in advance (we did).
PS if you have a minimum to hit you might want to invite more because we're now faced with a decision of inviting people who will clearly know they were B-list material because the wedding is only 3 weeks away, or paying for dinners that no one eats.
Our wedding is out of town for most guests, so we expected a good number to decline (family that couldn't afford the crazy expensive flights, friends doing their medical residencies, etc). We invited 220 thinking we'd get 175, but we actually got 147! I'm glad the wedding ended up being what I consider the perfect size, but it goes to show, you can never really guess how many people are going to come!
1) Assign each guest a percentage to estimate likelihood they would attend (Like mom and dad probably get 100% but distant cousin from the other side of the world probably gets 5%)
2) Add up all the percentages for all 103 guests
3) Divide by 103, which usually gives you a weird number like 87.6573423% which represents the overall likelihood of someone to say yes, based on your best estimates.
Ok, I'm a total dork and so NOT a math person! lilneko69, does that 87.65% mean that that's the percentage of people from your total guest list that you can expect to attend?
I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm just trying to understand it well enough to actually put it into practice. :-)
I think you have to look at the situations of each guest and their families. Do they have to travel? are you the first granchild/cousin getting married, even if a lot of travel is involved? that kind of thing.
We have a unique situation, as most of my family (in NC) won't be able to travel to our wedding in RI. Since I have a lot of extended family, we're actually sending out about 275 invites (so approx. 500 people total), but we're shooting for only about 150 people. When we sent out the STDs last week, we tried to guess who would be coming and I think we're going to hit anywhere from 125-175. Like someone said previously, it just really depends on your own personal circumstances.
Hello Ladies!
I would ideally like to have my final guest count in the 80-85 range, but we will be inviting around 100 guests. So I was curious...how many guest did you invite and how many did you actually end up having? Thanks for helping!!!
posted by aqtang 3 posts 2 months agoWe invited about 160 guests and about 125 actually attended.
Some things to keep in mind are 1) destination wedding 2) # of OOT guests 3) time and location of your wedding like Friday wedding vs Saturday night wedding 4) if its on a holiday weekend 5) size of family.
I used a system I found on this board. For each guest, I assigned a percentage of likelihood that they would attend (50%, 95%, etc) in excel and then took a weighted average of the total. It actually gave me a pretty accurate estimate of how many guests I can invite to get to our ideal attendance level. I'm also a big finance and math geek so don't laugh!
GL!
posted by lilneko69 203 posts 2 months agoIt's been a while since I've taken any math...how exactly do you do the weighted average thing?
posted by lc80 55 posts 2 months agoI invited 101 people, including the officiant and his wife, and we were aiming to have at least 85 to hit our minimum that we guarunteed to our reception location. The due date for the RSVPs is today and not all the guests have responded (ARG!) but we expect 79 including the total who have already responded and our best guess for the ones who haven't. To be more specific, 67 have RSVPed yes, 11 no and 25 have not yet responded.
So it seems to me that your numbers are right on track, especially if you sent out save the dates in advance (we did).
PS if you have a minimum to hit you might want to invite more because we're now faced with a decision of inviting people who will clearly know they were B-list material because the wedding is only 3 weeks away, or paying for dinners that no one eats.
posted by MissAlbany 46 posts 2 months agomy fi and I also assigned percentages and took a weighted average (we put ours in a google doc so we could share it) yay for big geeks!
posted by ablossoms 33 posts 2 months agoOur wedding is out of town for most guests, so we expected a good number to decline (family that couldn't afford the crazy expensive flights, friends doing their medical residencies, etc). We invited 220 thinking we'd get 175, but we actually got 147! I'm glad the wedding ended up being what I consider the perfect size, but it goes to show, you can never really guess how many people are going to come!
posted by caulner 34 posts 2 months agok80-
Let's say you are inviting 103 guests.
1) Assign each guest a percentage to estimate likelihood they would attend (Like mom and dad probably get 100% but distant cousin from the other side of the world probably gets 5%)
2) Add up all the percentages for all 103 guests
3) Divide by 103, which usually gives you a weird number like 87.6573423% which represents the overall likelihood of someone to say yes, based on your best estimates.
posted by lilneko69 203 posts 2 months agoOk, I'm a total dork and so NOT a math person! lilneko69, does that 87.65% mean that that's the percentage of people from your total guest list that you can expect to attend?
I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm just trying to understand it well enough to actually put it into practice. :-)
posted by andriab 15 posts 2 months agoWe invited 194, have 141 attending.
posted by EK 182 posts 2 months agoyep, andriab.
posted by lilneko69 203 posts 2 months agoi hope i did this math wrong.. we have invited 112, and my estimate is now 29 'yes'
this is wrong, right??? :) we have 26 'yes' already!
posted by missrae 88 posts 2 months agohaha yea, that sounds a lot low. PM-ed you, missrae!
posted by lilneko69 203 posts 2 months agoI think you have to look at the situations of each guest and their families. Do they have to travel? are you the first granchild/cousin getting married, even if a lot of travel is involved? that kind of thing.
posted by MsPopcorn 104 posts 2 months agoWe invited 105 and 77 have rsvp yes.
posted by skiv 28 posts 2 months agoWe are inviting 200 ppl, but hope to have 150 attend. That would be a 75% accept rate, which I've heard is reasonable.
posted by hamster22 5 posts 2 months agoThe numbers I've heard have all been said the standard is 85% yes's. Even when the people live out of state.
Good luck!
posted by TallBride 582 posts 2 months agoWe have a unique situation, as most of my family (in NC) won't be able to travel to our wedding in RI. Since I have a lot of extended family, we're actually sending out about 275 invites (so approx. 500 people total), but we're shooting for only about 150 people. When we sent out the STDs last week, we tried to guess who would be coming and I think we're going to hit anywhere from 125-175. Like someone said previously, it just really depends on your own personal circumstances.
posted by LNickle 75 posts 2 months ago