How many people were/are invited to your wedding?

[LauraBabe08]

Just wondering how many people were or are invitied to your weddings!

I originally thought about 150, now that we sent out save the dates, I reviewed my list and if everyone attends, it will be around 115.

We think that about 90 will attend.

 

[buttercup80]

We originally thought we would be having about 100. . .then our moms went crazy and we sent invitations to 180 people!!! (We knew some of them would not be able to come). We ended up at 127.

 

[neatfreak]

We had a small wedding. We invited about 45 and had somewhere right around 30. It was also OOT for almost everyone.

 

[geckodani]

Got married in Maui - invited 40, was expecting 10, ended up with 28.

 

[mimzy]

we''re inviting 242, but we''re praying for not over 200

 

[AllieLuv83]

Inviting 116, but I think it will be less than 100!

 

[joflier]

We invited around 220, and we had about 180 attend.

 

[DMBFiredancer]

90 invited....about 75 expected to attend (hopefully!)

 

[Allison D.]

Invited 30, 28 replied they would come, 27 actually did.

 

[Gypsy]

Invited in the high ninties (I don't know how many exactly) but many were courtesy invites to OOT guests with travel challenges so we knew they wouldn't be able to come, 68 attended. the size was just right for us.

 

[gtn]

i invited 300, and got so much more.... it was crazy fun though

 

[marchswallowbird]

We''re inviting 40, and expect 35 to be able to attend.

 

[LauraBabe08]

Date: 10/27/2008 2:21:14 PM
Author: Gypsy
Invited in the high ninties (I don''t know how many exactly) but many were courtesy invites to OOT guests with travel challenges so we knew they wouldn''t be able to come, 68 attended. the size was just right for us.

Follow-up question for Gypsy and others:

When you say that you invited OOT people that you "knew " wouldn''t come, did they all really not come?

I am getting worried b/c my wedding planner told me that her last bride invited 200, expected only about 85% to attend, and 198 actually attended!!!

I already sent out my STDs and now I am kinda wishing that I didn''t send them to everyone that I did. FI invited about 10 more ppl than I did. A lot of them are friends. Probably not all of the friends will show up b/c the wedding is OOT. I am not allowing his friends to invite guests, unless they are engaged or married (which is only 2 of them - all others don''t even have a GF and I don''t really want the "fling of the week" at my wedding).

I told FI that we are only inviting aunts/uncles and cousins. The list that his mom gave me included more extended fam than that - including his grandmothers sisters/husbands, and their kids/husbands. I was also "told" to invite his aunt from across the country and she wants all of her kids invited (all grown & married w/ kids) although they wont be able to attend. I sent them all STD''s, and I will send them invites (since I already sent STDs) but I am only inviting the parents, not all their teenage kids as well.

They said they wont be able to come, but now I am getting worried - what if they do come?

I addressed the STD''s as "the smith family" etc, which is sorta ambiguous. For the actual invites, I am just listing the adults on the inside envelopes, and hopefully they won''t come b/c their bratty kids aren''t included as well.



I guess I just feel that its a little unbalanced, but its hard b/c FI''s family is older than mine, and a lot of his cousins are grown and married w/ kids. my cousins are younger (some are my flower girls, etc) and I am inviting them all b/c they are my cousins, but there will be no other kids invited. I don''t care - I''m putting my foot down

 

[elrohwen]

I think we're inviting about 90 ... the minimum is 65 and we really don't want to pay for people who aren't there, so we're trying to plan it so that 70-75 will actually show up. I wouldn't mind a smaller wedding, but places around here have ridiculous minimums ... the vast majority of the places I looked at had 100 person minimums (some were 120). At least it made it easy to eliminate venues from our list.

 

[violet02]

Technically we invited 114 or so... but I invited 90 to start and as people dropped out (some were OOT guests that we knew would say no) I kept inviting people until we hit 78. We did not want to go over 80 people. That was perfect imo. We got to talk to everyone that day, I didn''t want to miss out on visiting with everyone.

 

[kstar512]

I was worried about that too. We only want 130 to come but our list is at 160.

 

[Elmorton]

About 150 were invited, 123 attended.

 

[gtn]

Most of my OOT guest did come and I didn''t even send save the dates. I had relatives who decided at the last minute (a week before) to come from Asia. I didn''t invite "+guest" for those whose significant other we have not met, but of course, they showed up too. My sister actually tried to turn someone away, that didn''t work out so we decided to just rolled with it.

 

[CNOS128]

We''re inviting somewhere between 129-171, hoping for 100-125 guests.

My fiance''s greatest contribution to wedding planning has been the spreadsheets. Our "guest list" spreadsheet has categories for: Definitely Invite - separated by Friends or Family or Parents'' Friends (and of those, who will definitely attend who probably will not attend); and Maybe Invite (and divided as above). The net totals for "Definitely" and "Maybe" are at the bottom.

Anyway, I''m not that organized, but it''s been a huuuuuge help! He may not care about invitations or colors or themes or flowers, but my fiance definitely knows his spreadsheets.

 

[FrekeChild]

We''ll probably invite around 18 and end up with something around that. We''re only inviting everyone that we have to have there.

 

[Nocturnius]

Not including bridal party, 25 people were invited.

Only 19 actually attended.

 

[SarahLovesJS]

We''re at around 110-130 invited..and we''re hoping 80-90 will come.

 

[newbie124]

We''ve invited 83 guests, knowing that a few will most likely not be able to come due to health issues, and we''re hoping to have no less than 65 and no more than 72. It''s a small window, but I think we''ll be close to that. It mainly depends on FI''s mom''s side of the family who he''s not really close to and who may just choose to attend the local post-wedding reception that his parents plan to host.

 

[Octavia]

Our list right now is at 129, not including FI and me. However, this includes about 10 "courtesy invites" and we haven't given anyone a +1 unless they're in a serious relationship. Our goal is to have 115-125 people actually there, so we have some flexibility with additional guests, in case anyone starts a serious relationship between now and the wedding, or if someone really needs the security blanket of a +1. Given our circles of friends, that's pretty unlikely, so we might actually end up on the low side of our target number.

ETA: the venue holds up to 150, but it's a close squeeze with that many and makes the dance floor teeny -- so 130 is about the max for the space to really work for us and therefore the max # of invitations we want to issue.

 

[Gypsy]

Let me put it this way-- wedding was in CA:
8 invites to John's aunt's and uncles who are well over 80 and do not fly -- live in NY.
John's youngest sister's family (long story). 4 people.
John's middle sister's BIL who is phobic about flying and his daughter, who is as well. 2 people.
6 family friends, in NJ, who are not doing well financially, and generally don't fly.
3 couples who are friends, in NJ, who are all suffering economic issues too.
4 of my mom's in-laws who are just... weird.

27. But we invited them. Not for gifts (never for that) but because we wanted them to be included minimally to the extent we could do so.

John had 15 people attend on his side. We had two mutual friends come ( not two couples, 2 people). So... it was what it was, and if we'd let ourselves think about it too much... it would have concerned us. But we didn't and just went with it instead.

Then we had a bunch of people we expected to attend who didn't for various reasons who we expected to attend.

 

[Diva0413]

LOL... I originally started with about 200. Then I started shopping around and saw how expensive it was to feed and liquor up 200 people. I cut my list in half, but it started to grow a little bit. Right now it stands at 125; my venue''s minimum to book.

 

[blackpolkadot]

Right now we are at 204, not including us. We ideally want 125, but have cut it down three times, so I don''t see us reducing it anymore. Everyone on the list we want to come! But it is OOT for 98% of the guests. Most of them would have to drive 3+hours, so we''ll see how many come.

 

[fieryred33143]

Our list is at 119.

If we invite all 119, probably only 80 would show up.

We''re striving for 50-76 so we may just cut people from the list.

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Invited 40, 34 attended.

I knew the 3 other couples I invited (all cousins) probably would not be able to attend because my cousins are teachers and my wedding was in late September, but I sent them an invite anyway in hopes they might change their mind. When they sent the declined RSVP back, I called them to tell them I''d be thinking about them and not to send a gift--I think that was my main concern, that they''d think if they were invited they should send something.

 

[tenfour]

eleven. eleven showed up too!!