my thought too- since it's only fmaily and close mutual friends i think the attendance rate will be pretty high. i've been getting feedback from married friends and on the knot, and i think our best bet will be to plan for *everyone* attending and then take it from there. we don't have an actual date yet, but as soon as we do we may do the save-the-date thing to see if anyone is unable to attend before we send invites.
GREYFUZZY 2/15/07 4:54 P
I think I've heard the number who won't attend is generally something like 25-35%... I would imagine that might be higher if you invite a lot of out-of-towners, or lower if you're having a really small event (only inviting your nearest and dearest, who wouldn't miss it for the world). Are you sending out save the date cards, or talking to your guests outside of the country to see whether they'd be able to attend?
If it were me, I would probably bet on 20% or so not showing, and try to find a location to accommodate that number. If fewer people showed up, fine, but I would think it would be better to have more room than you need, than be cramped for space if you have more people than anticipated.
BITOGOTH 2/15/07 8:18 A
Being new to this whole "planning a wedding" thing, DF and I are a little perplexed about how to manage invites. We have put together our guest list, but we know that not everyone will be able to make it. How do you factor in attrition? Can we safely bet that 10% won't be able to make it when we start talking to reception locations? I'm just trying to put together a reasonable timeline- we need to give friends and family plenty of notice since some of them are coming from out of the country, but it's hard to talk to locations when we don't know may many attendees we'll actually have. Help!
