With about a week left until our RSVP deadline, we have about 75% of our RSVPs in. I’m pretty impressed by that number! I’ve heard for some of the 25% that the price of airline tickets is what is causing their delay in deciding if they can make the trip or not. With the worsening economy, I think dropping $500 just for airfare is kind of a lot to ask.
I doubt that we are alone. With the rising cost of gas, a lot of people are sticking closer to home. It’s even worse for the people who are losing their jobs or are losing their homes due to the mortage crisis. Scary economic times! We’re not seeing this same thing in Canada (*knock on wood*), but I really heard a lot of talk about this during our recent visit back to California.
Are you feeling the effects of the economy on your wedding planning?
Most of my friends will be living too close to our wedding location to fly, but it might also be too far for them to drive, which makes me incredibly sad. I’m hoping that a bunch of them will carpool, for economic, environmental and selfish reasons (I want them there!)
We are also seeing it in our RSVPs. The handful of relatives living on the opposite side of the US have declined due to airline and gas prices 
I know it’s causing others to shorten their trips, etc. It really sucks to not have family come just because of $$$.
Fortunately, we haven’t been hit personally by the recession (knock, knock), so it hasn’t affected the wedding planning too much. But we’re pretty anxious about the cost of our honeymoon in Europe, given the exchange rate!
I totally empathize - I am from Ireland and moved to Texas three years ago, I met my FH here. We are getting married in Houston in August and because of flight costs (average cost to fly to Houston from Ireland $900 minimum) many people will not be attending. I totally understand it is an expensive and time consuming trip but my heart is a little sad as many of the people I love most will not see me married.
We are paying for our own wedding and touch wood we have had no massive budget constraints yet.
I have been following your posts avidly - your wedding will be wonderful 
Planning wise - yes! Living just 2 hours from where we’re getting married, I’d normally think nothing of a weekend trip to meet with vendors. Now, a weekend trip costs about $75 in gas, so I’ve been doing most planning long-distance. Hiring vendors without ever meeting them feels risky, but I’ve been doing it. We chose my original hometown because most of my extended family is there, and I’m so glad that we went that way.
While a portion of our guests are coming from the UK, the pound is about twice the dollar, and although the prices aren’t great, they’re easier to handle for our foreign guests.
Definately. We had about a 40% decline rate for our destination wedding that’s in a few weeks. I was surprised, and slightly bummed. Though it is a “destination” wedding, we took great care in choosing a location that’s within driving distance for the majority and have a hotel block with a rate of $100 per night. Still, quite a few people (esp. on FI’s side) declined for $$ reasons.
i think we will…especially regarding the travel. the majority of our guests list are out of towners.
on the upside? i am seriously considering NOT cutting our overgrown guest list bc i think we will have a LOT of people not be able to make it…..
its also affecting my pockets. i’m able to save less money bc of the cost of gas. i commute. had i known that gas prices were going to soar, i could have continued to pay rent in the city where i work and at least i could cut out the 2.5 hours i spend driving each day.
@Miss Pineapple: eeeeeeeeeeeeeee is right! i am trying to take lots of deep cleansing breaths and focus on the reunion aspect to help me stay calm
@Eims: Oh, thank you for reading along My mom got married in Sweden and then my parents came to the States for their honeymoon and my grandparents threw them a reception party at their house. Will you and your soon-to-be husband be able to make it to Ireland anytime soon after the wedding?
The cost of fuel has defiantly took a good chunk out of our guest list. If you can believe - 50% are not coming. (all would have to fly across country or drive more than 7 hours) First I stressed that there were too many on the guest list, then I was sad about the declines and then, finally I was happy about our intimate group (oh yeah, and being under budget). I feel my emotions are just like the economy…
My family has felt the hit really HARD. You see, my family is made up of 5 children (four of which are only one year apart each)… and myself and my sister are heading up the pack. My parents have been aware of the fact that both of us are in relationships that are serious and are moving towards marriage. They both had rather respectable jobs, a gorgeous home, and were living high on the hog so no worries- right?
Well within the last year and a half… both of their companies downsized and let them go (my step-father was in his position for over 15 years… and mother for over 10). Though their severence packages eased the stress for a few months- they found that 100K+ positions are rather sparce in these times and have both had to take positions that barely pay their bills. Then their mortgage (which was done on an ARM) has DOUBLED and continues to rise. Refinancing is taking a very long time and thus their monthly mortgage is now nearing $3500.
What this means is that my sister and I are having to go it solo in terms of funding the wedding. It seems so very aweful that a hard-working family can take such an unfortunate turn in such a brief period of time. A couple years back, we had all attended a wedding and my mother and I were discussing the possibility of my engagement. She was so very excited and wanted to give so much… and now here we are in a very different position.
I am sure that my fiance’s family (who lives abroad) will also think twice before purchasing a plane ticket.
Definitely! We sent out a total of 224 invitations, and only about 140 can attend. This is an out of town wedding for about 80% of our guest list, so we are very happy that even that number can attend!
we had a similar situation: About 60 of our 180 invitees hadn’t responded by the deadline, and except for a couple of forgetful stragglers, they were ALL waiting to see if airfare would go down. Of course, it only went up, and almost none of them ended up coming. I’m especially sad that some of my friends couldn’t make the trip, but we’re all in our 20s and 30s and aren’t raking in buckets of money, so I understood.
Absolutely. I’ve heard from at least 20-30 couples already that they can’t come because of travel costs. And one entire family was going to come but now just the father is coming because they can’t afford to bring everyone. And I was trying to convince my family NOT to throw me a bridal shower because I’m 12 hours from home, but they insisted they’d help pay for gas, so I’m driving home to the midwest this weekend for it. My mom said “I don’t want you to miss out on wedding things because of the cost.” Fortunately they’re in the position to help me out.
I’m expecting the same–our invitations will go out in about a month (!!). About 85% of our guests will be from out of town, and we’re expecting fewer to come than we originally thought, because of the rising cost of flights. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that most can still make it, but at the same time I totally understand if some can’t. And like someone else mentioned, the small upside is that we’re not stressed out about our guest list…we really didn’t have to cut anyone, or have a “B list.”
agreed…we are still missing 100 of our 284 invites and right now we have a huge decline rate due to travel…it looks like we will be around 130-150 and we were budgeting for 220. its good on that end (but now we have to worry about making the minimum at our reception) but its awful to know so many people can’t come due to flight cost. (however, i understand im in 3 weddings this year and the cost is astronomical)
We are having a destination wedding on cruise. My FI’s from New Zealand so we knew his family would be traveling anyway.
Most of our friends who were going to budget to go on the cruise won’t be able to because of the economy. It is going to be immediate family, my best friend, and some of my parents friends.
I understand though. We didn’t mean to plan to get married at such a crappy time but it’s too late. We will be happy as long as we are together.
You are an understanding bride. Knowing the way the economy is going right now, I wouldn’t want to be selfish and angry that friends and relatives couldn’t make it, but I have to say that I would be disappointed. We got married in March, shortly before the economy started taking a drastic dip (I don’t even remember how much gas was 3 months ago), so our planning wasn’t that bad, but it definately played a part in our decision to take a mini-moon instead of a full-fledged honeymoon. But I do sympathize with your guests from California….it is getting a bit ridiculous out here!
Gotta love CA!
We wanted a DW, but with my mom being ill, we kept it closer to home. I am glad we did! We booked all of our major vendors early too (Feb) b/c we are the super organized ones, but since we are in a contract, the vendor must give us the price that says in the contract. I am sure if we booked later, we would be paying more.
The week long HM is off and we are going for a mini-moon somewhere close. I think most of our OOT guests will come as they are travelling within the state AND we gave them a STD card back in January so they could’ve booked their flight(s) out then.
It is FI’s aunts and uncles who live OOC that worries me. While we want them to attend, I am afraid they won’t or will wait until a week before to decide to come!
yes, I am not attending a few friends’ weddings due to the RIDICULOUS airfare costs right now.
I *just* sent out an email to my family list-serv about plane tickets and rising costs! Hopefully they will book early before the tickets go up any higher…. I mean, if they are just waiting for the formality of an invitation (they already have our save the date) then they might be too late! As it is, we’ve tried to do a lot to cut costs for our guests- finding them hotels under $100/night, arranging all transportation to/from ceremony and reception, etc. But hopefully it’s enough! You’ve seen our website and info- think there is anything else we can do?
Our wedding is in Ghana. Cost of a plane ticket = >$2000. I even had to rearrange my bridal party because my MOH can’t afford to come - and she is from Ghana too!
Well, you could always tell them that they could bring a bucket full of dollars and trade them in for Loonies while they were there… Sure it would be at a loss at first, but the way the US dollar is sinking against the Canadian, after a few months they will have doubled their investment! (jk) 
But seriously, I really recommend anyone traveling this summer set up fare watches on Kayak.com and/or try a “name your own price” on Priceline.com. Sometimes the air+hotel comes out cheaper, if you don’t mind staying at a diff hotel than wedding-blocked one.
I’ve found some great deals for our summer wedding travels… and the money saved should JUST about cover my treatment for the web-surfing-induced carpal tunnel syndrome…LOL.
We are feeling/seeing the same thing. We started with a guest list of about 165, about 30 over what our venue could hold. As the economy grew worse, those who had said yes before started changing their minds and declining. We are now down to 87, possibly 86 tonight. That’s a decline rate of over 52%! I understand because it is so hard for everyone right now. Not only that, but one of our best men can’t afford the flight from Florida to Seattle, and only FH’s immediate family can afford to come (no aunts, uncles, etc). We might have to make a trip to Florida after the honeymoon to see everyone.
i feel awful - my parents agreed to pay for the wedding about ten months ago and now, with a year to go, we’re watching the value of the dollar just sink and sink. i’m doing my best to book everything early to get the 2008 rates as well as to keep them updated on as many cost-related details as possible so that we can keep everything under control. still…i just feel guilty. i hadn’t even thought about people not being able to attend, but i’m sure that will happen, too. sadly, at this point, i’m just thinking, “well, at least we won’t have to spend $XX more.”
We were supposed to get married last year, but had to cancel the week before due to a family emergency. Back then, a little over 100 people were coming to our destination (but in the continental US) wedding.
Are rescheduled wedding is in two weeks, and I still haven’t heard back from quite a few people, but based on what I have so far, I am thinking it is going to be about 65 people. Out of 200 invited. And I know from several who aren’t attending that it is due to high costs. I am looking forward to a small wedding, but there are some people I will really miss. Not to mention, I wouldn’t have planned the reception at a place with such a high minimum if I knew so many people would not come.
most of our guests can come because they planned their trips before gas and air travel prices shot up, but it’s definitely affecting our honeymoon plans. We were originally thinking of honeymooning in London or Paris, but just can’t freaking afford it now, so we’re sticking to a cheaper California coast roadtrip. I’m still excited, and hope to go to Europe with the boy in a couple of years maybe!
[...] Mrs. Gingerbread on Weddingbee expresses her frustration with the effect of the economy on the number of attendees. [...]
Mrs. Gingerbread, Vancouver
Age and Occupation: 32, Psychologist
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Software Engineer
Engagement Date: Sometime in the fall of 2004
Wedding Date: July, 2008
Blogging Since: March 24, 2008
Venue: Rainforest wedding, beachfront restaurant reception
About Me: I recently moved to Canada from Southern California. Trying to plan a wedding in a new city, not to mention a new country, is tough, but the fact that we can get legally married here more than makes up for it! The wedding will be an opportunity for most of our family and friends to see our new city for the first time so it will be both a wedding and a reunion. Besides my future wife, I am also madly in love with a good bargain, Swedish pastries, Tivo, and my two dogs and calico cat (in no particular order).
Our wedding isn’t for another 10 months or so, but it’s a destination wedding and I imagine we will have a lot of declines for that very reason. My FI’s parents are planning to book some extra hotel rooms for friends that otherwise wouldn’t be able to make the trip, but I have to wonder if some of them will be able to make the flight! We’ll see, I guess. Since our guests are all over the country, most will have to fly.