Weddingbee Blog

With our (admittedly early) RSVP deadline already past us, it’s time to crunch some numbers.

Much like Miss Pug mentioned, when we were estimating how many people to invite to our wedding based on budget and room capacity, I had trouble figuring out what a good acceptance rate would be a reasonable estimate. Somewhere on the internets, I stumbled upon a predicted 75% yes rate and decided that sounded legitimate: I’d go with that. So we invited 214 people, hoped for 160 but planned for 180 just in case (which would have been an 85% yes response rate).

While we’re still missing about 5 RSVPs, I feel pretty confident predicting those responses, so here’s the breakdown:

Out of 214 people invited, we’ll have about 135 attending (plus or minus a couple in case I guess the remaining RSVPs wrong). That’s a ~63% acceptance rate.

Mr. Guinea Pig’s large extended family is almost all local, so many of them are able to attend - however since I moved every 3 years growing up, most of my friends and family are spread out and would have to travel quite a ways to get here. To break down that overall percentage even further, here are more numbers:

Local people (anyone in MD or N. VA) invited = 101
Out of town people invited = 113

For us, ~90% of local people said yes. But only 41% of the out-of-town folks said yes.

I was a little surprised, and disappointed, to come to this realization today when I finally tallied up the numbers. I’ll admit - when I was freaking out about the budget and sledgehammering it with our guest list, I was worried we’d have 180 people showing up and was praying for 160. Now that I realize it’ll only be 130 people, I’m sad (that’s always how things work, right?).

In addition there’s something I alluded to above, which is that most of those people who can’t come are my invitees - of those attending our wedding, 70% are Mr. Guinea Pig’s “side”. I’ll be honest - I cried when I realized that. I also (rather melodramatically) said to Mr. GP, “People don’t love me enough to come to our wedding!” It felt like a reflection of what people think of me.

Mr. Guinea Pig wisely reminded me that the cost and effort of getting to and staying on Kent Island can be prohibitively high for many people, and that their inability to come to the wedding in no way reflects what they think of me. Because well over the majority of my guest list is out-of-towners, of course more of them won’t be able to make it. A logical explanation, and I’m sure he’s right, but I still feel a little down about it.

Instead of dwelling on it though, I’m going to continue to try to make our wedding the most fun, happy, heartwarmingly awesome time for all the guests who can make it. Out-of-town bags, bathroom baskets, favors, and thank yous—here I come! Not to mention the fact that we’re very lucky almost all of both our extended families can make it, and I’m so grateful to be joining such a big, welcoming family!

How did your actual numbers compare to your expected percentage? Was anyone else disappointed to find so many ‘No’s?