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Alternate Title: There are a Boatload of People Coming to Our Wedding.
Alternate Title #2: The One Thing I Would Change About This Wedding Process.
We invited approximately 177 people to our wedding. I say approximately because there were a couple of last minute add ons coughbytheMisterandhisfamilynotmecough that I don’t think ever officially got on the list-list. They got an invite, but maybe weren’t actually added to the Google doc that holds all the relevant guest info. Whatevs. Not my problem.
Anyway, I was a little nervous. I was initially hoping for 100 people, and then I decided that was unrealistic and bumped that number up to 120, maybe 130. I may have been that bride that opens up the RSVPs and wishes “Please, be a no!” But it turns out, people like us a freaking lot.
Sally Field’s “You Really Like Me” Speech / Image via Nina Spencer
There are ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY SOME PEOPLE coming to our wedding. Also known as a boatload.
Kinda Like This, ’Cept with People / Image via Just My Truth
Want a breakdown? Here it is!
Total Number of Peoples: 144. 177 invited, 144 coming, 81% yays!
Yay Freaking Indeed. OK, don’t get me wrong. We chose to invite most of these people. We’re not idiots. It’s just a lot of people. And people as wedding guests are expensive. It will all be fine in the friendly end. It’s just…a lot.
Other FUN Wedding RSVP Statistics. And I use the word “fun” completely ironically!!!
Didn’t Respond by the Deadline: Approximately 30 people total. Despite Facebook and Gchat prompts, emails, calls, reminders, we have still not heard back from 4 people. Lame.
Responded But Didn’t Put Their Name on the Invitation: ZERO. Forget the invisible ink, it was a waste of time.
Responded, Included Their Name, But Forgot to Check Yay or Nay: Two. Really?
People Coming Who Neither Me Nor the Mister Know: Too many, in my humble opinion. I’m not sure why I let those people get on the guest list in the first place. Actually, I do know. It was in the beginning stages of wedding planning when everything was hunky dory and I wasn’t thinking about numbers or money and when people said “Oh, they won’t come” I believed them.
If I could get with Cher and turn back time, this is the number one thing I would change about this entire wedding process. Not inviting people I don’t know.
Is there anything you would change about the guest list, or anything else?
Oh boy. I tried to cut our list off at 135, thinking we would have around 120….Flash forward to us inviting 145 and guess how many are coming. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY.
I thought I was throwing them off with a Sunday evening wedding, maybe 40% live out of town, but nope they. are. all. coming. Which is great but I had to call and add more flowers, more tablecloths, etc etc etc.
I definitely feel like I was pressured into inviting certain people with the “oh, they wont come” line. I also keep being reassured that a few people still wont come even though they said they would, which is even more irritating if you ask me!
I guess we’re both just, like, super popular, right Magic? 
I love your posts. Thanks for making me chuckle after a long day. I got really excited when our guest list was coming along EXACTLY as I had hoped, then the stragglers came along. Those that didn’t RSVP and didn’t respond for a while even after I tried to track them down. They are responding now… and they are all saying yes. Btw the people you don’t know part SUCKS and I’m sorry. I limited my parents to 3 friends each, otherwise our guest list would have doubled in a hurry.
OMG I could have written this!! My feelings exactly. Including people who invited themselves, we’ve had more RSVP yes’s than were even invited in the first place. I have a lot of regrets and it’s hard not feeling resentful actually. Our venue is going to be PACKED. : (
I think I might comment this on every post you write, but you just make me LAUGH.
I feel for you on the guests you don’t know issue - we lucked out there, as I’m the baby in my family (my parents got this out of their systems with my brothers’ weddings) and FI’s parents were super reasonable and just requested a few of their closest friends/neighbors (who FI has actually known for a long time).
I’m still in the happy glow of RSVPs just starting to come back - we’ve gotten 5 yeses and 1 no, and I’ve called FI and been like “Hey, we officially have at least 5 people coming to our wedding!!” 
Your posts always make me laugh, Magic. I know that is of no help to you though. At least this means more presents? And, more people to party with. This is my worst fear though as of late. Everyone is telling me that at least 50 of our 190 won’t come. We shall see or it’s gonna be quite snug…
Haha I get you about the “too many people I don’t know” thing. With the numbers of people that the Misters TWO sets of married parents kept adding on, we kept having to cut people we’d have liked to have had at our wedding. That meant that people we liked and with whom we wanted to celebrate were getting booted so we could include MIL’s long-lost coworker or Step-MIL’s architect. GARRRR! I tried to be okay with it but in the end I was just bitter, and ignored these “i-don’t-know-you” guests.
My FMIL decided to invite 20 extra people because “they probs won’t come.” Newsflash, we still have to pay for the STDs, invites, and postage. Oy.
Oh, I feel your pain! And haha, I love the posts where you make up alternate titles. They make me laugh.
Uh oh! I hope not that many people like us!!
There are definitely a good number of people on the guest list that I wouldn’t really want to invite, but my mom insists on it. She said she’ll help pay, but our venue holds 200 max, uncomfortably and we’re at 237. I’d like to cut more…think I should try to?
I keep getting the “they won’t come” bs too…it makes me want to scream, “But I can’t COUNT on them not coming!” As evidenced by Miss Magic!
I’m jealous that your guests were competent enough to include their names on your response cards. And that you only had 2 people no mark whether we were coming. Apparently our guests needed some rsvp lessons cause they failed miserably on ours.
I hear you! I barely was able to cut my list to 144 (we were hoping for 125). All the RSVPs are back except for 5 and we have a whopping 135 attending! eek!
We are currently finalizing our guest list and this post was very helpful to see. I am going to try to be as strict as I can. It can be so hard!
I made my parents cut their friends list so that my husband and I could invite more of our friends (on our side of things my and my husband’s immediate family amounted to 120 people and our venue had a limit of 200 so that didn’t really leave us with much room to invite people, especially with plus ones…). But in the end many of our “friends” couldn’t be bothered with attending, or even responding, and yet many of my parents friends were still excited to be invited and came with only a week/two weeks notice (and their gifts were some of the best ones). I wish that I could have known we’d have so many “no’s” and I would have included more of my parent’s friends from the get-go, even though neither me nor my husband were particularly close to them.
Has anybody tried to do like an ‘A’ and a ‘B’ list? So that if you do get lots of no’s, you could end up inviting others that you’d like to include?
I’m glad to hear that you got so many people that are a definite YES! Our guest list had gotten out of control as well we were at 220 people and we had 165 people RSVP when we wanted it around 150. Some expected NO and some surprising but the day was wonderful just the same.
OK, that picture is hilarious!
There are so many “hindsight is 20/20″ moments during wedding planning. Luckily our venue had a hard limit on the number of people the room would hold so we kept a pretty tight rein on the guest list.
And yeah, I feel ya on the RSVPs. Who knew it could be so hard to throw a stamped and addressed card back in the mail with a yes or no?
Ah, the joy of being in our mid-thirties and paying for our own wedding. Neither of our parents have asked us to invite anyone, other than my mom, who asked for one.
I big puffy heart you. We capped our guest list at 80, no excuses, no convincing, 80 80 *80* because our venue only holds 80. We ended up inviting 75. It’s looking like around 60 will come. It may have pissed off our parents, but sorry.
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Mrs. Magic, Chapel Hill, NC Age and Occupation: 30, Licensed Clinical Social Worker Fiance's Age and Occupation: 30, Researcher Engagement Date: December 1, 2009 Wedding Date: October 2011 Venue: Barn at Valhalla About Me: I’m a tall drink of water (5’10”!) and a Southern bride with an enormous appetite for Mexican food, good deals, anything French, and all things wedding! By day I am lucky enough to work with individuals with autism and their families. By night, I’m even luckier to be able to spend time hanging out with awesome friends, crafting, shopping, thinking about exercising, and kicking it with Mr. Magic and our two cats. I tend to have sudden, intense cravings that will not be denied (seafood enchiladas! new jeans!) and I’m prone to being a disorganized mess of anxiety and stress. After waiting (and waiting!) to get engaged, I am finally planning the colorful, fun, fabulously awesome Fall wedding of our dreams. In an effort to share the fun and craziness that is wedding planning, I’m gonna blog about it for y’all---the good, the bad, and the pretty!
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