I figured this would be helpful to all you readers out there sweating bullets about inviting more guests than your venue can hold or who are wondering who in the hell will show up, so here's my number-by-number breakdown:
Guests Invited: 235
"Yes" RSVPs: 175
"No" RSVPs: 35
Missing In Action RSVPs: More than 25 (Some of those guests have not sent in their response card but have let us know either by email or phone call that they are or are not attending.)\
I know this is a common complaint but seriously, people, how difficult is it to send the response card back?!?! The envelope is even addressed and stamped for you. ALL you have to do is write your name and check a box. Now, if any of you MIA responders are reading this (yes, I'm talking to YOU, bridesmaid JDubs), go find your response card and put it in the mail now. OK, end of rant.
Based on what I know of the people who have not RSVP'd, I'm guessing we'll come in right at about 185 guests, which is pretty much exactly what I figured. However, there were a few moments of panic during the first two weeks after we mailed out our invitations, when we had 119 "yes" and 5 "no's," making our acceptance rate a whopping 95%!
It does seem that the first wave of responses have been "yes"-heavy because luckily, we received many more "regrets" in the following two weeks. Phew! I was having visions of a 215-person wedding and my parents being forced to live in a van down by the river after funding this shindig.
We have also had several people RSVP for themselves and a guest, even though the invitation did not read "and guest." Annoying? Yes, decidedly so. But I'm too much of a softie and a weenie to do do anything about it. And truth be told, I do want everyone to be happy and comfortable at our wedding and if it means bringing a guest, so be it.
So there's our response statistics in black and white. If you run the numbers, we had a 78% response rate, which is juuuuuust under the accepted average of 80%. I'm happy with the results and luckily, there were almost no surprises, which I'm thankful about.
Are you worried about a higher or lower response rate than expected? What was/is your response rate?
My people are notorius for bringing their entire extended family to a wedding so on our RSVPs i'm pitting the number of seats that are reserved for them.
ReplyDelete235 invites!? holy cow!!!
ReplyDeleteYep this sounds just like our RSVP saga...the 61 MIA responses have just a couple more days to go!! I have a feeling I'll be making a LOT of phone calls.
ReplyDeleteI noticed we had almost all YES's in the first couple weeks too...i was sweating to say the least! Especially when they were from people we totally did not expect to make the trip! AND we've had the "+1" even though "and guest" was nowhere on the invite...frustrating but I, like you, figure what the heck...at least they will have fun then!
I was totally stressing about our guest list. We even had an A and B list where we added guests that we invited as we started to receive 'nos'. But like you, they were mostly yes'es in the beginning! At the very end, it worked out perfectly...we had only budgeted and accommodated (in our venue) for 202 guests. Our final numbers were 247 invited guests and about 195 accepted. I think on the actual day of, we probably had right around 190 guests there with us. Plan that someone will say they're coming and then either not show up at all or leave right after the ceremony). We had one couple not show up and two couples leave immediately after the ceremony. Just silly...not like we paid for your meals or anything! Frustrating.
ReplyDelete