How Many Wedding Invitations Do You Really Need
“How many of our invited wedding guests will accept and show up on the big day?” This is a hard question to figure out. And it takes some art to know as well, so we are giving you the most needed guidelines to plan your wedding attendance and send the right number of wedding invitations.
LOCAL VS FAR AWAY GUESTS
The first step is to start gathering name invitees and separate your list between locals and far away. This will come in handy when estimating how many people will accept your wedding invitation.
If you want to send your invitations 6 to 8 weeks in advance, most of your wedding guests are likely to come.
For local guests, the rule here is to estimate that 85% of your wedding guests will attend. And for faraway guests, attendance depends slightly on their wealth and how many of them are family. If they are mostly family, about 85% of them can come, if not, your acceptance rate is closer to 40%.
For most couples, a safe estimate of the acceptance rate for out-of-town guests is around 55%. Consider any special reasons why someone would or would not attend your wedding when parsing through your list.
ABSOLUTE MAXIMUMS
For absolute maximums, you want to consider the overall count of attendance. A ceremony that seats more than 50 people should be a bit more conventional than the numbers above so that you can serve everyone properly.
Once you’ve got your decline rates figured, add them all together, using the following formula:
(# of out of town guests * 65%) + (# of local guests * 90%) = total # estimated to attend
So if you have 150 people on your guest list, 50 of which are far away, and 100 are local, your equation will look like this: (50 * 65%) + (100 * 90%) = 122.5 ~123 people.
TWO LISTS
It is a smart idea to make an “A” list and a “B” list for your wedding invitations, with different levels of priority.
You can send your A-list invitations out around eight weeks in advance. As you start to receive acceptances and declines about attendance, you can start inviting some of the people on your “B” list.
Starting your wedding invitation list can be easy with the right mindset and smart segmentation like that.
CHECKLIST
So how many wedding invitations do you really need can be checked in the following suggestions:
1 invitation per household (Single roommates living together should get their own invitation)
2 – 3 for keepsakes (you would want to look back to this day!)
15 – 30 extra invitations (In case you expand your guest list)
20% extra envelopes (If you mess up the addressing)
That is all, if all this sounds much like a headache to you, then a wedding planner is exactly what you need to make things easier and more smooth. They will take care of all the invitation design, advise on the number of wedding invitations, and have you focus on the happiness of the occasion!
Share post with
YOU ALSO LIKE
