Weddings abroad number of guests who decline…

No idea about abroad but we invited 80 and have 67 attendees for a wedding in the UK (no local family)

Probably doesn't help that much!

Depends how far away you're getting married I'd say. We're getting married in Australia and invited around 145. At last count, we have 64 on the list, but I'm sure a few of them will drop out before the time comes.

You'd have more people coming if you were getting married in Italy as opposed to the Caribbean for example.

I don't know if this is any help at all but our wedding means most people are travelling 100 or so miles each way to our big day - with some travelling a lot further - and around 1/3 of our initial guest list have declined, although I don't know whether it's the distance, the date or the fact we aren't that important to them that resulted in their decline.

Hmm thanks for your responses.... ?

Spain is not that far away so I assuming most will come -though not sure...argh! I dont want to invite too few and then have spaces open that others could have used but also cant end up with too many as we just dont have the space.

The reason I'm trying to figure this out now is as I said I want to send save the dates ASAP as our date is on Bank Holiday and a weekend before half term so if our guests arent quick and organised it will cost them more.

I have only ever said no to one wedding and that was only because twe were invited as a second thought while at the pub one night, one week before the wedding ?

We've 17 guests... so far..... ? xx

Lake Garda how many did you invite and did you have inital idea of how many you thought might come - is that number the same? x

We are getting married in Mexico.... 7 of us going, Invited about 20 to come.... dropped quickly when it came to booking, anyway we are having a reception at home the week after we get back, room capacity is 160 i invited 167 knowing some would drop out we are now at a healthy 127 :-) I live far away from all my family so i new really who would and wouldnt come... there have been a few suprises along the way, some booking accommodation nr by who i thought wouldnt come and some who i was sure was 100% definate are not coming, this is very hard to judge in my opinion.... Some people i didnt invite who i NEVER see and havent seen since i was like 10, other members of fam were shocked that i wouldnt invite these people but why should I id rather save the numbers for thoses i REALLY want at the wedding :-)

Sorry this prob dosent make sense or help and good luck xx

I agree 100% :-)

Ooooo, Bates2be.... The name i will be loosing is the name you will be taking by the sounds of it :-)

I will be going from Bates to Creely!!

xx

We have 3 definite attendees and one maybe/maybe not.

We didn't really issue invitations as such as we're well aware it's a massively expensive holiday for people. We did it word of mouth to the people who were most important to us......so my Brother, SIL and Nephew, my Sister & BIL2b, my Dad & S Mum, my Mum, OH's parents, OH's best mate & wife, my best mate & H and 4 other coupley friends.

Of that lot, the only family who'll be coming are my Dad and (possibly) my S mum (my S sister's baby is due 3 days before the wedding). My siblings can't afford due to kids (sis is now pg), as is the same with my best mate and one of the couples. One of the other couples get married themselves in 4 months and one is having to pay her mothers mortgage as well as her own so can't afford either. The final couple aren't coming as the guy has "vowed never to step foot on Bali ever again"!!! He p'd me off a bit with that, TBH - they only live in WA and were both well up for it when we were discussing it with them before booking last year. Never mind, it's his loss!

Just be prepared to have to do it with just you and OH if it comes to the crunch - as our friends proved, many people are happy to agree to anything when it's in the abstract, but once they start having to part with hard earned cash, it becomes another story.

Also be prepared for people to drop out at the very last minute as they would over here. My S mum was fine until both my S sisters fell pregnant about 3 months after we booked. Now, 9months on we're, literally, waiting to see if the second baby arrives on time (the first arrived today, a week late!). OH and I won't know wether she's coming or not until we discover who we're meeting from the airport in Bali, 4 days before the wedding - very annoying and has led to us paying out for stuff that may not be needed (boat transfers, meals, drinks, gifts etc not to mention hotel and flights). We don't belive she'll come, either way, but I guess we'll just have to wait and see!?

When my brother got married in Hungary (where SIL is from), they invited some friends, all my aunties/uncles and all my cousins. We had 8 people travel from England, including Mum, my OH and me

I seriously doubt that even 120 people will come if you invite 142 for a destination wedding, even one as close as Ibiza.

Could you maybe put the feelers out... if you know that some people will definitely decline, you'll probably feel better about overinviting.

Ibizalovin - we originally invited 35. We only invited immediate family and life long/closest friends. We knew we'd get a few no's due to different situations. but to us, it's not about the big numbers etc. We were quite selfish n jus picked where we wanted to get married and any family/friends that could join us was an added bonus! We're not havin a party when we get back as we want to spend our money on our wedding and not have the expense of a 'party'. HTH! xx good luck!

I'd over invite - we got married abroad, but only invited our parents (there were 5 of us!) - we chose to do it this way as we were having a party when we came back too.

Our reception when we came back was about 150 miles away from where we live (was in our hometown) and we had a lot of declines too......

We're getting married in Turkey (we chose it as its not too far and guests can find cheap accommodation) gave everyone at least 18 months notice and so far have 10 adults and 7 children coming! My FIL had booked but now they don't think they can make it, even after spending hours trying to find cheap accommodation. Bit gutted as we'd have chosen Mexico....

I think at the end of the day no matter how much notice you give people or how cheap the country is, if people can't be bothered to make the effort or put a little bit of cash aside then I wouldn't worry about them. Just as long as you have your mum and best friend there (oh and the groom!) it doesn't matter xx

When my daughter got married, we sent out invites as early as we thought was sensible enough which was invites sent out in October for a March wedding the following year. We asked for RSVPs by 31st December. We knew a lot of people wouldn't be able to come because it was a Friday wedding and wouldn't be able to get time off work or didn't want to take annual leave for it which is fair comment. They originally had a guest list of 200 which was rapidly whittled down because the venue only held 100 seated and 150 for the evening using the bar as an overflow room. 130 invites went out for the day and 20 for the evening. As people dropped out because it was too far to travel or couldn't get time off etc, we sent out invites in their place until eventually everyone who they wanted to invite was invited. Out of the original total, they had 100 seated for the day and 120 to the evening so all worked out fine. Theirs wasn't abroad but you could work on the same principle.

They did contemplate marrying abroad but it would have meant that only parents and maybe a couple of best friends would have been able to come. We particularly didn't want an abroad wedding because Grandma's wouldn't have been able to travel and both my daughter and her husband are the only child/grandchild so it was a big thing for the Grandma's and I personally don't think it's fair to expect people to give up their annual leave to come to a wedding or to expect people to part with that sort of money to be a guest. Times are hard and a lot of people struggle to afford a hoiiday for themselves so I don't think it's a case of can't be bothered to put in the effort or to put the cash to one side. It's more a case of if the money is available they would probably rather spend it having a holiday themselves - I know I would! I know to the Bride and Groom, their wedding is the most important thing in the world to them but to guests, especially guests who aren't immediate family, it's a very expensive event!

I'm getting married in the UK and nearly all guests come from Germany. We have invited around 90 and we're expecting that only 70-80 are coming. I went through the list and counted the ones who usually don't go on holiday abroad, had a baby recently, have told me they "might not make it" and the like.

We were going to get married in Spain but then realised the costs were similar to a UK wedding.. We only had 1 couple say they couldn't make it..

Have you looked at the legal side of getting married in Spain? It isn't simple!!!?

I have no idea how to qoute but MrsC and it can be done, legally that is, but is far from simple. My H2B is catholic so we can have a service with permission of the Spanish Bishop... muchos paperwork but will be worth it ?

We have found it slightly cheaper not much. Its more about the sun, sea and fun, we always wanted to be near the beach and a wedding in say Cornwall or in Spain is about the same expense,time etc for our guests. Choice made

And a good choice! ? W did have fun looking at venues there my Dad lives out in Spain and my OH proposed there which is why it was our first choice! Sadly it was just too complicated for us as neither of us wanted a church do!

I have a friend who got married out there 2 years ago it really was an amazing wedding.. She had 150 guests.. Some friends who lived out there already so maybe 70% from the UK!

?