How to figure guest count? Please help!

Thanks, Rachel!

I wish I could do that Edwina. There is some family that I don't think will come either due to distance or just because they don't want to. It's fine with me if they don't. I just don't want to hear later that they weren't invited.

Katterina- I think I am finally figuring out what to do thanks to you ladies! Everything else has been a breeze until this.

125 and 250 is a HUGE difference. If you know you are budgeting for 125, why would you send out 250 invitations. I can see maybe 175 or 200 over but 250 is alot. You are setting yourself up for a bad experience. Our reception is limited to 150 yet the chapel holds 300 people. Of course I'd love to fill all 300 seats but I am not paying for 300 plates. One idea is you can do "Ceremony Only" invitations if you are trying to fill your ceremony. It can be tricky because you have to really keep up with the RSVPs that come in. Have the reception cards be a different color than the ceremony only cards. Then have a good host/coordinator to handle seating people. The reality is expect about 75% to attend. REally pay attention to who you are inviting. Don't invite everyone you know. Invite those you really think will come.

When we booked our venue, we quoted them 120 guests. We can only drop that amount by 20% (24 people), meaning we are going to pay for at least 96 people anyway. When we first started our list it was originally 100, then quickly shot up to 150, but for as much as we are paying per plate, we have cut it down to 110. Only invite people that you talk to on a consistent basis. When we looked over our list again, it was easy to cut those 40 people because we realized those were people that we had talked to/seen/or heard from in a long time. But be careful, wedding news does spread fast so when someone who you are not inviting asks about the wedding, just say you are having a private ceremony.

That's why I was asking, Maria. I didn't know how exactly to go about figuring it all up. I have heard so many different things from people so I decided to ask you ladies that would obviously know a little better than them. LOL

We have looked over and over and over our list. Over half of it is family. My dad has 7 siblings and my mom has 4. My FFIL has 4 siblings and my FMIL has 5 siblings. They all have kids and most of them have kids even. Then there are their spouses as well. Our friends are all friends that we do talk to on a regular basis. We managed to cut out a few people and I am hoping to narrow it down a bit more before we are ready to send out invites.