Decline rate...

Those of you who have sent out your invites already.... what was your decline rate? I've heard 15%, 20%, 25%... what is realistic? I'm REALLY hoping for 25%!! Thanks for the info.

Decline rate...

With the deadline YESTERDAY and about 20 responses not yet received I already have somewhere between a 30-40% decline rate...we invited 164 and it looks like we will have about 104 - 110 max. I don't know if there is any good set answer - I think a lot depends on time of year, how many out-of-towners, etc. etc.

Decline rate...

I invited 275. I had 188. The decline rate depends on the time of year. My wedding was during Feb break, so I had many people who had already made vacation plans.

Decline rate...our experience (long)

Our deadline for responses was yesterday. We invited 240 guests and are still waiting to hear from about 30, although we expect for various reasons that at least half of those are definately No`s. We will have about 30% declining. :-( The real disappointment is that we moved to a larger room, and increased our minimum by doing that, after several people told us 'they wouldn`t miss it'. Now they are declining and we will probably be about 10 short of our minimum - (declines include one entire branch of Fi`s family - 12 people in Albany, and we`ve been to every sweet 16, birthday, funeral, graduation, etc. He`s really disappointed) The sort of things that tripped us up are: One death :-( (-2 - aunt & guest) One house closing - cousin out of state can`t make it (-2) Two first communions or confirmations (-4) One open heart surgery - not up to travel (-2) One other surgery - can`t travel (-2) One Annual K of C bowling tournament - can`t let the team down (-3) Two spouses have other obligations so only half the couple is coming (-2) That's 17 we were pretty confident of attending, that have had to decline. We also had 2 accept, then call back to say something has come up and they can't come afterall. So.... the moral of that story is that life gets in the way and while many people have good intentions and may want to be there, sometimes other things take priority when the actual date arrives. So realistic is hard to guage - I`ve generally heard 20% but know of one person that only had 5 people decline out of a large (200+) number. Some of the factors that tend to intercede are travel, busy job schedules, health, children and budgetary constraints. Thinking about your guests in this light may help you guesstimate who will really come, but be prepared for a few surprises. A couple of people we almost didn`t invite, until we heard through the grapevine that they were hoping to get invited, were the first to respond yes, and are traveling from other states, so that helps overcome the disappointments. Good luck!

Decline rate...Kristi..so did we

We got married the day before you

Decline rate...our experience (long)

We Invited 275 and had about 75 No's ....I am getting some change of minds with only 10 days to go. I found that people that you expected to say yes all had a commuion to go to...All that matters is that the people who you want there will be there

Decline rate...our experience

We Invited 275 and had about 75 No's ....I am getting some change of minds with only 10 days to go. I found that people that you expected to say yes all had a commuion to go to...All that matters is that the people who you want there will be there