How Many Guests Will Attend Your Wedding

Photo by Matt Andrews at Church of the Assumption, Nashville, TN. Flowers by Jim Knestrick.

Making a guest list and trying to figure out who’s actually going to attend to your wedding? Many of my clients hate the guessing game. It can be so disparaging and unpredictable! Not to worry. After years of planning events in Nashville, Tennessee as a hometown or a destination event, I have a little insight to share.

If you and your fiance were born and raised in the city where you plan to celebrate, you can expect about 85% of your guests to attend. So, for example, if you’re Inviting 200 to a hometown celebration, you can expect about 170. Inviting less? The percentage rings true, in my experience.

Let’s say you and your fiance met in college or at work and you’ve relocated to a new city. You love your new city and you want your friends and family to celebrate your nuptials in the place you now call home, it’s still a destination wedding for them. If this is a hometown wedding for you but a destination wedding for your invitees, you can expect about 70-75% of your guests to attend.

If the host of the event (generally, the bride) is having a hometown wedding but the groom’s invitees are from another state, you can expect 85% from her guest list and 75% from his, an average of 80%.

If this is a destination wedding, you can expect as little at 35% but that percentage increases if the guest count is small (less than 50) or if you plan to cover travel and lodging.

No matter the size or location, please, hire a professional planner. They’ll guide you through this effortlessly.