The Yays and the Nays: Who's in
Total # of guests - 101
Yes responses - 85 (not including us)
No responses - 14
With such a trim guest list, we were surprised (but understood why) a large group of people couldn't make it. Part of my extended family would have driven between 15-18 hours to make it to our shindig. Quite a haul! Others wanted to join us and were bummed to decline because of health or work reasons.
Our first draft of the guest list was close to 120, which did not include kids. Which leads me to the first statistical topic!
Sticky fingers: Kids
Early in our planning, we made the hard decision to not invite children... mostly because so many family members/friends with kids brought it up first (and encouraged) the decision. Had we not received that type of response, we would have wrestled with it much more. By not inviting children, it cut our potential guest list by 29! (Holy crap, you people have been busy!)
The ties that bind (pinch, or otherwise irritate): Family*
Family comprises the bulk of our guest list. While we have a good number of friends (24) attending, Mr. PaC has a large extended family that boosts this group to 42 guests. *This header is in jest! We love our families.
Going the distance: Out-of-towners
- 50 OOT guests, as classified by more than 2 hours of travel time (that's well over half of the guest list)
- 2 international guests flying across the pond
- 34 OOT guests are family
- 100% of our Nay RSVPs came from OOT guests
- 20% of the states are represented in our delegates, I mean guests.
Feed me: Entree selections
- No "Where's the beef?" here! Over 70% of our guests want filet.
- 25% of our brave guests are trying the "hot pocket of salmon". It's sooooooooo tasty; people branching out beyond traditional beef have me doing the happy-clap.
- We have a small group of vegetarians so there will be a few green washi tape escort cards among the sea of blues and pinks.
- 4 vendor meals
RSVP rate of return
Yes, I am a dork and catalogued how many RSVPs were returned each week. When Mr. PaC questioned my need to do this, I simply answered, "It's for the hive." He countered with, "You would have done it anyway." Ah, love.
Week 1: 12
Week 2: 15
Week 3: 11 (2 nays)
Week 4: 6 (2 nays)
Week 5: 5
Week 6: 6 (2 nays)
All RSVPs were postmarked by the requested response date. No stragglers to track down! Our guests were prompt and considerate... or they just didn't want me harassing them.
Random facts
- The youngest person at the wedding will be 21. And the reception is open bar.
- Even though we have 50 out of town guests, less than 20 rooms have been booked at the hotel. (Procrastinators?)
- The honor of longest distance traveled (1,900 miles) goes to my dad's brother and family flying in from the Land of Enchantment.
- Two invitations didn't make it to their destination. One was our sole international address, which we verified multiple times. We have no idea where it went. The other... an incorrect street number (supplied by guests's sister) less than a block away. Post office was presumably held by the invitation since the guest later mailed back the RSVP.
While 85 guests is less than we expected, we are secretly excited because it means we get to spend more time with each guest, save a little money on per person costs, then turn around and spend slightly less than that (on bar add-ons) to meet our catering minimum.
(As I'm writing this out, it's dawning on me that we are getting married in 14 days. Two weeks from tonight is the rehearsal dinner. The realness is creeping in and the surreal fog over The Wedding is lifting. And it's a little weird. But good!)
What were your RSVP expectations? Any hive members with creative ways to chase after tardy RSVPs or prevent them from happening?
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