The RSVP deadline for our wedding is this coming Monday, and I have only one thing to say about that: thank goodness. We sent out the invitations in mid-April and our friends and family have been, for the most part, really great about getting back to us (both with questions, which I'm thrilled to answer, and responses). Even so, it's been a bit frustrating to wait as the cards have trickled in. Don't get me wrong; I love the surprise of another envelope in the post! And some of the RSVPs have included the sweetest notes. But who can and can't come to our wedding is something I have very little control over, and you know how I hate that.
I've heard horror stories about guests who RSVPd no (or didn't respond at all) and showed up anyway or guests who said they were coming but then didn't show up at all, but I don't think that that will be a problem for us. First of all, we will get every single response. (That wasn't supposed to sound so menacing. Sorry.) And second, this is a destination wedding for everyone but six people who are invited, and those are all in Jon's immediate family. So it's not like someone could wake up on our wedding morning who wasn't going to come and think, "Hey, maybe I'll just swing by the venue in a bit!" The fact that it will take about 2.5 hours to get to Bruisyard Hall from London means that our guests have to plan ahead which, hopefully, means that we won't have too many surprises on the day.
When I first wrote about our guest list, we were inviting 138 guests. (It took me much longer than it should have to understand that this didn't mean we were sending out 138 invitations - poor Caroline!) In the end, because of some very significant others that we realized we needed to include plus some last-minute requests from our parents, we invited 152 people. I'm sure every wedding is different regardless of where and/or when it's held, but I would have loved to have an expert tell me the average percentage of invited guests who would RSVP no. Obviously that wasn't possible! But it would have been really helpful to hear more anecdotal evidence from couples in international relationships who threw a wedding on one of their two native countries. So, though I'm not an expert, here's our breakdown (including my best guess on the handful we haven't yet heard from):
152 invited
105 yes
47 no
This is more regrets than we expected and I wish that everyone (and then some!) could come, but it actually works out in the end; it turns out it would have been impossible to seat more than 119 in the layout we wanted even though our venue technically holds 140. If any brides-to-be are reading this, remember to ask about this when you visit your venues!
Next week - the seating plan. Jon and I will be working on this while I'm in London, so please give us any advice you may have! I hear they're notoriously stressful...
Next week - the seating plan. Jon and I will be working on this while I'm in London, so please give us any advice you may have! I hear they're notoriously stressful...
