How many guest should you plan for?

If you are recently engaged, Congrats! Planning a wedding can be so much fun yet at the same time, overwhelming. Here at Skagit Valley Wedding Rentals we strive to make the process as fun and enjoyable as possible. During our consultations, one of the first things we ask is what your anticipated guest count is. Often we hear that our couples are inviting 200 people but expect that not all will come. Then comes the struggle of how many to plan for. Today we are going to unpack how we determine what number to plan for and how we accommodate for changes.

Here’s the breakdown

In the last 8 years, our experience with over 500 events tells us that the we can expect between 65-80% of your invited guests to be available to attend your wedding. What this means is that if you have 200 friends and family invited to your event, we can expect somewhere between 130 -160 guests to attend.

The Range

The next question that we inevitable get is should I reserve rentals for 130? 160? Or somewhere in between? Our advice is to plan on the higher side. We recommend that our clients reserve upwards to the 80% of total guests invited.

Each rental company has a certain number of each item in house. True, many of our items can be ordered in to complete the requested rental amount. But some of our items are limited stock. For example, our matching cake and dinner plates, are limited to 220. Continuing with our example, if you were basing your reserved items for the 65% responded we would reserve 130 plates for you. Since we assist in multiple events a weekend, another couple has reserved and balance of 90 plates for their event. Now as your RSVP’s are coming in, you realize that you now have 150 people attending. Wonderful, until you go to reserve the additional plates and learn that they are not available.

Reserve more rather than less

How do you avoid this? Our recommendation is to reserve at the larger amount of 160 (or event total guests invited) to ensure that you will have a complete design and all items needed available to you. As you get closer to your event date, we do allow adjustments to your order up until the final 30 days. Yes, your initial quote may be higher than you had budgeted or planned for, but most likely will adjust down, not up. I don’t know about you, but I love to find out later that I am spending less than anticipated rather than more.

Contact Us!

We hope this information is helpful to you as your plan your upcoming event. If so please comment below and let us know. We love hearing from couples as they are planing their weddings!

As always, if you need any help with you rentals, head on over to the contact us page, and reach out to set up a complimentary design consultation with us. We would love to learn more about you and your upcoming wedding, and how best we can support you! Happy Wedding Planning!