Our Wedding By the Numbers

I would consider my wedding to be a "hometown" wedding. We're getting married in the same town I grew up in, in the same Catholic church I went to for 18 years, and by the same priest who did my first communion, first confession, and confirmation. But, I keep wondering: could my wedding be considered a "destination wedding"?

Both of our families are big, big extended families, and on both sides, *everyone* is invited to a wedding. So we invited what seemed like everyone: 325 people with 140 invitations. But, the vast majority of our families are not in Texas: they're in Louisiana, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and England. Only a whopping 37 people invited actually live in the Houston area. So, we're expecting only around 120 people to attend. If only 11% of the people invited live in the area, does that make it a destination wedding?

Let's check out our acceptance rates. These are rough estimates because we haven't gotten all of our RSVPs back yet. I broke it out by how much our guests would have to spend to come to our wedding: whether they have to buy a plane ticket, and whether they have to get a hotel room.

Local guests (no flight, no hotel room):
29 out of 37: 78%

Guests within a four-hour drive (no flight, need hotel room). Because we're in Houston, this covers most of Texas and Louisiana!
57 out of 104: 55%

Guests in far-away states (need flight and hotel room)
36 out of 131: 27%

International guests (need expensive flight and hotel room)
0 out of 53: 0%

Overall:
38% acceptance

You can see that as the amount it costs to come to our wedding goes up, the acceptance rate goes down - which is to be expected. If you're planning your own wedding, I think your actual percentages might depend on how affluent your family is (or how many people have lost their jobs in this economy!). Our percentages also depended on who was in each "location group": close family, extended family we haven't seen in years, family friends, personal friends, and co-workers.

Most of the "average" acceptance rates online say 70 - 85% of your local guests will attend the wedding, and 40 - 60% of your out-of-town guests will attend. Our guests who don't need a plane ticket fall within those numbers. But, as soon as your guests need to get on a plane to come to our wedding, you might expect even less than that to attend.

(all images are destination save-the-dates from Martha Stewart Weddings)

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