The average American will get invited to several weddings every year—but most will only choose to attend two. And if you’ve ever wondered how your guests have decided which to actually attend, you wouldn’t be alone—which is why we asked them ourselves for The Knot 2018 Wedding Guest Study, for which we surveyed over 1,300 people who’ve been a wedding guest or attendant in recent years.
According to the study, the most important factor for guests deciding to accept a wedding invitation or not is their relationship to the couple (71 percent of respondents reported taking that into account). Other considerations include the date of the wedding (50 percent), whether or not their children were also invited (42 percent), wedding location (41 percent), cost of accommodations (36 percent) and whether or not they were given a plus-one (34 percent).
These findings are fairly unsurprising. Obviously, the invitees that are close friends or family members wouldn’t miss your nuptials for the world. We’ve also previously reported on the main reasons why guests RSVP “no”—and they include those listed above.
Other than nurturing your relationships, there’s not much you can do to guarantee more “yes” RSVPs, unless you want to give everyone a plus-one and stray away from an adults-only wedding. (But as far as we’re concerned, your wedding should be your personal vision, and you’ll probably end up making a B-list for a reason.) And considering the average cost of attending a wedding as a guest is up to $289 in 2018, it’s understandable that some will have to sit out a ceremony or three for the sake of saving cash. Don’t take it personally.
