Estimating number of guests

It is hard to estimate the number of guests arriving even with the practice of RSVP, wherein invited guests will contact a particular person to inform them whether he could attend or not. In addition, there are those guests that bring with them uninvited persons, thereby bringing up the number of guests.

Weddings, in particular, is a dilemma since the cost per head of a guest is by far bigger than that of a birthday party or a retirement party.

As I have observed, if you invited 100, take ten percent of that as the number who will attend. This is regardless whether they confirmed or not. As I said earlier, those who confirmed not to go may be replaced by those who brought uninvited ones with them. Ten percent of 100 is 90. From 90, take another ten percent who will decide on that particular day not to attend the celebration. So in the end, you have 81 as number of guests. But taking into account emergencies, you may add five or ten percent to 81 for contingency servings.