How many guests stayed till the last hour of your evening reception?

[Ccsmith91]

I got married a few weeks ago and invited 100 people to my wedding and had a few no shows. I noticed people leaving from 9pm till 11pm. I think we must have had around 50 people at 11pm. Do you remember how many people you had around the last hour of your wedding? Is this a normal amount? I’ve not been to many weddings so unsure.

Completely normal - people leave for a variety of reasons, and no one will ever be as invested in your wedding as you and your immediate family. Have you never been to an event and even though you’re having a fantastic time you need to leave for childcare/pets/illness/tiredness/just because you’ve had enough of socialising?

Though in all honesty why are you concerned about how many were there at the end, surely the fact that most people came is the important bit?! I would say shows without any apologies/notice is just rude though.

@Ccsmith91 it depends on a lot of things like whether the guests have children, how much of a journey home they have, etc. It's not a requirement to stay until the end. Most people will stay for all of the main parts of the evening. It's a long number of hours to party and drink. I don't like leaving weddings early but I have done due to having a babysitter to get back to let head home. That was about 10.30pm. I always stay as long as I can.

A fair few but lots were staying in same hotel. There were about 20 of us who went in to an after party at a local indie night 😆

Everyone with children or a bit older etc or needing public transport etc left about 10:30 or earlier. But we also got married on Easter Friday so with a long weekend ahead I think lots were in a party mood.

my husband whole side stayed until the last moments, i had to beg him to leave. My side (not big drinkers) all left at about 1 to 2 hrs before the end

100 people invited, in the last hour from 11-midnight, I reckon we had around 15-20 people left.

Most others left around the 10-11pm mark. Which is what I'd expected.

What really surprised me was how many members of my husbands family left straight after the first dance at around 7.30-8pm. Including his mother and best man brother, who's childless.

I would say 50% or more is good. Mine was 250 people and maybe 100-150 stayed til the end (11pm). But my wedding was also a Sunday night in Central London so lots of people need to get home for work.

My friend had 400 at her wedding and maybe 20 at the end of the night which just felt sad

Thank you everyone! Yeah I think it was the number of people who left from 8pm-10pm. We must have had around 90 at 8pm then about 60 by 11pm. I just wasn’t expecting that . I do understand people would leave about half 10 onwards. For the last dance we probably had 15-20 people.

Yeah I think the last 15 mins we had about 10/15 people.

I'm a wedding planner and it tends to be about 15-20% of guests stay to the very end in my experience.

The last wedding I was at had about 20 people left by the end, but that was about 3 or 4 in the morning haha! (Irish wedding.)

Everyone stays at a Scottish wedding 😁 then we hit the bar until about 3am.

I think I had about 75 people and about 15 at the end. But the majority had children so I didn't expect them to stay till the end

Thank you. Do you think my numbers are average for the last hour? Just worried that load of people left. I had some friends leave about 9 including bridesmaids which made me sad.

75 people in the last hour? That’s so good!

Did you enjoy your wedding and are you now happily married? Because aside from that, the numbers don’t really matter. You don’t get scored on a league table against other brides!

To be honest, evening receptions are terribly tedious, so I wouldn't stay until the end either. And nobody wants to be the last in the room, because that looks a bit desperate.

It was so much better back in the day when the bride & groom changed into "going away outfits" and ACTUALLY LEFT at about 5pm - they could have an evening to themselves, and the guests could either go home or continue to celebrate in their own way.

Why on earth were you keeping count, rather than enjoying your evening?

Do you think my numbers are average for the last hour?

Who the flip cares? It was your night.

Depends on age and circumstances. We were
mid 20s when we married and very few friends had kids.

So we were all very much still in the drinking/partying stage without responsibilities.

I have no idea, DH and I ducked out early. 😂

Oh loads. We had around 350 or so (a bit more I think) at the evening do, a relatively young, fairly big partying crowd in a marquee on our farm and I think my MIL was still trying to chivvy the stragglers out at gone 3am 😂
to be honest tho, it so depends on the crowd, the venue, the general vibe. Don’t dwell on it too much, it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

wait… haven’t you already had a thread on this?!

That's why people often invite more people to just the evening do (workmates etc) to bring a bit of new oomph. Often older people/those with younger kids stick around til the first dance then go.

Don't take it personally

You’re not the poster whose bridesmaids were all up at 6.30am and, not unreasonably, wanted to go to bed before the end of the wedding, are you?

Half staying until the last hour seems good. For many it's been a long day, some won't be used to being out late, some won't like loud music, some will have babysitters to return for, possibly long drives. And remember if they are driving, people can seem really annoying if they've been drinking

I’m thinking yes and if so, get a grip OP!! You’re married, newlywed life is the best if you let it be!! Who gives a fuck who was there at kick out?

I think most folk stayed to the end, a 1am finish, and then we carried on the fun at the hotel bar. We are Scottish though. We went to an English wedding and were shocked when people left after the meal, by 9pm if was only the Scots and Irish guests left.