More wedding guests say they would decline over cost. What couples can do

More guests are ready to say no to a wedding they cannot afford. In a Bank of America survey this spring, 57% of Americans said they would decline a wedding invitation from a close friend or family member if the costs ran past their budget, up from 54% a year earlier. If you are putting your guest list together now, it helps to know why some replies come back as no. Wedding guests declining because of cost mostly do it quietly, and a few details on your invitation can make it easier for them to say yes, or to tell you no without an awkward phone call.

More guests say they would decline over cost

The figure comes from the Bank of America 2026 Summer Travel and Entertainment Outlook, an online survey of 2,004 US adults taken between March 26 and April 3, 2026. Fifty-seven percent said they would turn down a wedding invitation from a close friend or family member if the costs exceeded their budget. In 2025 it was 54%.

That is a question about what people would do, not a count of who actually said no. Still, the number went up in one year, and more people now say they would turn down even someone close.

Most people who skip an event over money never say so

In January 2026 the CFP Board, the organization behind the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER certification, surveyed 1,138 Americans aged 25 to 64. Sixty-seven percent had declined social events in the past two years mainly because of cost. Of everyone surveyed, 30% had skipped a group trip or vacation, 23% a family holiday gathering and 13% a wedding. And 56% of those who skipped something never told their friends or family that cost was the main reason.

So a regretful reply often arrives with a polite explanation, or none at all, and the real reason stays private. That is worth knowing before you read too much into a no from someone you expected to see.

Where the pressure on guests comes from

The same Bank of America survey asked about the pieces that add up for a guest: the trip, the parties before the wedding, the gift and the outfit. Nearly half, 49%, feel the money expected for bachelor and bachelorette parties has gone too far.

Couples are paying more too

Couples feel it too. A Bank of America Institute report published June 30, 2026 found that what its customers spent on weddings in the first five months of 2026 was up 8.5% on the same months of 2025, a faster rise than in either of the two years before. The report points in part to tariffs: tariff payments by small businesses that serve weddings, such as florists and caterers, rose faster than the small business average, and higher operating costs have led many small businesses to pass price increases on to customers.

The Knot's 2026 Real Weddings Study, based on 10,474 couples married in 2025, put the average at 117 guests and $292 per guest, up $8 per guest from 2024; we break that per guest figure down in wedding cost per guest.

Give guests the numbers early

A guest who knows in advance what the weekend involves can save for it, share a room, or decide early. A guest who finds out late has fewer choices. Most of what they need to know is plain information you already have: every event and its date, where to stay and how far it is, what to wear, and where the registry is.

• Put every event on the invitation, not only the ceremony, so guests can see how many nights they are really being asked for.
• Name two or three places to stay at different prices, with the distance to the venue.
• Write the dress code in words that a suit or dress they already own can meet.
• Offer a registry with gifts at several prices, and a cash fund for those who prefer it.
• If the wedding is a trip, send a save the date first. Our save the date wording guide has examples, and the destination wedding invitations guide covers travel details.

Make no an easy answer

Before the wedding, couples don't ask me about flowers. They ask me who's coming, who's eating what, and who sits where. The first of those questions is only answered when every guest has replied, and a no counts as an answer too.

Some people will decline, and that is fine. What helps is a reply that takes one moment and asks for no explanation. On our invitations a guest who cannot come picks Regretfully declines, adds their name and sends it; nobody has to write a reason. In the couple's dashboard that reply is counted under Guests can't make it, so the head count you give the caterer stays accurate as the answers come in.

A clear reply date helps both sides. If some answers are slow to arrive, how to get wedding RSVPs back on time walks through the reminders that work without pressure.

The details guests plan a trip around are the part of the invitation we spend the most time on. At The Digital Envelope our digital wedding invitations carry a Getting there & staying section with the places to stay and their distance, a dress code with suggested colors, and a Gifts section that can link your registry and a way to contribute directly, all behind one link. I don't like subscriptions, so you pay once, and it's yours.

How we put this together. On September 25, 2026 we read the Bank of America 2026 Summer Travel and Entertainment Outlook fact sheet with its methodology, the Bank of America Institute report of June 30, 2026, the CFP Board's March 17, 2026 release with its methodology, and The Knot Worldwide's release on its 2026 Real Weddings Study. Each figure is credited where it is used. The list of what couples control is our own reading of those figures.