A wedding guest’s empty seat can still cost the couple a full meal: caterers can charge for the guaranteed guest count even when fewer people turn up. Daniel Post Senning of the Emily Post Institute says billing the absent guest is “a definite faux pas.”
The Knot puts average U.S. wedding catering at $80 per person, ranging from $62 in the Midwest to $123 in the Mid-Atlantic. Drinks add another $15 to $45 per person. Catering contracts can charge for the guaranteed count or actual attendance, whichever is higher.
In September 2015, Minnesota’s Jessica Baker received a $75.90 bill from relatives after childcare fell through and she and her husband missed their adults-only wedding. The charge included $60 for 2 herb-crusted walleye dinners, plus tax and service.
A note requested “reimbursement and explanation for no show.” Baker said she wouldn’t pay.
In August 2021, Chicago’s Douglas Simmons posted a $240 invoice for 2 guests who missed his wedding at the Royalton Negril in Jamaica. Of 109 people who’d confirmed, 8 didn’t attend. Simmons later said he never sent the invoice.
He questioned whether guests could fairly “give me your word, then no-show me, and I have to just eat the cost.”
Etiquette consultant Jo Hayes said in October 2026 that charging guests “suggests this is some sort of ‘business transaction’” and called it “poor form.” There’s disagreement: Hitched’s Zoe Burke called charging for last-minute cancellations “valid.”
Senning’s advice to the couple was that “your role as a host is to be understanding that mistakes will be made.”