On average, 40% of classmates will attend the reunion and 50% of those will bring a guest. Therefore, if you had a class of 300 people your paid attendance will be 300 X .40 X 1.5 = 180 paying guests. Remember that this is just an average and that there are many things that can affect the turnout. The number can vary greatly depending on the milestone you are celebrating, how well you promoted the reunion, the personality of your class and many other factors. However, you need to start somewhere, so using an average figure as stated above allows you to begin budgeting. You can eventually use actual numbers as classmates purchase tickets.

40% of your class X 1.5 for guests, multiplied by the ticket price $75 (as an example) provides your main source of revenue. If we estimate out of a class of 300, 180 paying guests at $75 per person, the overall budget will be $13,500. Plan accordingly. Should you be able to revise ticket sales higher later on, you can then spend more on prizes or other things. Ticket sales will not be your only source of revenue. All additional income, however, will cover the ‘we forgot to budget for that’ expenses.

This is a committee decision. If you feel that $75 tickets won't bring in enough revenue, see what happens if you raise the ticket price. Conversely, if you think that a $75 price is too high, you will need to cut out certain things from the budget.