From sending out the Save the Dates, hand gluing buttons and bows on to your invitations to customising your RSVPs, the process of planning a wedding is not always seamless! And chasing over a hundred people up for their RSVPs is not one of the problems you want to have. Some days you’ll need the patience of a saint to cope with the family politics at play or the bickering going on between your bridesmaids about which dress will suit them all. There’s not much you can do about you warring relatives but we’ve compiled a guide to help you through getting back your RSVPs in time.
Send your wedding invitations out at the right time
You need to know the final numbers for your Big Day as soon as possible, not just for you and your wedding budget – but also for the numbers of favours you’ll need and even the venue, so that you can let them know that you are under their maximum people number threshold. Sending out your Save the Dates and then your invitations on time will help to ensure that get back to you in time. The ideal time for your invitations to be sent out is eight weeks before your wedding, which gives your guests a month to respond. @Perfect_Wedding even suggest that you, “Give you guests a false deadline (a few weeks before your final deadline) to allow for any stragglers.”
Not everyone knows what RSVP means
As bizarre as it might sound, not everyone knows what RSVP means so rather than taking the risk why not write something like this instead:
Respond by 5th June to generic@genericemail.com
A very traditional RSVP would read like this:
The favour of a reply is requested by June 5th
However, you can be as unique, fabulous or humorous as you want with your RSVP so you could try something like this if you think it suits you as a couple:
_________Enthusiastically Attend
_________Regretfully Decline
_________Regretfully Attend
_________Enthusiastically Decline
There’s so much inspiration out there now on Instagram, Etsy and in wedding magazines to set your imagination on fire!
Make the RSVP date easy to see
By making the RSVP easy to spot straight away, there’s no chance that your guests won’t notice it. You could embed it onto one of the pages of the invitation meaning that your guests won’t be able to avoid seeing it – ensuring that your wedding planning goes smoothly.
Provide a few ways for people to respond
This is a foolproof way of ensuring that you can keep track of everyone who is or is not coming to your Big Day. Have an email address, mobile number and a postal address then your guests have got plenty of ways to respond to you. One of the amazing things about getting married in this technological age is that there are wedding websites on which your guests can confirm if they are coming. Try to encourage your guests to respond to you by email if possible as you can then update your wedding guest list straight away after receiving the email. Getting people to email their confirmation will also avoid people’s RSVPs getting lost in the post or simply delayed!
