Tracking Your Wedding RSVPs

You've sent out amazing invitations, now its time to get the responses mailed back to you. Hopefully when you created your guest list, you kept an electronic record of it with which you can use to track RSVP responses. If not, there's a bit of typing in your future!

You can either purchase Wedding RSVP programs that will help you track responses, or you can use excel. Either way, you'll want to be organized enough to keep every response recorded and up to date. Aim to update every time you receive a response in the mail, if makes your life easier, which in the weeks leading up to the wedding, is our optimal goal!

Firstly, you want to track yeses and nos {as well as correct name spelling and any guests that are coming for your escort cards or place cards}. After that, if you are doing a pre-selected dinner entree choice, you'll want to keep track of that. And finally, if you are monitoring their accommodations for the wedding weekend, you'll want to note that as well {helpful if you are delivering welcome bags around town}. Your spreadsheet need not be fancy or elaborate, concise, detail led and to the point wins out here. Being able to give an accurate guest count and meal choice to your venue / caterer on the appropriate day will be incredibly helpful.



{courtesy of myweddingplanningtips.com}

This post was originally published on June 30th, 2009

When Guests Just Won't Reply

I know I've talked a lot about the guests who won't send in their RSVP ... seriously, its pre-stamped, pre-addressed people! But I feel like this is a topic that we can always talk about, so here goes it.

Rarely will your entire guest list respond by the due date, if it does, count yourself lucky for having such responsible people in your life. Chances are, you'll have to start calling and emailing the non responders to wean a decision out of them. Make it clear that you'd love them to be at the wedding but you need a firm decision. A wedding isn't like a backyard BBQ open house where you invite 150 and count on 75 showing up at some point. The venue and your vendors need a final and accurate guest count in order to accommodate everyone. Its as simple as that.

So say what you will to convince these folk that they need to give you a yes or a no. It could be as simple as telling them that if they want to receive a meal, they need to provide a response.

Wedding Etiquette

While I actively agree with not following all the traditional aspects of weddings {I did not throw a bouquet at my own wedding}, there is one large tradition of weddings that I just can't do away with: traditional RSVP response cards.

My husband and I were recently invited to a wedding and when I opened the envelope it felt a bit lighter than usual, and then when I pulled out the invitation, not much followed ... which I thought was interesting. I read the main invitation and then moved along to see the rest of the suite and lo and behold ... there was a card with the reception time & address and then an email address for people to RSVP to! That was it, no response card fill in and return.

While I understand that the additional cost of postage and printing of cards and envelopes can be costly and make a dent in your overall budget, its one of those expenses that need to be incurred. The RSVP card helps set the overall tone of what is in store for the wedding day and also allows your guests to interact slightly in the whole wedding planning process. By eliminating the RSVP card and replacing it, you're sending a very different message to your guests. Also, what if some of your guests are not tech savvy and don't have an email address? How would you like them to respond? Would you provide instructions on the card for those guests?

There are so many ways to re-invent traditional wedding etiquette to make it more 'you' and more modern and up to date, but your guests RSVP just isn't the place to try something new.

Do you agree or disagree?

Day 24: You've Got Mail! Organizing Wedding RSVPs

Days 24: 30 Days: A Guide to Stress Free Wedding Planning

You've sent out amazing invitations, now its time to get the responses mailed back to you. Hopefully when you created your guest list, you kept an electronic record of it with which you can use to track RSVP responses. If not, there's a bit of typing in your future!

You can either purchase Wedding RSVP programs that will help you track responses, or you can use excel. Either way, you'll want to be organized enough to keep every response recorded and up to date. Aim to update every time you receive a response in the mail, if makes your life easier, which in the weeks leading up to the wedding, is our optimal goal!

Firstly, you want to track yeses and nos {as well as correct name spelling and any guests that are coming for your escort cards or place cards}. After that, if you are doing a pre-selected dinner entree choice, you'll want to keep track of that. And finally, if you are monitoring their accommodations for the wedding weekend, you'll want to note that as well {helpful if you are delivering welcome bags around town}. Your spreadsheet need not be fancy or elaborate, concise, detail led and to the point wins out here. Being able to give an accurate guest count and meal choice to your venue / caterer on the appropriate day will be incredibly helpful.



{courtesy of myweddingplanningtips.com}