Wording for RSVPs to indicate how many family member are coming

spglsp

Here's the background: my family is spread all over the world and a lot of them have children. I know from experience that it's pretty rare for any of the families being invited to travel together. So for example, one spouse and one child of a five person family may go one one trip while another spouse with the other two kids may take a trip somewhere else on another date. I want to include something on the RSVP cards that tells me how many individuals from the family unit being invited are coming (and, if possible, which ones). Is there a way to do this?

Jen4948

A way to do that is to list each person by name with a space that can be checked to indicate which of them are coming and can also provide individual dietary requirements or menu choices, as in:

Mr. John Smith ________is attending _________ is not attending  Dietary needs/Menu: ____________
Mrs. Mary Smith ________ is attending __________ is not attending Dietary needs/Menu: __________
Mr. Michael Smith ________ is attending _________ is not attending Dietary needs/Menu: __________
Ms. Laura Smith ________ is attending __________ is not attending Dietary needs/Menu: __________

cafarrie

I don't remember exact wording, but my RSVP cards had something like: 

 "response requested by X date"

Name(s)____________________

# of guests attending__________

It was AWESOME, especially for situations like you mentioned above or for guests that were invited with a true plus one but didn't know yet who they were going to bring.  Honestly, it was really not stressful at all. 

ETA: I considered doing what PP suggested, but it would have cost a fortune to personalize every single RSVP like that, and I thought it looked junky to hand-write it in.  IMO, it's total overkill. 

[Deleted User]

I've also heard where people sign the initials to choose their meal option.

Please put initials by the food option.

_____ chicken

_____ beef

_____ vegetarian

_____ children's plate

Families with the same initials will figure out how to distinguish themselves from each other.  (i.e. MattV, MarkV, EV, LV)

r1234567

Jen4948 - I'm thinking of doing what you have as we won't have an inner envelope.  My question is in what order to put the names?  Alphabetical?  By age?  The dad first then the mom? 

Thanks!

Jen4948

I'd say to put the adults first and then the children n in order of age.