Response Cards

Simky906

I'm starting to work out the wording, etc for our response cards and I'm getting a bit confused. Currently they are worded as followed-

Kindly respond by the twenty-third of August

M___________________

___ Accepts with pleasure

___ Declines with regrets

Please initial each guest's entree choice 

___ Chicken

___ Beef

___ Vegetarian

Note any dietary restrictions on the back 

1. Is 8/23 a good response date for a 9/6 wedding? Our final numbers are due 9/1.

2. Is the 'M' necessary? Every response card I've gotten as a guest has had it but I don't fully understand why it's there.

3. There is a kid's meal as well but when I added that line in it look very crowded on the card. We're only invited 6 or 7 families with children. Should we include a note that lets them know this is an option? Or print response cards with the kids option just for those families?

4. Is the way I worded the dietary restrictions note ok? Somehow it seems off to me, but I may be overthinking this.

Thanks for your help!

melbenso

The wording looks fine to me.  You may want to say "Please note dietary restrictions on the back."  But I don't think the please is a huge deal.  You could also say "indicate" instead of "note" if you prefer.

As for the M, I think it's there to indicate Mr/Mrs/Miss for the respondents rather than writing "Name:" or something like that.  But I would venture to guess that if you left it off, people would still be able to figure out that they needed to write their name on the card so you knew who was RSVPing.

As far as RSVP date, you want the deadline to be about a week before your final numbers are due to your venue so that you have time to call people who don't respond in time.  I think our date was 9 days before the deadline, so that we had a week to call plus a few days mailing grace for people who sent them back on the last day.

Regarding the kids meal, we didn't include it as a listing on the RSVP, because we are only inviting family and bridal party kids and wanted to avoid confusion for other families whose children we were not inviting.  I included a small insert with the RSVPs for those six invites that said something to the effect of "A children's meal is also available.  Please indicate how many children's meals you would like on the RSVP card."  I printed it out on colored paper that matched one of the colors of our invite, cut the paper into strips, and wrapped it around the RSVP card like a belly band so I was sure they would see it.

HisGirlFriday13

I agree with 'indicate' rather than 'note' sounding better. 

Aug. 23 sounds fine as an RSVP date.

I would just put a note in the six or seven invites with kids invited about the kids' meals -- if you put it on the RSVP card itself, that might give people whose children aren't invited the idea that their kids are invited. 

The M. is to remind people to fill in their names, which apparently baffles people, though God only knows why.

princessleia22

I like what PPs have said.  Otherwise everything looks fine. 

Personally, I would leave a little more time to chase down responses for those that don't RSVP, but I also know that my family is notoriously bad at RSVP-ing for events (I expect to only get about 1/2 back). You have RSVP date as Wed., some people will wait until last minute, so you should have most of them by probably Monday.  That leaves you a few days to chase down any missing responses before submitting to venue.  If you think that a few days is fine, then I'd leave it with the dates you have. With my family, I want to have at least 2-3 weeks to get ahold of people that didn't respond.

As far as the "M" where names go, it stands for their title (Mr., Ms., Mrs.). Most people don't bother writing in their title these days anyway. I think you are fine omitting it and just putting a blank line. Plus, my feeling on it is that not everyone has a title that starts with "M", like "Dr.", "Hon.", "Sir", etc.  If you are concerned about them being confused about what the blank line is for, you could write "name" or "guests" or something like that.