Welcome Dinner RSVP for DW

ShadeofGreen816

Hello again ladies! I have a new question. I can't seem to find what I'm looking for exactly so hopefully I will get some helpful advice here. 

Background: We are having a DW in South Carolina. This is out of town for 100% of guests. My mom would like to host a welcome dinner on Friday night (after the more private rehearsal) that is open to all invited guests. This will be relatively casual barbecue type event, outside on the beach. Mom as said she would like to pay for it, as everyone is spending some money to come to the wedding. Even though it's casual, obviously, we'd like an estimated head count…

Which brings me to my question: we're looking at invitations, trying to decide what enclosure (and how many) we need. My question is: do you think it would be ole to talk about the dinner on the guest information enclosure and have 1 RSVP card with separate places for each event? i.e.:

_______________________

____accepts

____declines

Friday Welcome Dinner

___accepts

___declines

FWIW: We will be doing stations at the reception, so there is no entree selection on the RSVP card. This would be too busy for sure. 

I'm just hesitant to have too many cards because I think that's overwhelming when I open an invitation. 

Thoughts?

HisGirlFriday13

I think you need a separate insert that explains the details of the welcome dinner -- who's invited, what time, where, etc.

It can be smaller than the RSVP card even, but you need something. But I think you can have them RSVP on the same card.

lyndausvi

I've seen welcome dinner invites in the actual invite, a separate invite once the RSVPs came in and verbal invites.

I prefer a separate invite.    I find most people don't always know their travel plans to properly answer the if they make the welcome dinner at the same time they RSVP for the wedding. 

ShadeofGreen816

I guess I should have been more specific. We are planning on having: the invitation, a somewhat large enclosure card with hotel info, travel info, and a short paragraph about the welcome dinner (details of location, time, etc) and then the RSVP card with envelope. But @lyndausvi I do see your point as well. 

The head count for this will likely not need to be as specific, as I am imagining more of an open house type style: have30-45 min where food will be served and/or people can stop by to say hi and have a beer. 

Also: this may not be obvious, but we will be hosting this at the hotel where we have our room block/discount and where most guests will be staying

HisGirlFriday13

In that case, I think you're fine to have just one RSVP, although Lynda raises an excellent point.

lyndausvi

Our wedding was OOT for 100% of the guests.  We had an open house welcome reception that started at 8pm for all our guests.  We didn't have formal invites.  We just estimated.  Most people at dinner first.

I know we make travel plans last minute due to DH's work concerns.  I know others do too.  

delujm0

We have about 80% OOT guests and are hosting a Welcome Dinner as well as a Sunday brunch and needed head counts for all three.  We put the Welcome Dinner and Sunday Brunch information on a separate inclusure card on the invitation, and then the RSVP was for all three.  Looked like:

 

M___________________________

_accepts  _declines

 

Please also RSVP for the below events:

_Welcome Dinner

_Sunday Brunch

 

People would just check off if they were coming to the other two events, and we assumed that however many people were coming to the reception were also coming to the peripheral events that they checked off.  We didn't have any issues with the RSVPs.  Do note that a lot of people are sending RSVPs back right at the deadline because while they knew all along that they were coming to the reception, they didn't have their exact travel plans made until very recently, so they weren't sure what other events they would be attending until now.  If you'd rather get your reception RSVPs back quickly and wait a bit longer for the other event RSVPs, I'd do totally separate invites.