Meal option on the RSVP???

Wonders

Hello ladies , 

What do you think of this ? : Our venue wants us to ask guets to specify on the RSVP card , the meal option they want ( Chicken , beaf, kids meal etc ) , so they can know ahead of time how many of this or that  so they can plan accordlingly. They also want us to put on their name card , a letter like C for chicken , B for beef etc ...Is this comon? I DKN , but i thought people have the right to eat what  they actually  want that day depending on how they feel or what  they think of the menu... you know... Anyone in the same boat? 

TIA

eagles347

We are having to have guest pre-select their meals and this is not uncommon based on previous experiences with plated dinners. The way around this is to serve a duo entree like chicken and beef versus one or the other. Another way would be to have a buffet. I totally understand why the venue would need to know in advance when planning for a special event...otherwise they would need to order lots of both entrees in case a vast majority selected one entree over the other.

Wonders

Thank you eagles. It helps

mahoganieyes

Our rsvp card will have the option for guests to pick a meal. Requirement since our meal is plated.

sadou02

Im having a duet plated meal to avoid the whole counting issue.  I was initially going to do a buffet to avoid it as well.

As Eagles said it is common practice to have the meal option on RSVP if you're doing plated and having various options.  Also having the escort cards indicate their selection makes sense cause you dont want a change in meal selection at the last minute that would mess up the venues count or a shortage of a certain entree.

jmp0930

We are also doing meal options on our rsvp card. Since we have 3 food options to choose from, it def makes it easy. We have a line for the person to put their name and then there is a picture of a cow, chicken, carrot(for veg. option), and 12 and under heading so they can just check the box to choose which option they want for each person. You could also put a small picture on the escort card (i've seen this several times and I think its a great idea) with a picture of a cow, chicken, etc. at the bottom so that they will also know what food option your guest are choosing.

kiyamurph

Ditto pp.  We're having a plated dinner and we're serving either filet mignon or chicken picatta.  The venue needs to know how many people are having each dish beforehand so they can prepare a certain number of chicken or steak dishes.  It's very common practice.  I plan to put a certain color rhinestone on each place card to specify who's eating what. 
The only time I've heard of people doing table side ordering based on what's on the menu is at white-tie weddings.  But that's super expensive.