RSVP card with menu options

mabapunta

Our wedding is April 13, 2013. We will order invites next weekend and hope to send them out mid-late February (we did send Save the Dates several weeks ago). FI and I are debating how to write the RSVP card.

We are planning one meat entree/chicken and will also offer a vegetarian and kid's menu option. Although I only know of 3 definite vegetarians, I would like to offer the option to everyone. FI and our wedding planner prefer to only offer vegetarian dishes to the known ones, and allow others to specify with their reply if it is that important to them.

I've been surfing the web for ideas and have come up with a few options:

1. Kindly Respond by March 23rd
    M ______________________
    ___ Chicken    ___ Vegetarian    ___ Kid's Menu
    ___ Regretfully Decline
    We have reserved ___ seats in your honor

2. Please Reply by March 23rd
    M _____________________
    ___ Will Attend with ___ Chicken    ___ Vegetarian    ___ Kid's Menu
    ___ Regretfully Decline

Or should I really nix the menu option and go with the general
3. Please Reply by March 23rd
    M ____________________
    ___ Will Attend
    ___ Regretfully Decline
 
My mom, one of my bridesmaids and my best friend from high school are the known vegetarians. I know sometimes they just have to deal with whatever is there, so although they will be taken care of no matter what, I thought it would be nice to extend the option to all our guests. Plus it will be a better way for the caterer to know how much of the vegetarian option to prepare.

What do you think? Thank you in advance!

HobokensFury

Is there anyway you could be more specific?  Because most people are going to make a choice based on how it's prepared not just steak and chicken.  Are you prepared to pay for an adult meal if that's what a parent checks off for their child?  Just things to consider.

As for the veggie meal I'm with FI and wedding planner on this one only because of the price.  There is no discount for veggie meals and we all know they are ridiculously overpriced. Therefore you're going to be wasting a lot of money on veggie plates for those that chose it just because. I'll admit I have a skewed opinion on this. Veggie meals were $125 for about $5 worth of rice and veggies at my venue.  I called up the 2 vegetarians and let them know just to tell the server they wanted the veggie meal other wise people were eating the steak, chicken or fish.

libby2483

This was what our RSVP card looked like:

The favor of your reply is requested by the eighteenth of July

_________ Accepts

_________ Declines

Please initial each guest's entree choice:

_________ Chicken

_________ Beef

_________ Vegetarian

_________ Children's Meal

As you can see, we offered the vegetarian option to all guests, and I am glad that we did. There were only two vegetarians that I knew of on our guest list.  However, H did not realize that one of his great aunts and one of his cousins was a vegetarian.  In addition, we had 7 or 8 people who were not vegetarians choose this option just because they prefered it.  Unlike PPs experience, vegetarian meals were not overpriced at our venue.  They were less than both the chicken and steak options.

mabapunta

We still have to finalize the menu with the caterer and I realize now that we also need to clarify the cost/options for the kid's menu. Our original reception space and caterer didn't work out so we are working with a new place and their in-house caterer. Thanks for reminding me

The pricing includes our choice of salad, 2 sides (we are doing roasted potatoes and roasted asparagus), rolls and butter, dessert and tea/coffee/water. We are offering Traditional Chicken Piccata or the vegetarian entree Portobello Mushroom Napoleon. Both are $16.49. So the cost between those two is not an issue. Good call on the kid's menu cost, though. It's a white wine sauce for the chicken, so you make a good point that it's probably not worth offering that as an option for kiddos since I'm not sure they'll even like it.

Libby - Did you include a line for your guest to include their name? Or did they all do so in the return address line on the envelope? I don't want to assume I'll be able to distinguish everyone's initials. I'll also have to check how many lines are available for the RSVP card.

Sassenach1743

I believe you should extend the option to all of your guests. As PP mentioned, some people prefer a vegetarian option in certain instances for personal reasons even though they may not always be striclty vegetarian. If you're prepared to serve a vegetarian option then make sure all of your guests have the opportunity to choose their preference. Otherwise, why ask in the first place? 

Also, I've never seen a kid's meal listed on the response card. Usually you account for all the children you know are attending by pre-ordering them a kid's meal. The meal preference on the response card is meant for adults. 

I would also refrain from the "We've reserved __ number of seats in your honor" tag line from option one. I don't think this is necessary. If you address your invites using the names of those you are intending to invite then there is no need for this line, let alone giving your guests the option of filling in a number for however many seats they might want to fill (i.e. you're leaving it open for people to assume they can bring however many people they want). 

mabapunta

I haven't been to many weddings and don't even remember what their RSVP card said, if they even had one. I think we may combine several suggestions and specifically list the options, more like:

Kindly Respond by March 23rd
M ___________________________
___ Will Attend with ____ Chicken Piccata ____ Portobello Mushroom Napoleon
___ Regretfully Decline

But if we remove the children's menu, if someone writes in that 5 will attend with 4 chicken entrees, would I assume the 5th person is going to be a child? I know which families have kids, so it shouldn't be too difficult to match up I guess. I just don't want to assume it, though, or have to track down everyone to clarify. Am I overthinking this? haha

Sassenach1743

If you know how many children (under 10yrs) will be attending then go ahead and pre-order the kid's meals. 

To eliminate confusion you can call the parents (your guests) and let them know that a kid's meal has already been pre-ordered.

mabapunta

Yeah, I was just doing that - writing out everyone under 18 and categorizing them based on whether we think they would eat the chicken, want the kid's menu or if they're a baby and would have their own meal stuff. I wanted to avoid having to call people, just because there will be a lot going on already, but can do so if necessary. Or I bet FMIL would help me out with it.

libby2483

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_invites-paper_rsvp-card-with-menu-options?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:cd062f89-8272-496a-b0ab-225e1f87acecDiscussion:546b9d92-f653-4900-bd2a-688fcfe0eb61Post:7cb06bfe-3f0d-45c1-9634-650f2709fe75">Re: RSVP card with menu options</a>:
[QUOTE]We still have to finalize the menu with the caterer and I realize now that we also need to clarify the cost/options for the kid's menu. Our original reception space and caterer didn't work out so we are working with a new place and their in-house caterer. Thanks for reminding me :) The pricing includes our choice of salad, 2 sides (we are doing roasted potatoes and roasted asparagus), rolls and butter, dessert and tea/coffee/water. We are offering Traditional Chicken Piccata or the vegetarian entree Portobello Mushroom Napoleon. Both are $16.49. So the cost between those two is not an issue. Good call on the kid's menu cost, though. It's a white wine sauce for the chicken, so you make a good point that it's probably not worth offering that as an option for kiddos since I'm not sure they'll even like it. Libby - Did you include a line for your guest to include their name? Or did they all do so in the return address line on the envelope? I don't want to assume I'll be able to distinguish everyone's initials. I'll also have to check how many lines are available for the RSVP card.
Posted by mabapunta[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>Oops, yeah, I left that off in my post, but we did include that.  

</div>

Jamiea291

With the kid meal option, you might want to consider letting guests know that there is a kid meal & actually telling them what it is. That way the parents can be prepared if the offered kid meal is something their child will refuse to eat.

TurtlesAllTheWayDown

You can add a line at the bottom that says something like, "please contact us if you will need a child-friendly meal option."