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Invitations- RSVP

mandie/corymandie/cory
in Chit Chat
I have a question, if anyone can help me. When sending out invitations how long do you give them to send back their RSVP's. My wedding is May 1, 2010. I am planning on sending out invitations early March but don't know what to put for the RSVP date. Let me know if anyone knows the rule for that. Thanks!! :)
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Re: Invitations- RSVP

  • Leah&Christian09Leah&Christian09 member
    First Comment
    What date do you have to give your caterer a final head count? Put your date about a week before that. Ours needed 10 days, so our RSVP date was about 2 1/2 weeks before.
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  • kriserinkriserin member
    First Comment
    My wedding is Dec 5th so we did the RSVP date for Nov 5th and sent them out around the 1st of Oct. This way we have a month to do the seating chart, seating cards and follow up with anyone that didn't respond on time.
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  • Kristin789Kristin789 member
    5 Love Its First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    There is a traditional timeline for this - you don't have to guess. Here is that timeline: Q.How far in advance should you send invitations? What is the proper date to ask for the reply card? A. Invitations should go out SIX WEEKS before the wedding -- that gives guests plenty of time to clear their schedules for the day and make travel arrangements if they are out-of-towners. It also lets you make the RSVP date a little earlier -- say THREE WEEKS before the wedding date -- so you can get a final head count and start making a seating chart (if you'll have one) before the final-week-before-the-wedding crunch begins. So for your May 1 wedding: Invitations go out on March 20. RSVP date is April 10. And for the previous poster who suggested that you see what your caterer is demanding of YOU, let me suggest that you recognize that YOU are the customer. The standard timeline for hosting events that are wedding-sized is this: The "soft number" is due two weeks ahead of the event. The "hard number" is due one week ahead of the event. The "soft number" is the number of people who have responded that they will come. The "hard number" allows for some additions/cancellations if people contact you with changes. I host five "wedding-sized" events each year for a 400-member charity group. And the venues we deal with include large hotels, country clubs, restaurants, etc. - and those salespeople and caterers and banquet managers treat US as the CUSTOMER. Don't let you venue jerk you around because they suspect that you don't know the traditions of how things are done and the "lingo" of how things are said in that business.
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  • Spim7Spim7
    First Comment
    Our venue needs a final head count a month prior so we're asking for the RSVPs to be back 6 weeks before so we can make follow-up phone calls if we need to if we haven't heard back from guests.
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  • mrsandersentobemrsandersentobe
    First Comment
    MY RSVP date is 3 weeks prior to the wedding. That's 4 days from now and there are still 51 RSVP's MIA!!! If I could do it again, I would put the RSVP date 4 weeks ahead of time. GL.
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  • kaynix21kaynix21 member
    First Comment
    I would do it two weeks before you have to give your final count I think. That way if people don't get back to you, you have some time to figure that out.
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