RSVP Card- Help!

verna25 · November 2013

Hello!!

I will be ordering my invites within the next few weeks and have been back and forth about the wording on the RSVP. Our venue offers discounted meal options to children 3-13 years of age and teens, 14-20 years of age. I definitely want this specified so we can pay those discounted prices since our family has a lot of children. Besides this, my other concern is whether all the names of everyone attending will fit on the card. This is what is written:

RSVP
Please respond before February 1st.

Guests ___________________________
___ Delightfully accepts
___ Regretfully Declines

Please intial by your selection
___ Grilled Chicken ___ Cobia (contains nuts)
___ Child (please indicate if age 3 through 20 ___)

Please indicate food allergies.

I appreciate your help!

verna25 · November 2013

Attached is the card. Hopefully you can see it!

doeydo · November 2013

I don't like how the "before" is a different font than the rest of the sentence.

MobKaz · November 2013

doeydo said:

I don't like how the "before" is a different font than the rest of the sentence.

I agree. It sounds impolite, and actually demanding. If you want your responses prior to February 1, it would be more cordial to say, Please respond by January 31st. I believe the typical wordage is, "Please respond on or before".

Also, unless the guests with children only have one child, they will have to insert additional information regardless. The RSVP card is basically a "working document" and the response does not have to be pretty to be effective. An alternative could be..........

Child(ren)/Teen(s)/Age(s)__________________________________________

.....although I'm not a fan of all the parenthesis.

HisGirlFriday13 · November 2013

Ditto the PPs on the font change -- it looks like nagging.

Also, not to be rude, but in your OP, you said, "Our family has a lot of kids." If the kids you're inviting are family, how do you not know their ages? Or, how do you not know someone you can call to find out their ages -- like their parents?

I would add another line for 'guests' to give people enough space to write in their kids' names.

Also, I would provide a line for food allergies, and change it to allergies/dietary restrictions (and before anyone gets all riled up about that, I mean things like lactose- or gluten- intolerant, Kosher/vegetarian/vegan only, etc. Not 'raw foods diet' or whatever the latest fad is).

verna25 · November 2013

Thanks for your input.

I have "before" in a different font because people do NOT respond. It's unfortunate but true. When I planned my parents wedding anniversary 5 years ago we had people show up who had not responded to the rsvp or our messages. I'm still going to reach out to those who don't respond; it's very annoying though how people are so inconsiderate.

I don't know all of the kids ages bc frankly it's hard to keep up. We have invited 260 adults + their kids; that is with cutting people out. My family is too big to keep up and they live all over the place in and out of the country, so we don't see each other as often as we'd like.

Thanks for the tip on the allergies.

CTYankeeBride · November 2013

If people don't respond, having a different font isn't going to change that unfortunately.

I agree with pp- it really would be best to find out the ages of the children you're inviting. Maybe enlist the help of some relatives who do keep tabs on these things instead of asking each set of parents individually?

If that really isn't possible, then is it possible for the RSVP to read "please indicate the number of guests 20 and under?" or do you get a different price for the 3-13 crowd than you do for the 14-20 crowd? If the latter is the case then maybe two separate lines so it would look like:

Guests ____________________________

______ delightfully accepts

______ regretfully declines

Guests over 20, please initial by your meal selection

_________ chicken ________ cobia (contains nuts)

Please indicate the number and names of guests 20 and under who will be attending

_______ age 14-20 name(s) ____________________

_______ age 3-13 name(s) ____________________

Please feel free to indicate any allergies or dietary restrictions on this card as well.

To be clear, I think this is a little busy for an RSVP card and it still might not get you the information you need.

gillespietjg · November 2013

I think it looks pretty but i agree with the other posters on the "before" font. I think it should be the same as all the rest despite your previous experiences. I would also remove the kid age spots - make your best effort to find out the ages of your guests. If you are a little off, the venue isn't going to know or care. We are in the same boat with ours - different prices for different ages of kids!

southernbelle0915 · November 2013

Sorry, but I'm with PPs on the "before" font. If they don't respond at all, they're going to ignore this entire piece of paper and the people who DO respond are going to look at it the same way everyone else here is looking at it.

It's a huge PITA when people are too rude not to RSVP but we all go through the same annoying follow up. Font won't fix rude people. It sucks but you're just going to have to pick up the phone and call these jokers.

HisGirlFriday13 · November 2013

verna25 said:

Thanks for your input.

I have "before" in a different font because people do NOT respond. It's unfortunate but true. When I planned my parents wedding anniversary 5 years ago we had people show up who had not responded to the rsvp or our messages. I'm still going to reach out to those who don't respond; it's very annoying though how people are so inconsiderate.

I don't know all of the kids ages bc frankly it's hard to keep up. We have invited 260 adults + their kids; that is with cutting people out. My family is too big to keep up and they live all over the place in and out of the country, so we don't see each other as often as we'd like.

Thanks for the tip on the allergies.

If they don't respond to the RSVP, and they don't respond to follow-up messages, you call/e-mail/FB/whatever them and say, "Having not heard from you, we're marking you out as 'not attending.' We're sorry you won't be joining us, but our final headcount was due today and we have been forced to not include you in that headcount reservation."

Then it's on them.

verna25 · November 2013

Thanks for your input but the font stays. My original question about figuring out the ages, I've already figured out and it's perfect.

I'm sure it will work out. Thanks again and happy holidays!

RSVP Card- Help!

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