The art of RSVP’ing
When Matte and I designed our wedding invitations (yes, we went the DIY route), we were quite specific with the RSVP cards. Our venue is small intimate, so our wedding and reception are adults-only. (I realize that sounds dirty, but it’s not XXX adults-only, just no offspring under the age of 18 are invited, aside from the 2 adorable nephews/ring-bearers.) To avoid confusion as to how many members of each family are invited, we used the phrase ____ of _____ guest(s) will attend. Thus, a couple with two children would receive an RSVP card to send back to us that stated that they (Mr. and Mrs.) were invited (example: ____ of 2 guest(s) will attend.) Simple, yes? Well, it seems to have worked because we didn’t receive any response cards stating that 8 of 2 guest(s) will attend. It might sound mean to do it this way, but when you have limited space, you sometimes have to do these things. Although, children’s meals are much cheaper than those of full-grown people, so maybe we should have invited just the kids.
In a very glass-is-half-full manner, we used the phrase will attend, keeping the response is positive. Seeing 0 of 2 guests will attend is so much more pleasant than seeing so-and-so will not attend. (We did receive some replies with the number of attending guests left blank and the word not inserted between will and attend. That made me feel a little sad. And rejected. So I ate a big bag of chocolate chips. And if I can’t fit into my dress, I blame those carat-inserting, RSVP-editing invitees.
To help us when we make our DIY place cards, we included Please indicate guest name(s) next to entree selection. Apparently many of our guests have the same name: 1. And even weirder, there are couples who both are named 1. I know! Freaky, right? Now, in instances where I know the couple, I can guess “hmm…I think Mr. S is the 1 who wants the pork and Mrs. S probably wants the chicken.” And if I get their place cards wrong, they can swap plates when their food is served, and hopefully not yell at the servers for bringing the the opposite of what they chose. But when I do not know the name of a guest, such as Mr. K.’s girlfriend (who I really don’t believe is named 1) I will call him to find out, rather than have her place card read “Mr. K’s woman who wants the chicken…or maybe she’d prefer the pork. All I know is she doesn’t want the vegetarian.”
We have received nearly all of our RSVPs back. Several arrived in the first few days after we sent the invitations. It was fun getting so much mail that wasn’t a coupon or a bill, and I loved seeing who would be able to join us for our special day. When we received word that 0 of 2 will attend, we were bummed, but we appreciated the excuses apologetic note on the back of the card about already-planned trips to France, or vacations in Hungary, or graduation ceremonies out of state. I don’t need anyone to tell me the reason they can’t attend, but it’s nice to know that the absence isn’t because they hate our guts or think I’m fat because I have eaten so many chocolate chips, or whatever.
But today, I received an RSVP (hand-delivered, no less) that had some creativity. I want to put it on a t-shirt or something. Oh, and this one? It’s from one of our officiants.
