When to set RSVP?

[Wanderlust4Mexico]

We are getting married in almost exactly a year. At this point almost everyone knows we're having a destination wedding, but not many people are willing to say if they will be attending or not.

 

When should we set our RSVP date? Any suggestions?

[Bride010101]

My main question would be whether you were doing any group rate. If so, I think that may help dictate it.

 

Other than that, I'm not sure. We are having our guests book individually and decided not to do an RSVP date. Its a bit unconventional... but with a DW and knowing my family, I figured it would be useless. The majority will book come July when charters become available and we ask everyone to start contacting the TA... but we are bound to have a few stragglers the last few months, whether we set and RSVP or not. Plus we invited only family and close friends - so I should be able to get a good idea simply by word of mouth.

[Wanderlust4Mexico]

We're not having it at a resort, but the restaurant we want to have the reception at wants to know because if we have under 40 we only get a part of the restaurant, but if we have over 40 we can have the entire restaurant.

 

Planning has been extremely laid back, except to this liitle guest list problem.

 

Do you think it would be okay to ask our guest to RSVP ASAP on our web site?

[Bride010101]

Does your restaurant have a date they need to know by... or is it they need to know ASAP.

 

I know lots of girls have used their website for RSVP. I attempted to when I sent out my STDs... but got a really poor response. When asking people (mostly fam) about it... they always say "well you know we are coming." But I think other people have had better luck! My family can just be a bit lazy

 

Do you have everyone's email address so you can email the group or are you sending out invites soon so that the guests know they need to RSVP?

[Wanderlust4Mexico]

We are sending STD's in a few weeks with our web site info, and then invitations in about 6 months.

 

The restauarnt would like to know asap, because of the price difference between less than 40 and more than 40 guests.

 

Everything in our wedding from decorations to dinner slections is dependant on our guest list. We have a set budget and we can opt for more expensive selections if we have less guests or less expensive selections if we have a lot of guests.

[ErinB]

I think most of us would agree that RSVP dates don't really mean anythign with a DW. Some people will swear to you that they will be there and then not show, others will be on the fence until it's time to go to the airport.

 

I think it is fine to put your RSVP through the website but you might want to include that you are holding seats for the reception and must know who is attending by a certain date. If you are doing a sit-down dinner, adding an entree selection might help your guests to take things seriously. (Not the it's a year away approach...)

[Copita]

We did ours for 3 weeks before. For the stragglers, late-bookers. believe it or not, out of the 40 that have booked, I have only gotten two reply cards back!!!!!

[twixygrl]

We are getting married in November, we sent our save the dates in Jan. and will be sending formal invitations at the end of August with RSVP cards. We also have online RSVP available through our website. We have a room block cut off in June so we are just reminding everyone and emphasized in the STD info that you can not take advantage of the room rate unless you book before then.

 

We are having a plated dinner so we need to know menu choices which is why we are sending the invitations closer to the wedding. We included a question that allows the guest to respond with the dates they are staying and the hotel they are staying at.

 

So, as you can see, didn't really tie our RSVP to anything imparticular...just pick what works for you. We are having RSVPS mostly so we know where people are and what they want to eat...since it is a desitnation wedding we pretty much know already who is coming and a rough headcount.