RSVP response rate?

LurkerDan · April 4, 2012

For those who had a moderately large invite list, ie not just a small group of immediate family and closest friends, what was your "RSVP rate"? I don't mean how many "yeses" and "nos", I mean responses, period. Did a large number just never RSVP? Were those all "no" people, or did some of them show up? Did many people RSVP at the last possible minute? Did any of you use an online RSVP? Do you think that somehow affected response rates? We sent out invites around New Years, our RSVP date is April 22 (for a June 24th wedding), and we asked people to RSVP online. We chose 2 months out, though we now wish we had chosen 3 months out. We have since sent out 2 "update" emails (one in Feb, one in March) asking people to let us know their plans so we could begin planning, that if they were undecided that was fine, but if they knew they were coming or not coming to let us know, and that they could send emails or call if they didn't want to RSVP online. Now, less than 3 weeks away from the formal RSVP date, and there are still a lot of parties that we have heard absolutely nothing from. Just wondering if this is normal? I'm assuming that all or almost all are "nos", but I don't know that for sure.

kks2012 · April 4, 2012

Our rsvp date has passed (3/15) and they trickled in. Just got one today. I am starting to call/text people. The response rate is better with the people who are not going. The ones who are going figure that they already paid their money. The problem is... the AHR rsvp is in the same rsvp so we also need the numbers for that as well.

I find myself having to encourage my FI and parents to remind their friends that they still have to respond so we can get the proper count or they should not plan to come.

We are sending our AHR invitations specifically for the AHR. We have set up an email address and google number for them to RSVP and put a detailed insert with the invitation.

Norma83 · April 5, 2012

I had the same problem. Out of the 50-60 invites we sent out, I only got back about 5 RSVP's and we have a total of 44 people attending our wedding. We also sent out follow up emails and stressed to them that we couldn't really finish planning out the details without an accurate head count. It motivated some people to book their travel; however, we still had to end up calling everyone to know for sure if they were coming or not. It got a little frustrating! No one in my family or FI's family have ever had a destination wedding, so my guess is they think that they don't need to RSVP and they can just show up at the hotel, but that's so not the case. In the end, it turned out ok.

JayKay · April 7, 2012

We had a large number of guests never RSVP, probably close to 60%. I would have appreciated if they would have said no or yes, because then I was left contacting all of them to find out if they were coming or not. In the end most were no, but there were a few who were yes and we didnt know that they were coming until about a week before the wedding.

TammyWright · April 7, 2012

da, we had 56 people and some were RSVPing that week...we had one guy just get in his car and drive down...then he set up a tent on the beach.. even with our pretty prompt group most of them, including family waited until the last possible date to book.