Wedding R.s.v.p. Options
The manner in which you have your guests respond to your wedding should make sense with the overall tone of the affair. By this I mean that a formal wedding calls for a more traditional response format, while other options might be appropriate for a more casual wedding. For instance, if you are having a very traditional wedding in a grand hotel, wearing classic pearl bridal jewelry and a custom lace gown, it would be entirely out of place to ask your guests to respond by email. On the other hand, if you were having thirty of your closest friends for a picnic in your backyard following a five minute wedding ceremony, such a response might be just fine.
One things that many brides do not seem to realize is that it is not necessary to include any type of response card with a wedding invitation. Although they are now very common, traditionally wedding invitations were issued with the assumption that everyone knows that a formal invitation requires a reply. To nudge the guests along, a discreet “R.s.v.p.” or “The favour of a reply is requested” is engraved in the lower left corner of the invitation. The guest then sends a note to the return address on the invitation envelope indicating whether or not they will be able to attend. Think this will not work? This is exactly what I did for my wedding, and I had no problem at all with guests not responding.
For those who wish to include a wedding response card, there are two basic options. There is the small card with a self-addressed stamped envelope or there is the postcard. Online R.s.v.p. requests are an up-and-coming wedding trend. It is generally not advisable to go this route if you have a multi-generational guest list, as many of the older guests will not feel comfortable with an online response format. Couples who are thinking about going this route may wish to offer it on an R.s.v.p. postcard for guests who prefer to register their attendance online. It may not save you the cost of postage, but at least you will make sure that it is possible for all of your guests to reply to the wedding invitation in a way which makes them feel comfortable.
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