How to Ditch the RSVP Cards to Save Time and Money on Your Wedding

by Daily Wedding Blog
Filed under Wedding Invitations

When sending out wedding invitations, it can be common to include a small wedding RSVP card within the wedding invitation. Depending on how intricate a design you are after, prices can vary greatly on RSVP cards from reasonable to ridiculous. If you opt to go down the DIY route for RSVP cards, you will potentially save a significant amount of money, yet if you have a large guest list, it can end up being a very time consuming exercise.

One way to save money and time when it comes to RSVP cards is to eliminate them all together and via the invitation itself offer alternative ways for your guest to inform you of their attendance status.

Email RSVP's can save you significant money.

An Email RSVP
These days you would be hard pressed to find someone who doesn’t have email access. Therefor allowing guests to RSVP by email would seem to be an all round convenient choice. I wouldn’t use your regular personal or work email address, as it would be too easy for emails to get lost amongst your inbox. Instead, open up a new free email account with an email provider like Gmail, and dedicate that email for the sole purpose for allowing your guests to RSVP by email.

PROS: Free for both parties.
Cons: Can open up back and forth emails.

The SMS RSVP
Providing a mobile number for guests to text you their attendance availability is another approach and provides another form of convenience for your guest.

PROS: Convenient for your guests. Inexpensive cost of a text message for your guests
Cons: Guests will expect a reply text message, so multiply the cost of a text message by how many invitations you send out. Depending on your current mobile phone plan, it may not be a feasible option for you.

The Phone Call RSVP
For those guests who don’t own a mobile phone or have internet access offering your guests the option to RSVP by landline is ideal. To ensure that you are not swamped with phone calls at all hours of the day, potentially causing your answering machine to flood, set the preferred hours for guests to confirm attendance e.g after 5pm
PROS: Free for both parties. A great chance to catch up with people.

Cons: Guests may have lots of questions etc What should I wear? What’s the food like? If you are busy, this can end up taking up a lot of your time.

If you do decide to eliminate the RSVP cards, I would only choose two of the above methods, or alternatively specify a preference for one method such as email, mentioning that the other two methods are still welcomed if sending an email is not a feasible option.

Keep a master guest list handy at home and be sure to update it daily to reflect the status of each guest’s attendance availability. However, it is probably wiser if only one person is responsible for looking after guest attendance as if too many people are collecting RSVP’s it can be easy to lose track of who is actually attending your wedding.

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