RSVP Etiquette
By: Don Zilleri
RSVP etiquette for the hosts and planners
CC: image source is credit to marthastewartweddings.com
- Send the invite early.
The event host and planner must mail the invite letters as soon as possible to offer the guests enough time to open their schedule and respond back to the invitation. Not every guest is sitting and waiting for the event. Many are employees or self employed professionals who need proper notice. To assure the positive attending reply from the guests, always plan in advance and send the RSVP letter as early as possible.
Sometime hosts, place the RSVP in their first category of to do even before confirming the location. As soon as confirming the date of the event, send the RSVP letters and give the guests a heads up for the specific date scheduled. In this method, if the guests attending, they receive the detailed invitation of the event in in another invite letter.
- Ask for “RSVP please”.
Many people after receiving the invitation letter, do not respond back until they see a proper notice of reply. A host and event planner must never assume to receive the response and to secure the guest confirmation, must emphasize RSVP in bold. Sometimes planners include a separate RSVP note within the same envelope of invitation to emphasize the scope of the response.
- Add a deadline.
To receive the RSVP responses from the guests on time, hosts and planners include an unambiguous deadline. Highlight the deadline date to RSVP and offer the guests enough time to open up their schedule.
- Elucidate RSVP instructions.
When adding RSVP request in an invite letter, explain and instruct the guests how to reply and be specific. Offer variety of convenient ways to respond; To call, email, mail, and even text message to RSVP. To clarify the RSVP’s misconception for every guests, place a explanatory sentence to RSVP whether attending or not.
What to do when a guest doesn’t RSVP?
With misunderstanding of the RSVP core etiquette, many guests do not reply assuming the host knows their status. Everyone must reply to RSVP as a common respect. But what does the host must do to get the RSVP?
According to Cerl Marsh Etiquette columnist, the host needs to call and follow up with the attendees who did not RSVP. Every event regardless of the span and extent of it, must assign someone to confirm the attendance of every guest. Prepare a calling list and note every detail when confirming; The name, time called, directly spoke or left message. The person in charge of confirming the guest attendance must work in correlation with the planner and communicate the number of the guest as they grow.
RSVP Etiquette for guests
To RSVP and respond to an invitation and confirm whether attending to the event or not is a common courtesy and showing respect.
- Respond to RSVP
Regardless whether attending or not, a good RSVP etiquette is to respond back. People misunderstood the RSVP and only respond when they are able to attend and ignore to respond when they are unable.
CC: image source is from and credit to scribendi.com
- Respond before the deadline
Hosts and planners followed their etiquette and tendered RSVP form and offered proper timing for the guest to reply. Be respectful and show civility to RSVP by the assigned deadline. Do not delay the respond. When the event’s host place a deadline in the RSVP request, it means they must confirm the number of guests with their supplier by then.
- Respond only via the methods provided
To RSVP, read the instruction the host and planner made available and do as it asked. Do not create a new way and if the text message is not one of the method mentioned to RSVP, do not resume it. Show the RSVP etiquette and follow the respond instructions, note by note.
- Confirm the number of attendees.
Many event have limited space and budget so they invite their guests adding a plus one courtesy. If seeing a plus one or plus a guest phrase, that means do not take the cousins, neighbors, and the children to the event. A plus one means a significant other or someone of choice. Show courteousness and specify and confirm the plus one invitee.
For parents, attending an event depends on their children. If the kid are not invited, call the host and planner and ask for consideration. Have an open communication with the event’s host is much better than not to RSVP.
When receiving an invite, dignify the planner’s position and ask “What do I expect from a guest to do when sending an invite?”
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