Where Does RSVP Date Go on a Wedding Invitation?

Ah, wedding RSVP cards: they’re tricky, aren’t they? Even with your best intentions, not every guest will return it, much less on time.

It can be maddening because you need to know exactly how many guests will be in attendance on the day of, particularly for things like a head count for dinner, desserts, and your drink menu.

In addition, you’d like to know how to set up the tables with an equal number of guests, place enough favors out for guests to enjoy, and know how many programs to print.

So, what’s the deal? Why don’t guests RSVP on time?

Typically, the main reason they do not RSVP by the date is that you didn’t make it easy enough for them to do so — or you didn’t give them enough time to send it in.

Believe it or not, many guests won’t respond by the date even when you make it really easy for them to do so. ;)

As a rule of thumb, your RSVP date should be set at approximately 2 to 4 weeks before the wedding date. That gives you the perfect amount of time to get the final headcount to your caterer and provides your guests enough time to firm up babysitting plans, travel arrangements, etc.

To help you with a proper date according to etiquette, we made this RSVP wedding calculator to figure yours easily.

Once you have your respond-by date, great! Now you may be asking yourself the next big question: where do you put it? Should you put an RSVP date on your wedding invitation?

Well, no, not exactly — but sort of.

You do not put the RSVP date on your wedding invitation card directly, but rather on the response card.

Here’s the invitation card (design by Jen Merli). The date does not go on this main card, which is reserved for your names, the proper wording, and ceremony information.

Now, here’s the RSVP card: this is also known as a response card and is exactly where you’ll put the RSVP date. This is an important thing to include because it lets your guests know exactly when you need to know “yes” or “no” on whether they can attend your wedding.

It will look something like this:

This particular invitation offers three different RSVP card styles to choose from, whether you’re asking guests to include an entree selection, no entree selection, or responding online. PRO TIP: It’s easy to accept online RSVPS: get a FREE wedding website here with the capability to get online responses.

And now you know the answer!

To make it super easy for guests to respond, try these DOs and DONTs:

♦ Always include a postage stamp on the return envelope

♦ Do NOT forget to include the date on the response card or guests will forget to mail it back

♦ DO add something fun, like a song request line on the card, like this (guests love to give their two cents and help build your awesome playlist!)

♦ DO offer online RSVP for the quickest responses

♦ DO consider a QR code to make it even easier

Here’s a quick vlog I did on the topic, too. Hope it helps!

[embedyt]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWSP0dVOmwA[/embedyt]

If you’re wondering whether or not putting an RSVP date is appropriate for the invitation itself, I hope this clears up any confusion. Do you still have questions on the topic? Just send an email or reply to this in the comment section below and I’ll swoop in to help.

Happy Planning!

xo
Emma