Morning again everyone ~ here’s a bit of a mid-morning discussion post for you. Late yesterday evening I received an email from a regular Love My Dress reader/distressed bride to be, who has given me permission to replicate, anonymously, the following part of her email…
“…frustrated doesn’t even come into it, we are due to marry early March and sent our invites out shortly before Christmas. Knowing that the christmas cards might cause a distraction, I emailed as many people as I could too. To date, we re waiting on replies to 19 of the 72 invites we sent out. I’m so busy planning last minute wedding things and trying to hold down a full time job that I’m not even sure I’ll have in two months time that the idea of having to chase these people up sends me in to a cold spin! I don’t have the time or the energy right now to phone everyone and feel loathed that I would even have to given they haven’t replied to their invite, but my venue need to know numbers and we need to settle bills and given the budget is pretty tight, we don’t want to have to pay for people who may not turn up on the day.
Have you any advice for how I should respond to those people who’ve not sent me their RSVP? All/any help at all much appreciated!”
Image from the ‘Frosty Forest’ Collection, by Artcadia
Hmmm. The guest who doesn’t respond to their wedding invite.
How do you respond to this?
Very luckily, I didn’t actually have any guests who didn’t respond. Sure, some of them left it right up until the eleventh hour to send their RSVP back – which was a stress causer in itself, but they all replied in the end. I can imagine had they not have done, it would have been one right royal pain having to chase them up. And I’d have been one very frustrated bride to be – last thing you need as the final stages of the wedding planning fall upon you.
And it’s so disheartening too. Never mind whether you’ve pained over many late nights in a dimly lit room applying your glue pen and adhesive crystals to your DIY stationery or paid a princely sum for sumptuous bespoke letterpress stationery – it’s the mere thought that a friend, relative, no matter how close or distant, couldn’t be bother to confirm their attendance at such an important event that really stings.
19 out of 72 invitations? That’s presumably approximately, potentially, up to 38 people, right? That’s a REALLY BIG DEAL when it comes to planning and budgeting! I really feel this bride’s pain.
I guess as far as etiquette goes, not responding to a wedding invitation is a pretty low in my books. But I’d really like to help my anxious Bride to remain calm and keep things in perspective.
So, how do you plan on dealing with non-responses, or, if you are already married-happily-ever-after, how did you deal with non-responses at the time?
Wedding planners – what would you advise?
I’d love your thoughts and feedback on this one my lovelies. Let’s help my reader/distressed bride to be – I’m just about to email her back to let her know about this post.
Many many thanks and love,
Annabel
♥
You can browse through many more discussion posts on Love My Dress here…
