What are response cards?
Response cards are a special enclosure of the wedding invitation. They are cards that ask the guest to fill in how many people will be attending the wedding. The wedding invitations should be mailed about eight weeks before the wedding with a RSVP date of about three weeks before the wedding. The response cards should be pre-stamped and addressed to be returned the host of the wedding.

Wording:

The favor of your reply is requested
by the twenty-second of July
M___________________________
______ will attend

OR

The favor of your reply is requested
by the twenty-second of July
M__________________________
Number of adults ______
Number of children ______

Necessary or Not?
Response cards are very helpful and essential for getting an accurate guest head count for the wedding. If you are planning a reception with seating arrangements, then response cards or some other type of RSVP requests are a must.

Even if you are on a tight budget, you will not want to do without response cards. They can actually save you money by giving you an accurate head count and wasting money in other areas of the wedding. For those on a limited budget consider using response postcards instead of the standard response cards and envelopes. Postcards save on both printing and postage fees.

Tip: Believe it or not many people will return RSVP cards and forget to write on them or write only Mr. & Mrs. Smith without the first name. To avoid not knowing who the RSVP cards are from, number your response cards. First number your guest list; then number the corresponding RSVP cards in an inconspicuous place(on the back or inside if they are folded). Then you will know exactly who each card is from by cross referencing the number to your guest list!