A wedding RSVP card carries five things: a reply-by date, a blank line for the guest’s own name, an accept line, a decline line, and the number of seats you have reserved for that household. A meal choice goes on only if the caterer needs one. It travels back in an envelope you addressed and stamped yourself.
A reply card is the smallest piece of a stationery suite and the one with the most work to do. Six lines, at most, and every one of them is there because leaving it off costs you a phone call.
The reply-by date — one calendar date, written out, not “reply soon”. The date itself is a calculation off the day your venue needs final numbers rather than a tradition, and the RSVP deadline calculator we link to below does that arithmetic.
A line for the guest’s name — the formal form is a single M followed by a long blank, which the guest completes into Mr, Mrs, Ms or Miss and their own name. “Name(s)” does the same job on a modern card.
An accept line and a decline line — both, phrased at the same length. A card with only a yes reads as pressure, and you need the no’s as much as the yes’s to give the caterer a number.
The number of seats you have held — “____ seats of the two reserved” answers the plus-one question before it is asked, and stops a household replying for more people than you invited.
A meal choice, only if the kitchen needs it — one blank per dish so that three guests at one address can choose three different courses, with the vegetarian option named rather than implied.
A dietary line, as a sentence — a written blank, not a tick. An allergy that matters needs the space to say so.
What does not belong on it: your return address, which goes on the envelope; the timings, the dress code and the hotels, which go on the invitation or a details card; and a request for gifts, which goes nowhere. Pick the reply-by date with the RSVP deadline calculator — it works backwards from your venue’s final-numbers date and hands you the one date to print.
What does a paper reply card actually cost?
More than the card. A reply card is four purchases per household, not one: the card itself, the small envelope it comes back in, the stamp on that envelope, and the extra weight it adds to the invitation going out. The last two are the ones that surprise people, because they are bought per household and paid twice — once to send the reply card out, once to bring it home.
Two of those four are yours by etiquette rather than by choice. The return envelope goes in pre-addressed and pre-stamped, because the reply is the host’s expense; and if you address those envelopes by hand, that is an evening per hundred guests that nobody costs at all. The cost of wedding invitations itemises a worked eighty-guest suite, stamps included, if you want the arithmetic rather than the argument.
And the honest other side, because a reply card is not just an inefficiency. It comes back in the guest’s own handwriting, often with a line in the margin you would never have received from a form. It reaches the people on your list who do not use the internet, without needing a workaround. It is a keepsake — couples keep the cards, nobody prints the spreadsheet. What it cannot do is change: a card in the post is a decision fixed in ink, and a reply-by date that has to move means a reprint.
Seven wedding RSVP card wordings you can copy
Each one is complete for the situation it is labelled with. The first four are the reply card itself; the last three are what carries the reply when you are not sending a card at all. Copy one, change the date, the names and the number of seats, and it is ready to use. The underscores are where a guest writes — keep them long enough to write in, and keep every blank on its own line.
1. Formal
The traditional engraved reply card, for a suite whose invitation is formal too.
The favour of a reply is requested
by the tenth of May
M _____________________
____ accepts with pleasure
____ declines with regret
____ seats of the two reserved
The M is not a typo and not an initial: it is the start of Mr, Mrs, Ms or Miss, and the guest completes their own title and name on that line. “The favour of a reply is requested” is the formal form of RSVP, and a formal card keeps the spelling of the invitation it travels with — favour with a u on a British suite, favor without on an American one. Never print more seats than you have actually held.
2. Casual
Same information, written the way you speak. Shorter, warmer, and just as complete.
We would love to know by 10 May
Name(s) _____________________
____ Yes, we will be there
____ Sorry, we cannot come
____ of us are coming
One exclamation mark at most, and keep the two answers the same length so declining does not feel like the smaller box. “____ of us are coming” is the line that saves you a phone call: without it a card signed by one person can arrive meaning one guest or four.
3. With a meal choice
When the caterer needs a count per course rather than a count of people.
Kindly reply by the tenth of May
M _____________________
____ accepts with pleasure
____ declines with regret
Please mark one choice for each guest
____ Herb-roasted chicken
____ Fillet of sea bass
____ Wild mushroom risotto (v)
Allergies or dietary needs ____________
Tick boxes count people, so the numbered blanks matter: three guests choosing three different courses have to be able to say so on one card. Put the dietary line under the choices rather than in the same row — it is a sentence, not a tick, and guests need the space to write “severe nut allergy” rather than “nuts”. Leave the whole block off if the menu is fixed.
4. A family, with the seats named
For a household where you need to know which of them is coming, not just how many.
We have reserved four seats in your honour
Kindly reply by the tenth of May
Please write the name of each guest attending
1. _____________________
2. _____________________
3. _____________________
4. _____________________
____ We are unable to attend
Naming the seats is how a party of four stops arriving as six. It also settles the plus-one question without a conversation: the card holds the number you invited and no more lines than that. Write the number in words on the first line so it cannot be altered with a pen.
5. On the invitation itself, with no reply card
The block that replaces the whole card: two or three lines at the foot of the invitation.
Kindly reply by the tenth of May
at ameliaandjonah.example
where you will also find the timings,
parking and the nearest hotels
This is what an RSVP on the wedding card looks like in practice, and it is the version most couples now print: no reply card, no small envelope, no return stamp. Keep the address short enough to type with one thumb, print it in the same type as the rest of the card, and test it on two phones before the print run — a web address on paper cannot be corrected afterwards.
6. The reply step on a digital invitation
When the invitation is a link, the card becomes a short form. These are the labels, not lines to fill in.
Will you be joining us?
Yes, we will be there
Sorry, we cannot come
How many of you are coming?
Anything we should tell the kitchen?
Please reply by 10 May
The register changes with the medium: a guest taps these instead of writing on them, so the wording is a question and an answer rather than a blank. Keep it to one screen, ask nothing you will not use, and let the page hold the deadline — it is the one line you can still correct after everyone has opened it.
7. Reply by text or telephone
For a short guest list, or a list with guests who are not online at all.
Kindly reply by the tenth of May
Text or call Amelia on 07700 900 123
or Jonah on 07700 900 456
Please tell us the names of everyone coming
and anything the kitchen should know
Honest about what this costs you: every reply arrives in a different place and someone has to keep the list. It works beautifully for forty guests and becomes a second job at a hundred and forty. Ask for the names in the same message, or you will be replying to ask.
How many RSVP cards should you order?
One per invitation, and an invitation goes to a household rather than to a person. A couple is one card. A family of five is one card. A guest living alone is one card, and so is an adult child over eighteen at a family address if you are addressing them by name. A hundred guests is rarely a hundred cards, and ordering as if it were is the most common way to overspend on stationery.
Then add spares, and on a reply card the spare count is not its own calculation: one card, one small envelope and one return stamp go inside every invitation you order, so order spare cards to match the spare invitations, and order the envelopes and the stamps with them rather than after. The usual allowance is roughly ten to fifteen per cent extra, or a flat handful on a short list — a trade convention rather than a measured figure. It matters more on this part of the suite than anywhere else in it, because a reply card is never reordered on its own: the household you remember in March needs the card, the envelope and the stamp, and a second short run pays to set the press up again for forty cards. The household counter turns a guest list into the number to order, spares included, and the reply-card count is the same number.
What replaces the card when the reply lives on the invitation?
A form on the page the guest is already reading. They open the invitation, answer at the bottom of it, and the count moves as they do. Nothing is printed, nothing is addressed, and nothing has to survive the post — which removes the card, the small envelope and both stamps from the order, and removes the fortnight you would have spent waiting for cards that were never sent.
Three things get better rather than merely cheaper. The deadline becomes editable: change the date on the page and every guest who opens the link sees the new one, including the ones who opened it last month. The reply arrives complete, because a form can require the names and the meal choices a handwritten card can leave blank. And you always know who has not answered, which turns chasing into one short message rather than a tally on the back of an envelope.
What it costs: $89 at list, once, for any number of guests, hosted through your wedding date and at least 90 days after — no per-guest fee, and no second charge for the reply. The invitation with the RSVP built in is the page to read next if that is the direction you are going; the RSVP side of it covers the named guests, the meal totals and the export the caterer wants. And if you are printing anyway, you do not have to choose: a QR code on the details card points at the same reply page, so the cards you post and the link you send feed one list.
Wedvite's list price is $89. Until Oct 31, this code brings it to $49, applied automatically at checkout:
FAQ
Wedding RSVP card questions
What do you write on a wedding RSVP card?
Five things: a reply-by date, a line for the guest to write their own name, an accept line, a decline line, and the number of seats you have reserved for that household. Add a meal choice and a dietary line only when the caterer needs them, and print your return address on the envelope rather than on the card. Anything else — the timings, the dress code, the hotels — belongs on the invitation or its details card, not on the reply.
What does RSVP mean on a wedding card?
It is short for répondez s’il vous plaît, French for “please reply”. On a wedding card it means the couple need an answer from you, by the date printed beside it, whether or not you can come. A decline is a reply: the number the couple send to the caterer depends on the no’s arriving as well as the yes’s. Formal stationery often writes it out as “the favour of a reply is requested” instead, which asks for exactly the same thing.
Do you send a reply card to guests who have already said they are coming?
Yes — everyone on the list gets the same suite, including the people who told you in person. A verbal yes at a birthday in January is not something you can hand a caterer in May: it carries no date, no meal choice, and no record of the partner who has since changed their plans. The card is how an answer becomes a number you can act on. Say so when you hand it over — “you know you’re coming, but we need it in writing” — and those are usually the first cards back.
Do you put a stamp on a wedding RSVP envelope?
Yes. The return envelope goes in already addressed to you and already stamped, because the reply is the host’s expense and not the guest’s. It is also self-interest: an unstamped envelope is the single most reliable way to make a reply late. Use a current first- or second-class stamp rather than one bought a year earlier, and check the weight of the card if the envelope is unusually small or stiff.
How do you write the meal choice line on an RSVP card?
Give each dish its own blank rather than a tick box, ask for one mark per guest, and name the dishes in plain words with the vegetarian option marked. Numbered blanks let one card say that three people at one address chose three different courses, which tick boxes cannot. Keep the dietary question as a separate written line underneath, because an allergy needs a sentence and not a tick.
Do you still need a reply card if the invitation is digital?
No — the reply is part of the page. Guests answer where they are already reading, the count updates as they do, and nothing has to come back in the post, so the card, its envelope and both stamps come off the order. What you give up is real: no handwritten card in the keepsake box, and any guest who is not comfortable online needs a phone number to reply to instead. Most couples who send a link keep one or two paper invitations for the people who would rather hold one.
Let the invitation take the replies.
One link, $89 at list, unlimited guests — the reply, the headcount and the meal choices on the page your guests are already reading.