Wedding Blog
No, not the romantic kind. 
I’m talking about the hook-ups that save money and time. Throughout planning, Mr. Eggplant and I have been utilizing the entire talent pool of our family and friends. Two of our friends are singing and playing piano for the ceremony, another friend has built our website, and yet another is helping us create something akin to a wedding music video for our reception. We are thanking them with thoughtful gifts and a generous gift card to stores of their liking.
Brother Eggplant has also contributed to his big sister’s wedding. I’m fairly proficient with computers, but my little brother truly takes the cake when it comes to tech stuff. He’s a programmer by profession and full of tons of useful, nerdy knowledge. I’m so proud to be a big sis of such a bright yet humble brother.
Yesterday, I asked Brother Eggplant if it’s possible to code an online RSVP system for our wedding guests. Most of our guests sit in front of a computer all day, everyday so it’s more convenient for people to RSVP via the internet rather than taking a trip to the post office. Ever since online bill pay, I can’t even remember the last time I visited a mailbox. Well, one day after I asked Brother Eggplant about the online system, he sends me a mock-up of our RSVP page! That boy is quick.
Inside of our snail mailed invitations, the RSVP card will say something to the effect of:
The pleasure of your reply is requested by September __th
We have reserved __ seats for you
Please RSVP through our website at
http://www.[the eggplants’ website].com/rsvp
Your invitation code is __________
Our RSVP system will be password protected and everyone will receive a different RSVP code in their invitation. Once they visit the RSVP section of our page, they will see a field, asking for their invite code:
On the next page, the invite code will cause their names populate in the Guest Name field. Here, they can let us know if they will be coming and what they want to eat. If they are out-of-town guests, their invite code will populate a field asking them where they are staying and when they are arriving (so I know where to send the OOT packages, should I decide to make some).
After they complete the form and select Submit, their names will be entered into a MySQL database, which we can then gather information from.
This is just an initial, rough mock-up so it needs some tweaking, but you get the idea.
An online RSVP system is definitely not traditional and less formal, but I really like the convenience. Plus, our website was a labor of love, so now we’ll actually get some utility out of it. We’re also saving $50 on stamps. The site includes a link to our registry, should guests decide to take a peek. I had no plans to include registry information in our mailed invitation cards (I agree with the etiquette police on this one), but I also didn’t want to answer 200 inquiries about where we’re registered. Sending guests to our website was a good alternative.
Are any of you forgoing the traditional for tech-savvy options? What have been your family (or friend) hook-ups?
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I think this is an excellent idea - so convenienet for everyone involved.
Question - what about people who are allowed to bring a guest?
Thank goodness for friends and family. One friend designed and printed my STD’s, my sister designed the invite, another friend who has a letterpress printer letterpressed them, another friend did my hair and makeup, another friend who is starting her photography business did the photos (www.rachelmillerstudios.com - just to give her a shoutout) And my sister and sister-in-law baked and decorated the cake. I was so lucky to have such a talented group to pull from.
Dang, you should pimp out Brother Eggplant’s services! I’m sure that more and more brides will utilize online RSVPs. I’m looking into it myself.
Thats awesome! I considered online RSVPs, but wasn’t sure how to go about it. This looks excellent. Although one comment… under “What would you like to eat?” The answer “child” makes me laugh. Carnivores? hehehe =)
we requested that our guests rsvp online also, through our wedding website on theknot.com. i don’t love their system, though, and if i could do it all over again,i would’ve had a friend make our website complete with an rsvp system like yours. *sigh* hindsight, right?
i meant cannibals, not carnivores. hah. im a dork, sorry =)
What a great idea! I love the “___ seats have been reserved for you” too…great way to keep control of your headcount!!
I think it’s a great idea.
The only person I know that did that was someone who got engaged and married in like a month. Heh.
But even so. I think that it makes sense to have electronic rsvps - especially nowadays.
Dude, your brother rocks!!
We’re getting my fiance’s brother to play acoustic guitar at the ceremony, his mother is going to do calligraphy for us, my friend is a makeup artist so she’s doing the makeup… I think that might be it though, most of our friend don’t have wedding-related skills!!
Do all of your guests have access to high speed internet? I think it’s a really neat idea, but I don’t know that it would be pratical for us. My grandparents and other fols their age would be lost if they had to do anything on-line…
i love it! 
what about older people (ie. parents’ friends, relatives) who aren’t internet savvy?
OMG that is awesome……I would so pay him to do a site like that for me! he’s brilliant.
i wonder if my tech-savvy bf would be able to doctor something similar as well. hmm.
we do have a lot of very talented friends at our disposal so i’m glad and hopefully can take them up on their offers.
I dunno if I mentioned it before, but I absolutely love the “better together” theme. So, so sweet.
i love that you asked the out of towners when they’d be arriving. i was wondering how to keep track of that and you’ve got a great system! i wish i could build one of my own now.
Yum, children. Funny!
We are doing online RSVPs as well.
I
LOVE
it.
We just sent our invitations out last week and we already have like 10 rsvps. It’s wonderful!! We used ewedding.com and it has been great.
As for the friends helping out, I some how have landed in wedding mecca. My good friend is doing our photography for a fraction of the price (she has been doing weddings for over 10 years), we have friends playing and singing during the ceremony, more friends that have a bluegrass band will play the reception. Another gal is doing my makeup as a wedding gift - also her field, and my day of coordinator is also a close friend. It’s amazing!!
Looks awesome! Maybe “Child’s Plate” instead of “Child”? Hee hee.
I am lucky enough that I have a cousin who just finished baking school! She can do fondant and sugar flowers and everything. Sadly, lots of places still charge a cutting fee if you don’t use their cake– what a rip!
So great to have talented/skilled family members & friends! I think that’s ingenius and personally would love the convenience of online responses as a guest. that’s why evite is so popular!
Nicole: The number of guests will populate based on the invite code
Jessica: We thought about our older guest but i figure that since our grandparents live with their children (one set lives with Mr. Eggplant’s parents and my grandma lives with my aunt), so we’ll know if they are coming and what the want to eat pretty easily. Also, we might end up making a set of separate 10 or so RSVP cards for people that we think would prefer to snail mail them back.
Wow, I’m glad this got good reviews! I should tell brother Eggplant to start a side business. hehe.
You can also try WufooDotCom. They have online forms that you can customize and add to your website.
Luzl, we also used wufoo[dot]com! we used it to gather our friends’ addresses when we first sent out our “save the date” emails. I love that site.
but i wanted our wedding website to be more dynamic rather than static. So for each guest code, I only wanted the feels that were applicable to populate. Since not all of our guests can bring dates, I didn’t want someone to be allotted two guest entry slots if we only counted the person for a single headcount. my brother’s system worked better for our purposes.
I love the RSVP mockup! So convenient…great idea. And the “child” option on the menu also made me laugh out loud.
I’m doing online RSVPs too! I am not as into details as some of the readers of weddingbee; in addition, I’m trying to keep the planning as simple as possible bc my mom turned into a freakfest for my sister’s wedding and I’m trying to avoid a repeat! I was overwhelmed by the idea of picking paper, fonts, etc., so our photographer (who is the mother of a student of mine and giving us a huge discount!!) is doing our invitations! One card, old-timey picture of us in sepia tones on the front, info about the wedding inside, and the website on the bottom. Saves paper and trees and blah blah.
For those of you bee readers who aren’t computer savvy or don’t have those types of relatives, I used weddingwindow [dot] com - it’s really really easy, very pretty, and while not free, very reasonable. It’s not as customizable as Miss Eggplant’s (GO BROTHER EGGPLANT!), but you can tailor a lot of it to your needs. Apparently you can export the rsvp list to excel of something too.
while i appreciate the beautiful traditional invite, rsvp’ing online is just way easier for me. it’ll be interesting to see how wedding traditions change in the coming years due to the internet!
better together… aww… to cute… i’d like child please, kekeke…
i was thinking about doing an “evite” type of thing for rsvp… but most of my parents friends don’t know how to use the computer… i’m sure by the time our kids have their weddings, it will be more common
i got an invitation for a wedding next month that had that idea as well. except they werent elaborate by adding guests (seeing as seats were pre-reserved), and meal choices (because im assuming that its a buffet style?!)
in anycase when i saw her invite, i thought it was the best idea ever! lol. and i gotta say your layout is looking awesome
my FI did our online RSVP and before the invites were sent, people thought the concept was really weird. but the second they got them - they LOVED IT!!! we only sent them out last saturday and we’ve already gotten 20% of our responses. people are excited at the convenience and know that their response got through b/c we send automatic email confirmations with their choices.
we also asked for their email address, both for the confirmation and so we could send them pertinent info as the day approaches (for example, we found out that the main road we directed people to in the invite will be closed for an arts festival, so we have to provide alternate directions).
yay for tech geeks!
Hahahaha “child” had me laughing out loud as well.
It looks awesome! Great work!!
[...] to top it off, they took graphics from our wed-site to coordinate with the wedding [...]
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Mrs. Eggplant, San Francisco
Age and Occupation: 28, Human Resources
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Associate Marketing Manager
Engagement Date: January 19, 2007
Wedding Date: October 20, 2007
Blogging Since: May 31, 2007
Venue: Ceremony at a cement and stained glass cathedral and reception at a boutique hotel ballroom
About Me: I'm a shopping junkie who lives to discover great deals and a craft addict that loves to scrapbook and knit. My profile picture was taken on the day I got engaged which is why my smile is so huge!
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