With our mailing deadline coming up, Mr. Hum and I have been mulling what kind of R.S.V.P. card we want to include with our invites. We’ve both gotten a kick out of people who add funny little touches to theirs to represent their personalities and senses of humour, as well as the personalities and senses of humour of their guests. After all, we have some very funny friends and we are already doing things to incorporate our sense of humour into the day, so why not do something interesting with this? We can get people involved and we can let them know that we expect our day to be a lot of fun so it’s okay for them to have a giggle with us.
Anyway, since we’re already having to deal with the whole invitation redesign, I figured I would turn to the hive for some help on this one and ask for the wordy opinions of Bee readers.
What kind of fun wording could we use on our R.S.V.P. cards? What kind of wording did you use on yours? Help a Hummingbird out and show off your smarts! 
We did something similar, but just 4 choices..
-Accepts with Pleasure
-Declines with Regret
-Accepts with Regret
-Declines with Pleasure
our first draft had them listed in a different order and I was worried it would be confusing, so we switched to the above format, with the space to seperate the “real” from the “joke”
We originally had this for our invitations, but when I showed it to a few friends, they said people would be confused. Also, with my friends, I was afraid they would check something to be funny and then just show up!
My fiance and I are working on our RSVPs this weekend too! I’m excited to see what people post! I read in a wedding magazine about a girl who wanted to put something like this:
__ We’re coming! We’re excited
__ Sorry, my parole officer wont’ let me leave the state.
__ I’m stuck under a rock! I can’t make it.
__ Other
We are trying to come up with other ones….. but are having trouble. Its hard to come up with something funny that wont’ offend anyone…
There’s also the whole idea of going with your theme. Like…. we are both into music (we met in orchestra)… so we are also thinking of:
__ Strike up the band! We’re there
__ Missed my cue, Sorry can’t make it.
Sarah - I love your idea! (I was also a band geek.) I think that something that goes along with a weddding theme is a great idea, as is the use of unique wording. I am also not sure about giving people too many choices of which box to check… my friends will probably all do okay, but I’m not sure of my family’s sense of humor.
To solve the problem of possible confusion, how about several “accept” options and only one decline choice? For example:
___ Accepts with pleasure
___ Accepts with pleasure mixed with a vague sense of unease
___ Accepts with the sure and certain knowledge of making a spectacle of myself on the dance floor
___ Declines with regret because I’d really like to see others doing the Chicken Dance and generally looking foolish
That way, it’s still quirky and funny (I’m sure you could come up with better actual “accepts” choices for the real thing) and you know for sure who’s coming and who’s not.
ive seen this reply card picture everywhere. we thought of doing something similar but i wanted to keep my invites simple. like someone said, i think my friends would get a kick out of this but i dont know about the family. i like sarah’s idea!
We’re thinking of something like:
____ Will be there with bells on!
____ Will be there, but bells don’t go with my outfit.
____ Cannot make it, wish I could be wearing bells.
___ Cannot make it, have heard that some people will be wearing bells.
We saw it in a wedding magazine and thought it was cute…might try to do some variation of this. Good luck with yours!
I think that your guests would get a kick out of a funny reply card… but I want to suggest two things.
1.) Dont include any funny lines that do not state the ‘accept’ or ‘decline’ If your guests select “think you are just trying to wrest a gift out of me”, you wont know if they are coming or not…
2.) VERY IMPORTANT with a very faint pencil number the back of your reply cards, and correspond the numbers to your guest list. This will be a life (stress) saver. You will be surprised how many people do not fill in their name on the reply, or how many joke-sters fill in ficticious names.
We did:
__ In body
__In spirit
(Makes us less sad to get declines for some reason!)
Maybe you could have two sets of response cards– one with the traditional wording for the folks who don’t know you as well or may not get your sense of humor and one for your friends who would have a blast with it.
We’re having a destination wedding in Aruba so we did Yes, save me a beach chair! and Sorry, passport expired
lol, i love these. beanchar, you continue to crack me up. and kara, those are awesome too. i may have to lift these ideas for myself…
I think it’s funny…if I were a guest, I would totally check “Think you are just trying to wrest a gift out of me” just for kicks….although…if I do that, I guess I would have to check off Attend/Decline.
Cute ideas! These remind me a bit of Evite responses — you may head over there for inspiration.
At the Gerald M. Ford presidential museum, they had the RSVP cards from his wedding brunch.
__ I’ll be there!
(and then among the reasons to not attend)
__ Sorry, I’m a Democrat.
__ Sorry, I never liked that Gerry fellow.
__ Sorry, I’ll be too busy reading the Kinsey report.
On evite.com, they have a bunch of different styles of responses that you could play with. Some that amused me (though I’m not sure of their wedding appropriateness, but they made me giggle) are:
__ Accepts, I have the perfect outfit
__ Declines, I’m washing my hair
__ Accepts, aye aye captain
__ Declines, arg, I’m walking the plank
__ Accepts, Fo sho! Ready to get my freak on.
__ Declines, Gotta punk out, yo. Don’t hate!
I really wanted to be witty on mine, but my oh-so-formal father would have had a fit!
I still didn’t like the bland accepts/declines, and I wanted to keep the focus on the positive, too. In the end, we did:
__We are delighted to attend.
__Unfortunately, we can only celebrate from afar.
As alternatives, FI and I had a blast coming up with the following:
___We’re kicking up our heels already.
___We’ll be there with bells and whistles!
___Can’t wait to boogie!
___Sorry, we get altitude sickness.
___We’ll be toasting you from afar.
___Can’t make it, but eat an extra piece of cake for us.
___Sorry, mountains scare us.
I was all ready to contribute something brilliant, but nothing I’m coming up with can hold a candle to beanchar. Beanchar for the win!
We have these options on our website:
__love to come, and will be there with bells on (yes)
__love to come, but might have better things to do (maybe) __love to come, but secretly hate you & won’t be coming (no)
So far so good, not too much confusion!
I received an invite last summer that said something to the effect of
_ Accepts with pleasure.
_ Declines with regret.
_ Declines with regret but please send food.
Mrs. Hummingbird, Toronto
Age and Occupation: 25, Publishing Coordinator
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 24, Videogame Designer/Cartoonist
Engagement Date: May 4, 2007
Wedding Date: June 28, 2008
Blogging Since: September 18, 2007
Venue: A garden wedding followed by a tented reception on Mr. Hummingbird's father's property.
About Me: I’m a pop culture loving, vintage obsessed foodie living in Canada’s biggest city with my fantastic fiancé and our lovable fluffy cat Bettie. I’m stoked to marry my best friend and to throw what I hope will be
the most fun and colourful party of our lives.
I think the concept is funny, but I’d be afraid that people would check the wrong box b/c they are confused, and then you won’t be sure if your head count is off.