RSVP's...What A Pain!

Asking people to RSVP to any event will prove to be tedious. What's the point in RSVP? Well, for me the host, I need to know how much drinks, food and space I need. So when planning an event, I like to use what I refer to as "tracking" invitation ventures. As we embark on the next decade of the 21st century, paper invites are becoming a thing of the past. Yes, I admit, there is nothing like that thick card stock on my eager fingertips, but paper invites will prove to be useless on many facets, Paper invitations are expensive and non-trackable. RSVP's get forgotten and once again they will become "Fridge Art of Events Past".

Paperless Options=Online Tracking and Lower Costs!

So when thinking of online invites, Evite is the most commonly used.
http://evite.com

The best thing about Evite is that its FREE! But with that being said, they advertise on your event page. I use Evites for big events, where I am looking to cut costs by using free invitations. This website is very useful for casual get-togethers. I like to use these for my cooking teams, dinner club events etc. Evite is very easy to set up, use and track. As the host on Evite,I like that I can see who has read my invitation, control how many guests can attend. I can even requests for guests to bring things (as this works great for Pot-Luck Style events).

Now if you want to make you online invites a little more personal, I have used a great website:

http://www.paperlesspost.com/

This website have several classy pre-designed online invites. The invites look as they are actually printed on card stock. Now what I like about Paperless Posts, is that when the invitation arrives in the guests inbox, it is addressed as from me, not the company name. Also, when the person clicks on the message, an envelope appears with the guests name, and your custom invitation is animated and slides out of the envelope. Paperless Post also has a fantastic tracking site that also allows you to see who has responded and picked up the invite. They also have a feature where you can export your guest list to an Excel format. I love this feature! Now, with all the bells and whistles, this website is not free, although very inexpensive. You purchase 20 stamps for $4.00. Now compare that to the $10 it would have costs just in postage.

After your amazing online invite is made and sent, and you have those pesky few who refuse to RSVP, a little phone call or text never hurts! I make sure everyone is accounted for and now I am ready to plan for the number of guests attending!