Organizing Your RSVPs

So I am still alive; just busy with work and wedding stuff and other random events like concerts. Also, to add to the fun, I was without a home computer for almost three nights because we were having some window repair work done and this meant that everything near on windows, like my computer, had to be unplugged and moved away.

Not having a computer was very annoying, in part because this is the week the RSVPs have been flooding in. Our due date is today and the vast majority are now in. There are a few still outstanding on Shawn’s family side (though we’ve heard they’ll be getting in touch with us) and I’ve had to follow up on a few friends. I must say that Facebook makes following up on late RSVPs so much easier!

All this talk of RSVPs got me thinking that I should share how I’m staying organized. Basically I have two tools.

The first is an Excel spreadsheet. It has the following column headings:

Name – the names of everyone the invite went to

Number – this is the number I put on the back of the RSVP card to help me keep track in case people don’t clearly put their names on the card

Quantity – how many people are in this party; I change this number depending on the RSVP reply

Method – did we mail the invite? Hand deliver it? Did someone else hand deliver it?

Address – this might contain the actual address or just a note telling me that it’s in my address book

Status – things started as “Sent” and then got updated depending on the reply

Food – what meal option was picked

Gift – if they gave a gift, what it is

Because we’re also having a reception out in Alberta, I actually have three tabs in my spreadsheet: Toronto-Only; Alberta-Only; Both; with that tab having a slightly different column set up so that I can track who’s coming to what.

I was going to include another column called “Table Name” and then sort by that however, yesterday I received a spreadsheet from the Berkeley that I’m supposed to use to enter in all my guests by table number (or name in my case) and their meal choices. So instead of entering seating info twice, I’ll just use the Berkeley spreadsheet. I also have a Word doc where I’m sorting out who sits where since it’s easier to do that inside Word than Excel.

My other tool is this little blue file folder. It’s maybe three-by-five inches in size and is split up into a dozen pockets. I’ve labelled those pockets by food selections as well as added in a “No” pocket and “Yes” and “No” pockets for our Alberta reception.

When a RSVP card first comes in, I enter the info into the spreadsheet and then file it away in here. Then, before I send that seating/meal selection spreadsheet over to the Berkeley, I’ll double-check the info on it with the actual RSVP cards. I’m hoping this will result in no one getting the wrong mean!