[Emmy Loyd]

One of the considerable challenges of event planning is gauging exactly how many people will attend. For those of you who are unsure of the proper response, we've provided a simple refresher course on the differences between "regrets only" and "RSVP."

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[lilysunshine]

My boss is the biggest culprit of the 'one more shouldn't matter' camp. It's caused quite the dilemma for me, as the chances of him changing his mind at the last minute to either attend when we've said no, or to not attend when we've said yes, and both are equally bad!

[NicoleMiller]

I have planned several meetings, events and parties and know how frustrating it can be when invitees don't respond to an invitation. It definitely makes it hard on the planner since most events rely on headcounts, as Emmy mentioned in the article.

I typically only send out RSVP type invitations because you should eventually here from everyone with a yes or a no. This will allow you to know who to reach out to after the RSVP date for a response. In addition, I add a few days cushion to the RSVP date so I have a couple days to reach out to the non-responders before I have to let the caterer/venue know the final headcount.

If you do a regrets only response, you are not sure if those you have not received a response from are coming or if they just are the non-responder type.

-Nicole

[asbruckman]

Interesting points Emmy. If the event is announced by email, you also need to account for the fact that not everyone may actually get the invite or read it. It could get caught by a spam filter, or just lost in a mountain of incoming messages. I think it's harder to use the "regrets only" approach if the announcement is email based!