Postage for international reply cards?

A few of our guests live outside the United States. Do we need to provide the postage for their reply cards?

Although invites get sent out 6-8 weeks before the wedding date- you'd be surprised how many people are left calling their friends 2 weeks before the wedding to get the final head count.

Bottom line, is the easier you make it for your guests to rsvp (including stamps), the sooner you will get your responses.

That being said, when I got married, I chose the old fashioned way- no enclosed card- and each guest wrote a personal note. It was fun to see how people responded. Some people wrote the formal reply and others wrote more personal comments. The notes are great keepsakes but by making it more difficult than checking off a box, you may have to do some wrangling to get all of the responses back.

Comments

[Lara @ bliss event group]

Such a great post! What a lovely keepsake to have those correspondences after the wedding.

[Michelle]

Including postage for international rsvps makes absolutely no sense. Or do you think the rest of the world uses US stamps to send their mail?

[Sarita]

Seconding the previous commenter. To send an RSVP from another country, it would have to have the postage from that country. I live in Spain and I always tell people NOT to include the postage on their RSVP cards when they send me wedding invitations, because I would just have to rip it off to put Spain postage on it.

[Laura N @Southern Wedding Style Magazine]

Another thing to just have as hip information,... our friends to the north, Canada. It takes weeks to months to get regular mail there no matter how you send it so if you have Canadian guests it's something important to keep in mind it will take much longer to get to them!

Laura N.

[Alexis]

Love your blog. We just posted a link to it at: http://www.banquetevent.com/wedding/misc/bande/lucky_in_love.asp

[ShopLittleGifts]

I've been receiving lots of invitations lately. I do like the enclosures - but at the same time I prefer the web. Some people have really great websites designed and it's just as easy to respond there. So that might be a good alternative.

[Rachel]

This is a great post for brides! I ran into this situation a few weeks ago when I had to send my invites to the States. As a Canadian I asked my future mother in law in the States to mail me the correct postage for my RSVP cards. You can always check with the country postal service website. If I knew ahead of time of this 'dilemma' I would have printed an email address on the RSVP so that out of towners could replied this way and cut down costs. If you are really into the details you can buy the stamps online. Usually mail from the States to Canada takes about 6-10 days.

Having the cards pre stamped is a really great idea to get reply's quickly, I have gotten a lot of responses from my out of town guests already... which saves my sanity

good luck

[Realmarce]

I think is good Idea. I love your Blog. Thank!

[Christina]

Agree with the other posters here. We always recommend leaving off the postage for invitations going overseas (including Canada!). A guest living in Spain will need to apply different postage than one living in the UK. They will not be able to mail back their RSVP envelopes with just the US postage.

We also always recommend that you send the international invitations prior to sending any domestic invitations, if at all possible. Mail can take much longer to reach certain international locations. You may also want to confirm that guests don't need a Visa to travel to the US. If they do, you may want to send those guests their invitations a few months in advance.

Hope this is helpful!

[Christina]

Agree with the other posters here. We always recommend leaving off the postage for invitations going overseas (including Canada!). A guest living in Spain will need to apply different postage than one living in the UK. They will not be able to mail back their RSVP envelopes with just the US postage.

We also always recommend that you send the international invitations prior to sending any domestic invitations, if at all possible. Mail can take much longer to reach certain international locations. You may also want to confirm that guests don't need a Visa to travel to the US. If they do, you may want to send those guests their invitations a few months in advance.

Hope this is helpful!

[Christina]

Agree with the other posters here. We always recommend leaving off the postage for invitations going overseas (including Canada!). A guest living in Spain will need to apply different postage than one living in the UK. They will not be able to mail back their RSVP envelopes with just the US postage.

We also always recommend that you send the international invitations prior to sending any domestic invitations, if at all possible. Mail can take much longer to reach certain international locations. You may also want to confirm that guests don't need a Visa to travel to the US. If they do, you may want to send those guests their invitations a few months in advance.

Hope this is helpful!