{"id":10928,"date":"2013-02-27T08:02:57","date_gmt":"2013-02-27T15:02:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/?p=10928"},"modified":"2015-06-30T15:03:12","modified_gmt":"2015-06-30T21:03:12","slug":"is-there-a-polite-way-to-rsvp-no-when-you-really-should-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/2013\/02\/is-there-a-polite-way-to-rsvp-no-when-you-really-should-go\/","title":{"rendered":"Is There a Polite Way to RSVP “No” When You Really Should Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Pristine<\/a>Your second cousin twice-removed\u2019s fourth \u2013 but still surprisingly formal \u2013 wedding. Your college roommate\u2019s third baby shower in as many years. Your husband\u2019s annual \u2013 always potluck-style, never-catered \u2013 work party, held in the dank, gloomy break room in the back of the warehouse.<\/p>\n

Maybe it\u2019s for the benefit of your mental health, your wallet, the sake of convenience, or maybe you truly have a scheduling conflict; sometimes you\u2019ve just gotta RSVP with a big old \u201cNO\u201d \u2013 even when you know you technically could, or\u00a0should,<\/em>\u00a0RSVP \u201cyes.\u201d<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the good news: When you get stuck in one of those \u201check no, I won\u2019t go\u201d situations, there are a few ways to soften the no-RSVP blow.<\/p>\n

Etiquette, Please\"Pristine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Ms. Emily Post, queen of all things etiquette, whether you reply \u201cyes\u201d or \u201cno,\u201d the rules of polite society dictate that you must RSVP\u00a0promptly<\/em>. That means responding a day or two after you receive the invite, regardless of how far in the future the event is planned.<\/p>\n

After all, RSVP is an acronym for \u201cR\u00e9pondez, s\u2019il vous plait.\u201d Translated from French to English, that means \u201cplease reply\u201d \u2013 in other words, a direct command, not a suggestion.<\/p>\n

So get the dirty work done fast. Not only will the event host appreciate your quick response, it\u2019ll give her more time to forget \u2013 and forgive.<\/p>\n

\"Stylish<\/a>The Prettier, the Better<\/strong><\/p>\n

Make your negative response more attractive by wrapping it in a beautiful package. RSVP cards, also known as\u00a0response cards<\/a>, provide a more formal \u2013 and by extension, more polite \u2013 way of turning down or accepting an invitation.<\/p>\n

For even more positive impact, hand write your response. In today\u2019s digital world, full of printed text and electronic communication, a note written by hand means so much more and sends a much more personal message \u2013 in this case, your regret at not attending the event.<\/p>\n

As for the wording of your decline note, don\u2019t feel like you must go into great detail or over-explain. A simple \u201cI regret that I must decline your kind invitation\u201d will suffice.<\/p>\n

Following these etiquette rules will mitigate any potential hurt feelings that your no-RSVP may cause. Your polite courtesy \u2013 and the fact that you bothered to send a handwritten RSVP note in a timely manner \u2013 will be remembered much longer than the fact that you didn\u2019t make it to the event.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Your second cousin twice-removed\u2019s fourth \u2013 but still surprisingly formal \u2013 wedding. Your college roommate\u2019s third baby shower in as<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":11027,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[194,227],"class_list":["post-10928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wedding-invitation-etiquette","tag-wedding","tag-wording"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10928"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10928"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10928\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15276,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10928\/revisions\/15276"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paperdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}