Invitation Etiquette

I love receiving invitations to parties and events!! Who doesn't?? I have also been involved in organizing events that require sending invitations. In both sending and receiving invitations I have learned some interesting things; namely, there are proper rules of etiquette that involve invitations. I also discovered that I have broken just about all of them at sometime or the other :\  Anyways, I thought I would share some basic invitation etiquette rules with you so that you can avoid my mistakes ;);)

Sending an Invitation:
1. Make sure your invitation style matches the event style (formal, informal, etc.)
2. When asking for an RSVP be sure to leave contact information. If you want people to RSVP then you need to give them a way to do so.
3. Be sure to give enough details. It is not nice to leave the invited guests in the dark as to what they
are requested to attend

Receiving an Invitation:
1. If the invitation asks for an RSVP, respond whether you are planing on attending or not.  Your host needs to know how many people are coming in order to plan many of the details.  Besides, there is nothing as annoying as sending out an invitation and not hearing at all from some people. Are they coming or not??
2. Try to RSVP within 2 or 3 days of receiving the invitation. This is especially important if the invitation is to an event that is happening soon.
3. Be sure to RSVP for the exact number of people attending. It helps the host\hostess's planning process.
4. In the case of formal invitations, don't decide last minute that you are planing on coming when you already RSVP'd that you weren't. It is o.k to do this for some informal events but it still can be rather annoying so try to avoid it all together.