Wedding Invitation Response Basics

Dear Dr. Dave and Dr. Dee,

I received an invitation to a wedding, but cannot go. The invitation included a little card and self-addressed stamped envelope with which to RSVP. But, the little card had the letter "M" then a blank, and then the words: "will" and "attend" with a blank in between the two words. Do I put a "zero" in the blank, or what? Why do they have these strange little cards?

Signed,

Confused

Dear Confused,

The little card enclosed with the wedding invitation is provided to help expedite the response. It does seem cryptic. Your little card probably looked like the one below.

M _____________________________

will ________ attend

All you have to do is write the name in the blank after the "M" just as it was addressed to you. For example, assuming it was addressed Mr. John Doe:

M is already printed for you, so write: r. John Doe

If unable to attend, then after the "will" write: not

If you will attend, then you would not write anything in that blank.

If the invitation looks like this one below, then write your name and the number of guests who can attend. If no one will be attending, then write 0.

Name ___________________

Number of guests ____