Rules of RSVP

I'm sure for those of you who have planned a party would know the pain of it. There's always too many things to worry about and too little time. Planning a party is awfully tedious and stressful (I know, cause that's my frikkin' job) and what makes it worse is if you have friends who don't know what proper RSVP-ing entails!

RSVP or Répondez s'il vous plaît means "please reply". Albeit the simplicity of this commonly used phrase, people don't seem to respond very well to it. When I ask for an RSVP, I expect you to first, check your schedule AND THEN reply.. so excuses like, "I forgot that I have something else on that day" do not make for good reasons (note that I used the word "excuses" before) for your inability to show up.

I take no offense if you don't want to come to my party (it's your loss anyway) but have the decency to tell me not to cater for your share, much more so if it's in an expensive restaurant and it costs $80+++ a head. I'd much rather know you're not coming and save $200 than think you are, get disappointed and have to part with $200 (which could have bought me a nice pair of sandals btw)

If you don't understand how a buffet party is planned, it goes like this :

1) you book the date for however many guests.

2) you make a down payment for 50% of the total bill.

3) you confirm the number of guests a week prior to the party. That means no matter how many guests actually show up, you pay for however many you've booked.

It's not all about the money even! It's just basic human courtesy to me! If you actually think about it and have any understanding of opportunity costs, you're likely to understand that me inviting you, might have cost someone else's chance of being there.

Taking all that into consideration, isn't just easier to bloody RSVP properly rather than causing everyone else such inconvenience and frustration?