RSVP: Don't make me have to call you

OK, folks. What more can we do? We furnished a little response card, plus the envelope, plus the stamp, with the invitation. Granted, we didn't send a writing instrument for you to use - obviously an oversight on our part. But we really tried to make it as easy on you as possible.

Miss Manners is not fond of the response card enclosure phenomenon, because she feels it shouldn't be the bride's responsiblity to pull RSVP's out of her guests:

Miss Manners, however, "hates response cards, although she admits they are widely used. Her feeling is that someone too rude to answer by hand will probably also fail to take the trouble to mail the card, so there goes your stamp, as well as your head count." She says that one possible solution is to call the people you haven't heard from a week before the event, "and ask them whether you will have the pleasure of their company. If that doesn't shame them, nothing will."

Listen, dear friends, we desperately need to know whether or not you are coming to the wedding (and more especially, the reception). I know the card says to respond by October 1, but really, what's holding you up?

Now, go fill out the card, put it in the envelope, and put it in the mail. Yes, now.

Or I start making the phone calls October 2.