RSVP and celebration terms, defined in one sentence

RSVP stands for répondez s'il vous plaît, French for please reply, and on an invitation it asks you to tell the host whether you will attend by a stated deadline.

Reply either way: hosts need declines as much as acceptances to plan catering and seating.

Regrets only means reply only if you cannot attend; if you stay silent, the host counts you as coming.

It suits small informal gatherings and is risky for catered events, where a missed invitation becomes a paid-for empty seat.

A plus-one is the right to bring one additional guest of your choice, offered only when the invitation names you and guest or shows a plus-one field on the reply form.

A save the date is an early announcement that holds your event date in guests' calendars and expects no reply; the invitation with the RSVP request comes later.

Headcount is the final number of attending people, including named guests, plus-ones and counted children, that caterers and venues plan against.

At multi-day weddings each function has its own headcount.

A sangeet is a music and dance celebration held in the evenings before an Indian wedding, typically with performances by family and friends and its own guest list.

A mehndi is a pre-wedding ceremony, common across Indian and diaspora weddings, where henna is applied to the hands of the bride and guests, usually as a relaxed daytime event.

A haldi is a pre-wedding ritual in which turmeric paste is applied to the bride and groom for blessings and good luck, held a day or two before the wedding.

A baraat is the groom's wedding-day procession, arriving at the ceremony venue with music and dancing, and guests are usually expected to be present to receive it.

The RSVP deadline is the date by which guests must reply, set two to three weeks before a wedding so the host can chase non-repliers before caterers lock final numbers.