NEED ADVICE: Guest Allergies - Do you ask them to specify on the invitation?

If people have a severe allergy, they will usually tell you if you're planning a meal for them. I would make sure to add it to your website at least. You COULD include it if you have a sheet going with your invites that has general info on it.

I think it would be okay to add it! I would rather know and list it on the rsvp than to serve something that might make someone sick.

Actually, when I worked in catering, the chefs would get so angry if they found out last minute that someone had an allergy. This would cause them a lot of extra work. And, if you are doing your inviations before choosing the menu, I would still add it on there. There might be stuff in the final menu that you don't know about that would affect an allergy.

All the weddings i have been to i havent found out the menu choices until that day, i only found out about including options in the invite here. my one friend has a severe nut allergy and will usually ask the server if the salad or dishes have nuts in them.

I know we have a guest with a gluten allergy and my sister has a severe dairy allergy, so I planned to have items that both of them can eat. I figure that'll cover anyone else with those allergies as well.

Our caterer did tell us that if guests had allergy concerns they could call them directly and arrangements would be made between the caterer and guest. My sister said this is pretty typical. Just an FYI.

Thanks everyone, this is helpful!

I was told by our venue that it is best to list the entire description of the meal and not to put "please indicate and food allergies". They said that you will get people listing all sorts of crazy allergies if you ask, but if you don't only people with severe allergies will write down what they are allergic too.

Yeah I'm putting a note on our RSVP card as I know we have several people with allergies. I have several myself so I know our catering company has many many options and our menu should already suit most but I'd rather be safe and let the chefs know ahead so there is no cross contamination during prep or anything.

I wouldn't put it on the RSVP, honestly. If someone has a really serious allergy (as in they'll die, not as in they'll fart.....)they will tell you and the chef can adjust, though there may be many, many things they can't eat either because of cross contamination in a large busy kitchen or because not every product is going to be made, start to finish, in that kitchen. The problem with that is that busy kitchens often have hundreds if not thousands of meals served and one distracted waiter who touches a pistachio crusted anything and then your friend's meal can cause a problem. It's just impossible to control it unless those meals are sealed, like Kosher ones are.

People with real allergies are used to dealing with this situation, but I think putting the description is a good half way mark. In reality, it's their issue, not yours.

I'll have the macadamia fish please, with a side of gluten.

Definitely don't put it on the invitation. That's for a website or even a group email. That nitty gritty stuff doesn't belong with your romantic, awesome invitation. You could either put the specific menu up on the website or have a spot where people can submit their food allergies if you want the menu (including hors d'oevres/desserts) to be more of a surprise.

That's a good idea @ Molly U, thanks! I will talk to our caterer to see how they deal with allergies and just include that on the website rather than the invitation.

<---- queen of food allergies here. Celia's right, I'm completely used to dealing with these kind of situations. The only allergy that is deadly for me is shellfish and I've never encountered a wedding that didn't have a non-shellfish option for a meal. Other things like my dairy. casein, or gluten allergy - I just avoid the foods that obviously have them in them (i.e. most wedding cake) and if something gets cross contaminated my stomach will be upset, but it's nothing I've never dealt with before. I usually keep an apple and almonds with me (nuts are like the one thing I'm NOT allergic too) so even if there's not a good selection for me I won't starve to death either.

The only issue I've ever had is one wedding I was at the appetizer was in a lobster sauce. I just asked the server not to bring it to me, but he actually went back and told the chef and they brought me out something else to eat instead - so I think catering people are used to dealing with it too!

Weird... I don't know what happened to my post above. But the summary was, I'm the queen of food allergies, Celia's right I've been dealing with it for forever. The only thing that will kill me is shellfish, and the catering people have always been more then helpful and seem used to dealing with it

We aren't giving a choice for our entree....so we just have a spot where people can check for Vegetarian meal requested, and then have on our website about if anybody has a food allergy to please let us know.

On our RSVP we asked people to let us know about any dietary restrictions since we were having a seated dinner and everyone was getting the same entree.

People who did have allergies just listed it on their reply card when they sent it back.

We just let our chef know about the specific restrictions and which table the people would be seated at. We did have 2 vegetarians, 1 milk protein free and a couple other allergies that could have potentially been life threatening for our guests.

I don't mean to hijack this post, but what if someone is requesting a kosher meal? From what LITTLE I understand, I know it needs to be slaughtered a certain way and then prepared in a kosher kitchen. I don't think my specific venue is a kosher kitchen, so does that mean I should get her an outside meal?