I hold formal dinner parties with limited place settings. But there are friends who never respond to my invitations and show up anyway. What’s the best way to accommodate them?

These are friends of mine, and I do want to entertain them, but I’m afraid I’ll be limiting them to barbecues in the future.

My question is how to react when people do not respond to an invitation, nor to a gentle nudge and arrive anyway.

In today's Miss Manners column, advice columnist Judith Martin responds to a host seeks advice on handling friends who arrive without RSVPing.

I am a single man who inherited, from my parents and grandparents, both a love of entertaining and also a great deal of the trappings needed -- china, crystal, linen, silver -- that other relatives ...

I am a single man who inherited, from my parents and grandparents, both a love of entertaining and also a great deal of the trappings needed -- china, crystal, linen, silver -- that other relatives ...

DEAR MISS MANNERS: I am a single man who inherited, from my parents and grandparents, both a love of entertaining and also a great deal of the trappings needed — china, crystal, linen, silver — that ...

My question is how to react when people do not respond to an invitation, nor to a gentle nudge (such as an emailed “I wondered if you had received this,” with a second copy of the invitation) — and ...

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