I just got married in March and found that RSVPs were a slight problem. However, I accepted verbal confirmations and email confirmations from out of towners or friends that I knew had just fogotten but confirmed in another manner.
The phone call strategy works, but just be sure that you get an exact count of how many people each phone call confirms. We called a few people who ended up bringing guests with them but didn't indicate it during the phone call. I guess we were suppsoed to assume that they'd have a guest. That's my only advice.
Congratulations!! Married life is wonderful!!
