Every couple underestimates this. Not the invitation — the fortnight after it, when you are counting heads from four different chat threads and someone’s mother has answered for three people who never confirmed.
Ask for less than you think
Every extra field costs you replies. The minimum that actually works:
- Name — as they’d like it on a place card.
- Coming or not.
- Bringing anyone, and who.
- Anything the kitchen must know: meal choice, allergies.
Phone numbers are worth asking for only if you will actually call people on the day. Everything else — song requests, travel plans, hotel needs — belongs in a second message to the people who already said yes.
Give a deadline, and make it early
Caterers usually want final numbers a week or two before. Set your RSVP date four weeks out, so the chase happens before the panic. Put the date in the invitation itself, not only in the covering message — messages scroll away, the page does not.
Make replying one tap
The difference between a form that asks people to type an email address and a button that says “I’ll be there” is roughly half your replies. On this service the RSVP block sits at the bottom of the invitation: the guest taps yes or no, answers the questions you set, and the answer appears in your list immediately, with a running count.
Chase in two waves
- Two weeks before the deadline: a group message with the link again. Half the silent ones simply forgot.
- Three days before: personal messages to the rest. Individually, not in the group — people answer a message addressed to them.
It helps to see who has opened the invitation and not replied: that is a different conversation from someone who never opened it at all.
Turn answers into a plan
Once the replies are in, the same list becomes the seating chart and the catering count. Keep meal choices, plus-ones and sides in one place rather than copying them into a spreadsheet — every copy is a chance to lose someone.
Ready to set it up? Start from a template, or read how to word the invitation itself in wedding invitation wording.