Each wedding guest gets a WhatsApp message with a personal RSVP link for attendance, seats, a meal per person and allergies. Answers fill the couple's Google Sheets guest list with live meal totals, and guests get a confirmation with venue directions.
Typical results
≈80%
Households that reply without a phone call
≈5 hrs
Saved per wedding on compiling meal counts
Live
Meal and seat totals per side of the family
Figures reflect typical results for this kind of automation.
The challenge
RSVPs come back by phone, text and paper card, and someone types each answer into a spreadsheet. Meal choices are often missing, so the planner calls guests again weeks before the date. Totals per meal and per side of the family are counted by hand for the caterer, and late changes mean recounting the whole list.
Before and after
Households chased by phone per wedding
−60%Hours compiling meal counts per wedding
−91%Meal count corrections sent to the caterer
−75%The automation
Each invited household receives a WhatsApp message with a personal RSVP link. The form asks whether they are coming, how many seats they need, a meal per person (meat, fish, vegetarian or kids) and any allergies. Make writes the answers to the guest list in Google Sheets, where a totals tab shows meals and seats per side of the family. Guests get a WhatsApp confirmation with the date, time and venue directions, and silent households get one reminder.
How it works
- 01
Guest list loaded
The couple's guest list in Google Sheets holds each household with its phone number, invited seats and side of the family.
- 02
WhatsApp message with RSVP link
Each household gets a WhatsApp message with its own RSVP link, already showing the invited names and number of seats.
- 03
Seats, meals and allergies
Guests confirm attendance, seats needed, a meal per person (meat, fish, vegetarian or kids) and any allergies in one short form.
- 04
Guest list updated live
Answers land in the sheet straight away, and a totals tab shows meals and seats per side of the family for the caterer.
- 05
Confirmation with directions
The guest gets a WhatsApp confirmation with the date, time and venue directions, and households with no answer get one reminder.
Starts from
- Guest list with phones
Delivers
- Seats, meals and allergies
- Live totals per meal
- Confirmation with directions
The impact
About 80% of households reply without a phone call, so chasing drops by roughly 60%. The planner saves around 5 hours per wedding on compiling meal counts, the caterer gets totals per meal and per side that are always current, and late changes update the numbers on their own.
Questions about this automation
Can guests change their answer after they reply?
Yes. The same personal link stays active until the RSVP deadline the couple sets, and any change, such as a seat dropped or a switch to vegetarian, overwrites the row in the guest list. Totals recalculate at once, and the planner can see the time of the last change for each household.
What about older guests who don't use WhatsApp?
Guests without WhatsApp can get the same link by SMS or email, and the planner can enter a phone or paper reply through a short internal form. Every route writes to the same guest list, so totals stay correct no matter how the answer arrived.
What does the studio need to set it up for each wedding?
A guest list with household names, phone numbers, invited seats and side of the family, plus the venue details and the meal options the caterer offers. Simple automations like this are usually live within days, and each new wedding then reuses the same setup with its own sheet.