Wedding Guest List Builder
The guest list is the spine of a wedding: it sets the budget, the venue size, the catering order and the seating chart. This builder keeps households together, tracks RSVPs and meals, and exports the caterer's sheet — all in your browser, with no account.
Free · No signup · Works offline · Your data stays in your browser
How to use it
- Add guests one at a time, or import a spreadsheet you already have with Import CSV.
- Group people into households so invitations go to an address rather than to five separate people.
- Record RSVPs as they arrive — yes, no, pending — along with meal choices and dietary requirements.
- Mark who is allowed a plus-one, and name the plus-one once you know it.
- Tag guests by side, event or any label you like, then filter to see just that group.
- Export CSV for your caterer or venue, or print a final list grouped by table.
Build the list by household, not by person
Almost every guest-list mistake comes from treating the list as a list of names. Invitations go to addresses; catering counts individuals; seating charts group couples and families. A flat list of names cannot serve all three, which is why couples end up maintaining three separate spreadsheets that quietly disagree with each other.
Grouping by household solves it. One entry per address gives you an accurate stationery count and stops you posting three invitations to the same family. Individual records inside each household give the caterer a headcount and the seating chart the people it needs to place. The two views stay in sync because they are the same data.
It also settles the plus-one question at the point of writing rather than at the point of arguing. A household either includes a partner or it does not, and the invitation is addressed accordingly.
Cutting the list when it is too long
The first draft of a guest list is always over capacity. A few rules make the cuts consistent rather than personal:
- Apply rules, not judgements. "No colleagues" or "nobody we haven't spoken to in three years" is defensible to everyone. Cutting one particular colleague is not.
- Cut whole categories. Removing all children, or all second cousins, is far easier to explain than removing some.
- Give each set of parents a fixed number. Ten names each, their choice. This converts an open-ended negotiation into a bounded one and takes you out of the middle.
- Beware the B-list. It only works if the first round of invitations goes out early enough that the second round still arrives six weeks ahead. Guests can tell when an invitation arrives three weeks before, and it is remembered.
Every removed guest takes their catering, bar, rental, stationery and favour cost with them — typically $150–450 per head. Guest count is the fastest lever in the entire budget.
Tracking replies without chasing your own spreadsheet
Set every guest to pending when the invitation goes out, and update as replies arrive. What matters is that the pending list stays visible: it is the list you will be calling in the fortnight before your headcount is due, and it is always longer than expected.
Record the meal choice at the same moment as the RSVP, because asking twice annoys people. Record allergies separately from preferences — a caterer needs to know that one guest cannot have shellfish in a way that is different from knowing another prefers fish. The export keeps the two columns apart for exactly this reason.
Expect roughly 15–20% of invited guests to decline for a local wedding, and 20–30% for a destination one. It is reasonable to invite slightly above your venue capacity on that basis — but only slightly, and never so much that a high acceptance rate leaves people standing.
Getting the list out of the tool
Three exports cover nearly every request you will get. Export CSV produces the full dataset for a spreadsheet or for your venue's own system. Print produces a caterer-friendly final list of confirmed guests, grouped by table, with meals and dietary notes on it — this is the document a catering manager actually wants. And once you have built a seating chart, the same guest records feed the escort cards and the per-table catering sheet without being retyped.
Your list is stored in this browser only. Nothing is uploaded, and there is no account, which also means there is no copy if you clear your browsing data. Export a CSV occasionally — a guest list is a few hours of work you do not want to repeat.
Frequently asked questions
Can I import a guest list I already have?
Yes. Import CSV accepts a standard spreadsheet export and matches common column headings automatically — name, email, phone, side, meal and similar. Anything it cannot map is preserved in the guest's notes rather than dropped.
Where is my guest list stored?
In your browser's local storage on this device, and nowhere else. There is no account, no server-side database and no transmission of your guests' names, emails or phone numbers. The trade-off is that clearing browser data or switching device loses the list, so export a CSV as a backup.
How do I handle plus-ones?
Mark the guest as plus-one allowed when you send the invitation, then fill in the plus-one's name once they tell you. Counting unnamed plus-ones separately is what keeps your catering number accurate while the names are still unknown.
Does it work with the seating chart?
Yes — they read the same guest records. Anyone marked as attending is available to seat, and the table they are assigned to appears back on their guest record.
Can I track more than one event?
Yes. Tag guests by event — rehearsal dinner, welcome drinks, day-after brunch — and filter to each one. The same person can carry several event tags.
How many people should we invite?
Work backwards from budget and venue capacity rather than forwards from the list. Divide your catering budget by the per-head cost to get a maximum, check it against what the venue will hold seated, and treat the lower of the two as the ceiling.