Guest lists
Your guest list, by household.
How to build a guest list that counts right: by household, with plus-ones and children decided early. A free template to start from is below.
Start with households.
Draft the list one line per household, with every name in it. Then give each person their own row under their household’s name, so each one gets their own answer and their own dietary note.
Invite by household, so one person can answer for everyone in it. A household can be a couple, a family with children, or one guest on their own.
Decide plus-ones and children now.
Both change the count and the wording of the invitation, so settle them before anything is designed.
- Plus-ones: decide who is offered one, and mark it on their row. Add the name when you have it, or ask for it when they reply.
- Children: give every invited child their own named row. A name on the list is clearer than “and family”.
- If children are not invited, the invitation’s names say it for you: invite the people you mean, by name.
When to draft it.
These are the dates the free runbook uses. Your own runbook counts them back from your date.
| Event | Draft the guest list |
|---|---|
| A wedding, a gala, or a large guest list | About 8 months before |
| Most parties and celebrations | About 11 weeks before |
| A small gathering | About 5 weeks before |
What the template keeps for each guest.
- Household and name: one row per person, with the household’s name repeated on each.
- Email and phone, and a postal address if you are mailing anything.
- Group: family, friend, work or other, so you can see where the count comes from.
- Plus-one: yes or no, and the name once you have it.
- Adult, child or infant.
- Dietary needs and accessibility needs, in their own words.
- Attendance: awaiting, attending or declined, filled in as replies arrive.
The file opens in Excel, Google Sheets or Numbers. The first five rows are examples: replace them with your own guests.
Count it right.
- Count each person: a household of four is four people.
- Count every plus-one you offered until they decline.
- Count children, and ask your caterer how they price them.
- Your final number is the people marked attending once replies close.
What Evorrah does once the list is made.
- On The Whole Event ($1,495) and Fully Handled ($2,995), every household is followed up until they answer, 14 and 2 days before your reply date. It stops the moment a guest replies.
- On Essentials ($495), you follow up the guests who have not answered yourself.
- An event website: included on The Whole Event and Fully Handled, $99 on Essentials. On Fully Handled it sits on your own web address.
- A helper who sees only their side, and family who can only look.
- Move up anytime and pay only the difference.