How to Track RSVPs and Get a Head Count

Method 1: a group chat

For a small party, a group chat works. You post the details and people answer in the thread. It is free and everyone already knows how to use it.

The limits show up fast. Replies get buried under other messages, some people answer you privately so you are checking two places, and everyone can see who has stayed silent. Up to about ten guests it holds together. Past that, you are scrolling back through a week of messages to find out whether Daniel's mom ever answered.

Method 2: a spreadsheet or a paper list

A list puts you back in charge. You enter each reply as it arrives, wherever it came from: a text, a phone call, a word at the school gate. It handles any number of guests and any detail you care to record.

The price is your time. Every answer is typed in by hand, and the list is only as current as your last update. These five columns are enough.

• Name of the guest or family.
• Reply: yes, no or nothing yet.
• Number of adults and number of children.
• Allergies and dietary needs.
• Notes: arriving late, bringing a dish, needs a high chair.

Method 3: an invitation with RSVP built in

Many online invitations carry a reply button. Guests answer on the invite, and the answers collect in one place without you typing anything. Once the invite is out, this is the method that asks least of you.

Check two things before choosing a service: whether guests need an account to reply, and whether the price changes with the size of your list.

Which method for which party

• Under ten guests who all know each other: the group chat is enough.
• A mixed list reached by calls, texts and email: a spreadsheet keeps it together.
• A bigger party, or one where each child costs money at a venue: an invitation with RSVP built in saves the most work.
• A mix of paper and online invitations: use built-in RSVP for the link, and add the paper guests to the same list by hand.

Work backward from whoever needs the number

Your reply date is set by a supplier, not by the party. Find out when the venue, the bakery or the caterer needs a final count, and ask guests to answer two or three days before that. Those days are your margin for the stragglers. If nobody outside the family needs a number, count back from your own shopping trip instead.

Close the gaps with one direct message

The day after your reply date, look at the list for names with nothing next to them, and message each one separately. Name the thing you are about to order, so the question has an obvious deadline.

• "Hi Dana, I'm giving the trampoline park our number tomorrow morning. Is Micah in?"
• "Ordering cupcakes tonight: are you two coming, and is Lily joining?"
• "No answer needed if it's a no. I'll put you down as not coming unless I hear back by tonight."

Turn replies into a head count for food

A yes is not a number. "We'll be there!" can mean one child or a family of five. Ask how many are coming, and count adults and children separately, since they eat different amounts and often different things.

• Count people, not families.
• Keep allergies and dietary needs next to each name, and pass them to whoever is making the food.
• Treat an unanswered invite as a no for the venue, and as a maybe for the snack table at home.
• Add a small buffer for late replies and unplanned siblings.
• Expect a few cancellations on the morning, especially at kids' parties. They usually balance the buffer.
• Give the caterer or venue the final number after your follow-up messages, not before.

Why built-in RSVP gives the cleanest count

A head count goes wrong at the moment you copy a reply from one place to another. Blast is an animated video invitation with music, sent as a link, and guests RSVP from the invite itself without an account, so the answers never pass through a chat thread or your memory on the way to the list. There is no guest limit, which helps when the list keeps growing. Blast is free to create and send.