--- title: 'Collecting guest names for the table plan' description: 'A head count seats nobody. How to get every name in the party, spelled correctly, without a second round of messages.' source: 'https://envelope.love/blog/collecting-guest-names' category: 'Replies' published: '2026-03-16' updated: '2026-03-16' --- # Collecting guest names for the table plan A head count seats nobody. How to get every name in the party, spelled correctly, without a second round of messages. This is the plain markdown copy of https://envelope.love/blog/collecting-guest-names, published by Love Envelope for machine readers. The page itself carries the same words. Here is a problem almost every couple discovers late. The replies say ninety two people are coming, and the table plan needs ninety two names. A reply that says "Sarah, plus three" is a number. Place cards, seating, the caterer's list and the toast master all need people. Getting from one to the other is usually a week of individual messages that could have been avoided entirely. ## Ask at the moment of the reply The only reliable time to get names is the moment somebody says yes, because that is the one moment they are thinking about your wedding and holding their phone. Ask for everybody in the party by name, right there, as part of the reply. Not afterwards, and not from a spreadsheet in July. > Who is coming with you? Please give us everybody's name so we can get the seating right. Explaining why is what makes people answer properly. Without the reason, half of them write "me and my partner". ## Only ask when there is somebody to name A guest coming alone should not be asked to list their party. It is a question with an obvious answer and it makes a short form feel like a survey. Ask only once the party is bigger than one, and only of guests who have said yes. Nobody who has declined needs to be seated. ## Ask for the spelling you will print Place cards are printed from whatever you were given, so what you want is the name as it should appear, not a nickname. > As you would like it written on a place card. That one clause saves the round of checking whether it is Katie or Katy, and whether Rosa's partner goes by Alex or Alexander. ## What else to collect at the same time The reply is the cheapest moment to ask for anything, because the guest is already answering. But every extra field costs you a few replies, so keep it to what you will genuinely use. - **Names of everybody attending.** Always worth it once the party is more than one - **Dietary needs.** Ask as an open question rather than a list of options. [Asking guests about dietary requirements](https://envelope.love/blog/dietary-requirements-guests) covers why - **Anything the venue actually needs.** Accessibility, a high chair, a room booking Everything else, including song requests, is a nice idea that costs you completed replies and gets used once. ## Do not ask for children by number "Two adults and two children" is another head count wearing a disguise. Ages matter for catering and seating, and names matter for place cards. Ask for everybody by name and let the guest tell you who is small. ## Keep it in one place The names have to live with the reply that produced them, or you end up with a spreadsheet, a message thread and a note in a phone that disagree with each other. One list, with each household, their answer, their party and their names. [Collecting replies online](https://envelope.love/blog/collect-rsvps-online) covers keeping that in a single place you can read in one go. ## When the number changes Parties shrink and grow, usually in the last fortnight. A guest whose partner can no longer come needs to be able to update the answer rather than send a message you may not act on. Make sure a changed answer replaces the old one rather than sitting next to it. Two answers from one household is how a seat gets counted twice. ## Send the caterer the list, not the total By the time final numbers are due, the useful document is a list of names with dietary notes against them, in table order. If you have collected names at reply time, that document already exists. If you have not, this is the week you find out. [A twelve month invitation timeline](https://envelope.love/blog/invitation-timeline-twelve-months) puts it in the right place in the sequence. --- Make yours. Six designs, your own words, and one link to send. Free to build, free for a day once it is live. Start an invitation: https://envelope.love/create