---
title: 'Replies and head counts'
description: 'How to collect replies, chase the guests who go quiet, and turn a head count into a table plan.'
source: 'https://envelope.love/blog/replies'
guides: '7'
---

# Replies and head counts.

How to ask so that people actually answer, and what to do about the ones who go quiet. Head counts, dietary needs and the final list.

This is the plain markdown copy of https://envelope.love/blog/replies, published by Love Envelope for machine readers. The page itself carries the same words.

- [Asking guests about dietary requirements](https://envelope.love/blog/dietary-requirements-guests.md): Ask once, at reply time, in one open box. Why the tick list is the wrong shape, and what your caterer actually needs from you.
- [What to do about the guests who never reply](https://envelope.love/blog/guests-who-never-reply.md): Ten percent of any guest list goes quiet. How to tell the ignorers from the ones who never got it, and the message that actually works.
- [How to collect RSVPs online without chasing anyone](https://envelope.love/blog/collect-rsvps-online.md): Reply cards lose a third of your answers. What to ask, what to never ask, and the two changes that get most of a guest list to answer in a week.
- [Setting an RSVP deadline that actually works](https://envelope.love/blog/rsvp-deadline.md): How to pick the date, why the obvious one is too late, and the small wording changes that get people to answer on time.
- [What to do when a guest says no](https://envelope.love/blog/when-a-guest-declines.md): How to reply, whether to ask why, when to offer the seat to somebody else, and how not to take it personally.
- [Reading your invitation statistics](https://envelope.love/blog/reading-your-invitation-statistics.md): Opens, replies, sources and the numbers that mean nothing. What to watch in the first week, and when silence is actually a problem.
- [Collecting guest names for the table plan](https://envelope.love/blog/collecting-guest-names.md): A head count seats nobody. How to get every name in the party, spelled correctly, without a second round of messages.

## Other subjects

- [Invitation wording](https://envelope.love/blog/wording.md): What to actually write, with lines you can take as they are.
- [Invitation etiquette](https://envelope.love/blog/etiquette.md): Whose name goes where, who has to be invited, and how to say no kindly.
- [Planning the invitations](https://envelope.love/blog/planning.md): When each piece happens, and what has to be decided before it can.
- [Sending the invitations](https://envelope.love/blog/sending.md): Getting it into a hundred hands without a trip to the post office.
- [Invitation design](https://envelope.love/blog/design.md): How an invitation looks, and what that is quietly saying.
- [Invitations by occasion](https://envelope.love/blog/occasions.md): The other days that need an invitation, from the engagement to the fiftieth.

Make yours. Six designs, your own words, and one link to send. Free to build, free for a day once it is live. https://envelope.love/create