How are you keeping track of your guest list?

I was using WW's guest list tool but I really didn't like how you had to click on something to get 1 piece of info and something else to get another piece. I finally gave up and went to using Excel.

Actually an excel worksheet is great for sorting reasons and addressing in the future. If the address is in there you can always upload that information to print labels. You can sort the columns alphabetically or numerically which is great when doing your seating chart/scroll or seating place cards later. I even made a column for "thank you sent" and when I was opening gifts I just printed out the list and had someone write notes next to the people's names on what they gave.

I was feeling this too... too many lists... so I made one big list that is color coded - blue for his list, Green for mine. I have other columns to check that the STD was sent, Invitation sent, RSVP rec'd and how many adults & children and thank you sent (I am thinking about adding a place to list the gift they gave for thank you and for my reference and scrapbooking). Once we send out invitations and things I was planning to change the color to RED for the people who decline or cannot make it. I am very visual so this helps me and its all on one page.

I just think I have to figure a way to simplify it. I'm thinking maybe I don't need to separate the bride and grooms lists, but just combine everythign to one list and then just have a column that says B or G. My other issue is there may be 2-3 people for one address (like a spouse or friend that is coming). Some how I need to keep these names together, yet alphabetized. So Just trying to think it out. I just want to make it easy to find names and keep track of addresses and groups together.

I am using both WW and The Knot (shhh!) I like The Knot because it gives you a summary of guests, if you enter the information.

I have information tracking, Bride/Groom family, friends, vendors, kids, babies... then it'll give me the summary eg. it tells me I needed to mail out 35 invites (70 people invited), I have 44 Brides Family, 6 Groom Family, 4 Teens, 4 Children, 4 Babies, 3 Vendors and 6 Wedding Party... information needed because I get special pricing on children and vendors.

I'm an Excel Whore....Everything I do is in Excel..My Wedding file has 9 tabs already!

I did a column for last name, column for first name... they started grouped by how I knew them, but later got organized by table # or ABC order depending on what I was doing. To keep my plus one near their dates.... I had it like this

Invite # - Last - First - Address - RSVP - Dinner - table #

----- 1 - Smith - John - address - yes - beef - 4

(blank) - Smith - John - date's name - yes - chicken - 4

There were more columns, but that is just a start. It is also a way to keep multiple names in the same household together. I wrote a small invite # on the back of the RSVP card in pencil incase someone forgot to put their name on it. Also, it let me find them quick on the list when they would RSVP. For the kids that didn't get their own invite I did it similar to the plus one, with the adult name in the column, and kids name in the address part.

Hope that will help.

I'm using WW's tool to keep/organize my info. When I need it, I just export it or email it to myself and organize it further using Excel.

I use the WW tool - it seems to work for us

I'm using WW and excel. Excel mainly for the calligrapher so it makes it easy for me to send the list of names to him when the time comes for that part.

Hayley - I love the idea of numbering the RSVP cards!

We're doing pretty much the same as all of you, we just have a Google Doc so that we have access to it at work and we both can edit it. Also, our parents all have access to it (the one with the guest list anyways, we have some that we've kept to ourselves) - it was really helpful for them to be able to enter addresses directly into it, rather than email us and we would have to enter them.

NotFroofy created our wedding website. One of its features was that all RSVPs were online, and sending an RSVP online caused the data to go to a spreadsheet in Google docs. We could either look at the spreadsheet on Google docs, or download it to an Excel spreadsheet. Either way, we could see at a glance who had been invited, who had sent an RSVP (and whether it was yes or no), meal choices, accommodations choices, etc. The spreadsheet was also set up so there were cells that told us the total number of acceptances, declines, and not yet answered.

The website was also set up so that there was no way to get an RSVP with no name on it, and no one could RSVP for anyone who hadn't actually been invited. Each guest got a code on his or her invitation. When a particular code was used to access the RSVP page, it would call up a list of all the names on that invitation, and people could only accept for those specific people.

(cont.)

We did not keep track of which guests came from NotFroofy's side and which from mine, because we really didn't have a need for that information. Other than a few members of my immediate family, all guests were friends of both of us.

I just copied all of the names and addresses from my engagement party list into the wedding wire application. I found it pretty easy to use, and it helped me so my seating chart. That part of the wedding planning was pretty easy because I already had all of that information. Initially it was a pain getting.

@2d bride - did you have any problems or hiccups with only having RSVPs online? We've talked about doing that, but we're worried about the old fashioned folks

Also, what website did she use? Ir was it made from scratch?

Ok well I just completed transferring my Excel guest list into the WW tool. I will still keep my excel as backup but I kinda like the WW tool. Should have used that all along. We'll see hwo it goes. I like how I can print out a card copy and it has helped me tremendously to keep the "households" together. That was my biggest pain. I can also assign specific lists, show the meal choices and everything. Man...why didn't I do this before. Ugh.

I used Excel as well, for my daughters wedding. It was easy to update and I was able to send it to the printer, when it came time to print the envelopes for the invitations.

I am a hands on kind of girl. I am techy normally, but when it came to my guest list I got a pack of index cards and a cheapo box from Walmart that holds them. I have on there in strategic corners: whether it is list A or B, a place to check if I sent the STD, invitation and if RSVP received, how many I invited vs. how many RSVP'd, the gift I received from them, a place to check if I sent them a thank you card, and their table number. Then smack dab in the middle I put their name and address.

I actually used this method for my first wedding. LOL.. Even though the marriage went bad, the index cards worked well!!

I've been using The Knot for our overall guest count, but I have a printed list I designed in excel as well. It has things like whether to prepare an out of town box for the guest, where they're staying and when, whether I need to invite them to the rehearsal dinner and notes for vegetarian meal or food allergies. I find having a hard copy of it has been a lot easier in some respects.

I'm using excel for now, my guest list is pretty simple since I'm not sending out invites (only 15 seniors will get paper invites). I only have 3 colums right now, A list, B list and children under 12. FH and I are making separate lists, we each have 75 guests, when we're getting closer to the wedding, we'll combine the lists. For now, it's pointless to do anything fancy