Free wedding guest list template

What goes on a wedding guest list

These are the template’s columns, in order, and who ends up reading each one. The spreadsheet download has all of them; on the page, email and address stay hidden until you switch them on.

How to use the guest list template

Start with households, not names

List each family or couple together and give them the same party name. Invitations go one per party, so the Invitations count is the number of envelopes to address. Guests with no party count as one invitation each.

Name the sides and the meals

Put your two names in Partner 1 and Partner 2 so the Side column reads as your names, and type the caterer’s meal choices separated by commas. New meals you paste in join the list on their own.

Mark replies as they arrive

Every guest starts as Pending. Change the RSVP to Attending or Declined as replies come in, and the counts move with you. The Pending button above the list shows only the people you still need to chase.

Send the final numbers

When the RSVP deadline passes, the Meals line is the order for the caterer and Dietary notes is the list of allergies and diets to go with it. Download the Excel file and send it to your venue with the attending count.

Open the guest list in Google Sheets or Excel

The download is a real Excel workbook (.xlsx) with two sheets. Guest list has your guests, the header row frozen and drop-downs for side, RSVP, meal and plus-one. Counts has the totals as formulas, so they change when you edit the list in the spreadsheet.

Google Sheets

Open Google Drive, choose New, then File upload, and pick the .xlsx. Open it, then choose Open with Google Sheets. To keep it as a Google Sheet, use File, then Save as Google Sheets. A CSV works too: in a new sheet choose File, then Import, then Upload.

Excel and Numbers

Double-click the .xlsx to open it in Excel. Numbers on a Mac opens it as well. The CSV opens in any spreadsheet app, with the same columns but no Counts sheet.

Want an empty one?

Blank Excel template downloads the same workbook with the headers, drop-downs and Counts formulas and no guests, if you’d rather fill it in offline.

Paste in a list you already have

If your guests are already in a spreadsheet, an RSVP site export or a notes app, you don’t have to retype them. Copy the rows, header included, open Paste a list from a spreadsheet and press Add to the list. The template reads columns by name: Name, or First name and Last name, plus Party or Household, Side, RSVP, Meal or Entree, Dietary or Allergies, Plus-one, Table, Email and Address. Without a header it takes the columns in the template’s order.

A few things it works out for you. RSVP answers like Yes, Accepted, No or Regrets become Attending or Declined, and anything else stays Pending. The first two side names it hasn’t seen, like Bride and Groom, become your two sides. A plus-one cell with a name in it becomes a row of its own, right after the guest who brings them. The list holds up to 2,000 guests.

From the guest list to the seating chart

The seating chart starts from the people who said yes. Copy for the seating chart puts every attending guest on your clipboard, one name per line, which is the format the free seating chart maker takes in its Add guests box. Households stay together and each plus-one comes straight after their guest as “Guest of” and the name, so when you press Seat everyone there, families land at the same table.

The seating chart maker opens on a sample wedding, so take its sample names out first with the × beside each name. If you’d rather upload a file, Seating list (CSV) downloads the same names with a Guest column, which its Upload CSV button reads. After you seat everyone, type the table numbers back into the Table column here, so the spreadsheet you send the venue says who sits where.

Send it to your venue

Your venue and caterer need three things from the list, usually by the final count date in your contract: how many are coming, how many of each meal, and every allergy and diet. The Excel download has all of it, with the totals on the Counts sheet. Send the seating list as well if the venue is setting up the tables, so they don’t have to type the names in.

To work out how many tables your yes list needs, the banquet table sizes guide shows how many guests a 6 or 8 foot table or a 60 inch round seats.

If your venue runs on MyVenueHQ, upload the Excel file in your client portal and file it under Guest List. It’s attached to your booking, so the venue team sees it on your event. The venue can paste or upload the seating list straight into your event’s floor plan, seat the guests at the real tables in the room, and put the meal counts on the banquet event order the kitchen works from.

For venues

Send couples this page when you send the contract, and ask for the Excel file back by the final count date. Every list then comes in the same columns, so the meal counts, the dietary notes and the names for the floor plan are in the same place every time. In MyVenueHQ’s wedding venue software the floor plan, the BEO and the guest count sit on the same booking, and floor plans and BEOs are on the free plan.

A guest list template for any event

Nothing in the template is wedding-only. For a birthday, a rehearsal dinner, a gala or a company party, rename the two sides to the hosts or to two teams, set the meal choices to the menu, and use the party column for each family, table or department. The counts work the same way, and the free catering food calculator and the alcohol calculator take the attending count from there. For the order of the day itself, the free wedding timeline template builds the schedule from the ceremony time.