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Wedding Guest List Template and Tracker
Add everyone you're inviting, mark who's coming as replies arrive, and see how many guests to expect. Download it all as an Excel file with a sheet of mailing addresses, or start from the blank template.
Wedding guest list
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How to build a wedding guest list
- Start with a number. Your venue's capacity and what you can spend per guest set the ceiling. The wedding budget calculator shows what each guest costs in your plan.
- One row per invitation. A couple or a family gets one row, with the number of people invited on it. Count everyone who needs a seat or a meal, including plus-ones and children.
- Split it into an A list and a B list. The A list is everyone you invite first. The B list is people you'd invite if there's room; they're kept out of the totals until you change their RSVP. Send B-list invitations as soon as A-list regrets come in, so they still arrive well before the RSVP date.
- Agree on the rules early. Plus-ones, children and coworkers cause the most arguments. Decide once and apply it the same way to both sides; the side totals show whether the list is lopsided.
- Collect addresses as you go. Save-the-dates usually go out six to eight months before the wedding, so the "Missing an address" filter is worth checking long before invitations are printed.
How many invited guests actually come?
There's no fixed rule. It depends mostly on how many guests have to travel. A few couples have posted their numbers on Reddit after the wedding:
| Wedding | Invited | Said yes | Came |
|---|---|---|---|
| Couple 1, 82% of guests from out of town | 233 | 182 (78%) | about 171 (73%) |
| Couple 2 | 240 | 170 (71%) | 160 (67%) |
| Couple 3 | 68 | 49 (72%) | 47 (69%) |
In these three weddings, roughly seven in ten invited guests came, and 94 to 96 percent of the people who said yes showed up. That's where the tool's starting estimate comes from: 75% of people who haven't replied will say yes, and 95% of yeses will come. Three weddings are a sample, not a statistic. A local wedding with mostly family may see more yeses, and a destination wedding fewer, so change both numbers under "Names and estimate" if your crowd is different.
Track RSVPs as they come in
When a reply arrives, set that invitation's RSVP to Coming or Can't come. If only part of a household can make it, lower the Coming number and the rest count as declined. About a week before your RSVP date, choose "No reply yet" under Show and use Copy names: that's your follow-up list. People coming plus the few late replies is the number your caterer and venue need. Then the seating chart maker brings in everyone who said yes, with households kept together. The wedding planning checklist reminds you when each of these steps is due.
Keep ZIP codes and addresses intact
Excel drops leading zeros when it opens a CSV file, so a Boston ZIP code like 02134 becomes 2134. The Excel file download stores ZIP codes as text, and its ZIP column is formatted as text, so codes you type in later keep their zeros too. When you paste a list where the zero is already gone, the tool puts it back for addresses in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont and Puerto Rico, where ZIP codes start with 0.
The Excel file has three sheets: the full guest list, a Mailing addresses sheet with every invited household in alphabetical order (ready for envelope printing or a mail merge), and a summary.
Free wedding guest list template
Prefer a spreadsheet? Download the blank Excel template. It has the same columns as the tool: name, people invited, side, group, RSVP, people coming, address, email, phone and notes. Side, Group and RSVP have dropdowns, and a Summary sheet counts invitations, people invited, coming, no reply yet and expected guests as you type. It opens in Excel, Google Sheets (File, then Import) and Apple Numbers, and you can paste it back into this page at any time.
Wedding guest list FAQ
How many people should we invite to our wedding?
Start from the number your venue and budget allow. In the real weddings described on this page, about seven in ten invited guests came, so some couples invite a little more than the venue holds. That only works if you could cope with a higher yes rate; a B list is the safer way to fill seats as regrets come in.
What is an A list and a B list?
The A list is everyone you invite in the first round. The B list is people you would like to invite if there is room. As A-list guests decline, you send B-list invitations. In this tool, B-list guests are kept out of the totals until you change their RSVP.
When should RSVPs be due?
Usually three to four weeks before the wedding. That leaves time to chase late replies and give final numbers to your caterer and venue. Invitations usually go out six to eight weeks before the wedding.
Do plus-ones and children count as guests?
Yes. Count everyone who needs a seat or a meal. Keep the invitation on one row and set People invited to the total, for example 2 for a guest and their plus-one.
Can I import my guest list from Excel or Google Sheets?
Yes. Select the cells including the header row, copy them, and paste them into "Paste from a spreadsheet". Columns such as Name, First name and Last name, Address, City, State, ZIP, Email, RSVP and Notes are recognized automatically, and names already on your list are skipped.
Is my guest list private? Where is it saved?
It is saved in this browser on this device only and is never sent to our server. There is no share link, because a guest list holds other people's addresses. To share it or keep a backup, download the Excel file. Clearing your browser's site data deletes the list.
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