Wedding Guest Management That Runs on One Guest List
Build one guest list, deduped by phone number and tagged by event and side of the family. Per-event RSVPs, dietary needs, plus-ones, seating, and messaging all read from it. Free to set up.
Wedding guest management is the quiet work underneath every other decision you make. Catering counts, seating, welcome bags, shuttle seats, and the size of the tent all trace back to one question: who is coming, and to which parts of the weekend. Most couples start that work in a spreadsheet, then find out the spreadsheet has three versions and two of them live on someone else's laptop. Cordially Wed keeps it in one place instead: a single wedding guest list you build once, tagged by event and side of the family, with RSVPs, dietary needs, plus-ones, seating, and messaging all reading from the same record. Building it is free. The only thing you ever pay for is texting your guests.
Building and importing the guest list
Most lists arrive in pieces. Yours might start as a note on your phone, your parents send a page of names in a WhatsApp message, and your partner's family sends a spreadsheet with the columns in a different order. Cordially Wed takes all of it: import a CSV, type guests in directly as the names come in, or send a share link so guests fill in their own details. The important part is what happens next. Every guest is keyed on their phone number, so when Aunt Meena arrives twice, once on your mother's page of names and once an hour later in your partner's family spreadsheet, the phone number is already on the list, so the second copy never gets created and you are not reconciling two Aunt Meenas in September. That is what turns four half-lists into a wedding guest database you can actually count. There is no charge for the list itself, however many names it ends up holding.
Tag by event and by side of the family
A wedding is rarely one guest list. The Mehndi is family and close friends, the ceremony is everyone, the welcome dinner is whoever is in town by Friday, and the brunch is a smaller group again. A few tags carry most of that work:
- Per-event tags, so fifty people are invited to the Sangeet and two hundred to the reception, from the same list
- Side of the family, meaning yours, your partner's, or the friends you share
- Free-form groups for college friends, work, the hotel block, or the shuttle
Once guests are tagged, every count you need is a filter rather than a recount. You can see how many Haldi guests you have, how many of your partner's side are still pending, and which guests are invited to all five events. Tagging is also what makes targeted messaging and seating possible later, so it is worth doing at import time rather than in the last month.
Plus-ones, kids, and dietary needs
A guest record holds more than a name and a number. Plus-ones, whether that plus-one has been named yet, dietary needs like vegetarian, Jain, halal, or a nut allergy, and any note you want to keep about a guest all sit on the same record, plus any custom field you add yourself, like whether children are included in the invitation. These are the details that go stale in a spreadsheet, because they arrive one at a time, in a text message weeks apart, usually while you are doing something else. When a guest answers their RSVP, what they tell you lands on their record instead of in a thread you have to re-read in March. By the time the caterer asks for final numbers and dietary counts, you are reading an answer rather than reconstructing one.
Per-event RSVP status, not one yes or no
A single yes or no does not describe a multi-day wedding. A cousin can make the ceremony and the reception, skip the Mehndi because of work, and land too late for the welcome dinner. Cordially Wed collects RSVPs per event: each guest opens their own link in a browser, sees only the events they were invited to, and answers for each one. There is no guest portal to sign into and nothing to install, which matters most for the relatives least likely to create an account.
What comes back is a live count per event instead of one number for the whole weekend, which is what caterers, venues, and shuttle bookings actually need. Guests who have not answered stay visible as pending, so a reminder can go to exactly those people and nobody else. That is the difference between a list of names and a wedding guest tracker you can plan against.
One list you and your partner both work from
The version problem is the real reason guest spreadsheets stop being trusted. Someone downloads a copy, edits it on a plane, and now there are two versions of the truth with no way to tell which is newer. Guest list management stops being a syncing job when there is only one list. You and your partner both work from the same record on your own logins, so a guest one of you adds on Tuesday is in the other's count on Tuesday. Names that come in from parents go on the same list, whether you add them or they fill in a share link. If someone already on the list comes in again, the phone number match catches it.
It also means the list survives the handoffs at the end. When you send a headcount to the caterer or a table plan to the venue, you are working from the same record the RSVPs came into, not a copy that stopped being accurate two weeks ago.
Seating and messaging read from the same list
A guest list is only useful if it is also how you reach people. This is the honest part: a guest database that only sits there still leaves you copying names into a seating tool and phone numbers into your phone one at a time.
In Cordially Wed the list is the input for everything downstream:
- Seating charts read from it, so tables know who is attending which event and who came together
- Apple and Google Wallet passes carry each guest's details onto their phone
- Messages target by the same tags: only Sangeet guests, only one side of the family, only guests still marked pending
- Replies land in one in-app inbox rather than on your personal phone, sent from a wedding number and never your own
Francesca G., who coordinated a US-to-Spain wedding, put the result plainly: "I was able to send out multiple messages to guests seamlessly."
What guest management costs
Cordially Wed is free to set up: import your guests, tag them by event and side of the family, collect per-event RSVPs, build your wedding website, and lay out your seating without paying anything. The one paid part is texting guests, and it is a one-time payment sized to how many unique guest phone numbers you are texting rather than your total guest count: $59 up to 100 numbers, $99 up to 200, and $149 up to 400. Unlimited messages at every tier, replies always included, no subscription and never a charge per message. Above 400 unique numbers, get in touch and we will size it with you. Before you pay anything you can send real test messages to your own phone to see exactly how they arrive. SMS and WhatsApp send from the same screen, on regional numbers for the US, UK, and India, so guests abroad hear from you where they already look.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best way to organise wedding guests?
Keep one list rather than several. Import everyone into a single guest list, key each guest on their phone number so a second copy of the same person never gets created, then tag by event and by side of the family. From there, counts, RSVP reminders, seating, and messaging are all filters on that one list instead of separate spreadsheets you have to keep in sync by hand.
Can my partner and I work from the same guest list?
You and your partner share one workspace on separate logins, so neither of you is emailing versions back and forth. Names from either family land on that same list, whether you add them yourself or send a share link and let people fill in their own details. Because guests are matched on phone number, the same aunt does not end up on it twice.
Can I import my guest list from a spreadsheet?
Yes. Import a CSV, or add guests by hand as names come in. You can also share an intake form link and let guests fill in their own details. Lists usually arrive in pieces and in different formats, so you can import more than once and keep adding. The phone-number match stops later imports from creating second copies of people already on the list. There is no charge for the list, however long it gets.
Can I track RSVPs for each event separately?
Yes. Guests open their personal link in a browser, see only the events they were invited to, and answer for each one, so a cousin can accept the ceremony and reception and decline the Mehndi. You get a live count per event rather than one number for the weekend, and anyone still pending stays visible so reminders reach only them.
Where do dietary needs and plus-ones live?
On the guest record, next to their name, phone number, tags, and RSVP status. Plus-ones, dietary needs like vegetarian, Jain, halal, or allergies, any note you want to keep, and any custom field you add yourself all sit in the same place. When the caterer asks for numbers or the seating chart needs to know who came together, the answer is already there.
Is wedding guest management free?
Yes. The guest list, per-event RSVP collection, your wedding website, seating charts, and Apple and Google Wallet passes cost nothing, whatever the size of your list. The only paid part is texting guests: a one-time payment of $59 for up to 100 unique guest phone numbers, $99 up to 200, or $149 up to 400, with unlimited messages and replies included.