If you own a Google account and are getting married, you are in luck!
Google has a wonderful tool called Google Forms, that you can access from your Google Drive account. If you have a gmail address, all you need to do is go to drive.google.com and sign in. If you aren't registered with google yet, they do have some very useful tools you can use! (Trust me, I am not getting paid to promote google! Ha!)
One of the most useful wedding planning tools to me was being able to set up a custom RSVP page for my guests. After each guest fills out the form, you will receive the information in a spreadsheet so that you can then use the information as it best suits your needs. You can then use the spreadsheet just like you use any spreadsheet, but one of the most useful parts was being able to alphabetize the names, or separate by those who are or aren't attending.
If you'd like to set up your own RSVP form for a wedding or other event, here are some steps to get you started!
Steps to Set Up a Google RSVP Form
1. Go to your Google Drive account.
2. On the left sidebar, click "Create", and then click "Form" in the drop down menu.
3. Your form will open, then you may make changes.
4. Create two separate single line text entry questions. Title one question "First" and the second question "Last." Once it comes up on your web page, it will look like a normal First/Last entry form. You will want to make this field required.
5. Create a multiple choice question of the many sorts, and make a question asking if guests plan to attend with a yes or no (of course with sweetened wording).
6. After you're done with this basics, you can move to other things. If you are having a meal option, create a new question and you can have guests select the answers you input through a variety of ways.
7. I wanted to add a fun aspect to our RSVP, so I added a question at the end to allow guests to give us advice for our lives together. I suggest you refrain from making these types of questions required, as you don't want to scare any of your guests away from giving you a RSVP so your number will be as close to accurate as you can get.
8. I forgot to add in the picture, but in the top left, when you click the "Theme" button, you can change how your webpage appears. Right now Google has pretty limited themes that are available, which is the only downside in my opinion. I'm in the future users will be able to customize their own pages.
The spreadsheet is automatically downloaded into your main Google Drive folder, so you won't have to worry about creating any formulas to get the information to import correctly, it does it automatically!
This photo points to how your spreadsheet will look after a guest has submitted their RSVP, and some useful things you can do with it!
If you are using a wedding website that allows you to embed HTML codes, you can also embed this RSVP form straight to your wedding website. Unfortunately wedding websites like theKnot's do not allow you to embed codes, so I just inserted a large text link.
I hope this is helpful to anyone looking to make an RSVP form with Google! If anything is confusing, or you don't understand, please feel free to leave a comment or write me an email!
Also, here is the link to the live form (just the part the guest can see and use) of the test form I posted screen shots of in this post! I hope you can find it a little easier to read than my screenshots.
Oh, and please make sure that no one actually makes "rice and water" a meal option! ha!
