Guest List in Spreadsheet

This is an update to the entry about using Google tools to plan weddings, based on a report from the Official Google blog about a couple that also used Google tools to plan their wedding.

We used a spreadsheet (alternate version) instead of a document for the guest list, so we could quickly add up how many people were going to attend the wedding and reception when guests responded. I had a couple of calculations set up to determine who would be attending the wedding and reception separately, so we could quickly determine if we had enough seats and food. For example:

• Each guest entry (e.g., Family A, column A) had a column for how many were going to attend (e.g., 2 people, column B). Another column had a code for which event the guests told us they would attend (column C). If a guest entry had a 1 in column C, it meant they were attending both the wedding and reception. A 2 meant only the wedding, a 3 meant only the reception, and 0 meant neither.
• Then two calculations added up how many guests were attending each event for that entry (columns D and E). Another two calculations told us how many people were attending each event total (in column headings D and E).
• We even had a projected total of guests and the ratio of guests who responded (column headings B and C, respectively).

We had a capacity limit of 120 people at the wedding, and we needed to be careful about how much food we ordered for the reception, so this worked really well to monitor responses.

Related Entries: Event Planning and How to Plan a Wedding