RSVP Management

Guests confirm attendance with a single tap directly in WhatsApp. No browser, no form, no app to download. Their response is recorded instantly in your dashboard.

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How it works

When you send an RSVP request, each guest receives a WhatsApp message with interactive reply buttons:

• Attending - 1 Person
• Attending - 2 People (and so on, up to 9 people)
• Not Attending

The guest taps once. Weddingkart records the response and headcount immediately. An automated reply goes back to the guest — no action needed from you. You can customise it (see Customise the automatic replies). Some ready-made RSVP templates use a shorter pair of buttons instead — Attending and Unable to Attend. With those, Attending is recorded as 1 person. Sending from your own WhatsApp number with your own templates? Your buttons can say anything — I Will Attend, Not Sure Yet, Sorry I Can’t Attend — as long as you tell Weddingkart what each one means. See Use your own RSVP templates. The number on the button is the guest’s total party size, including themselves. A guest who taps Attending - 3 People is recorded as attending with a headcount of 3. Not Attending always records a headcount of 0. A few more things happen behind the scenes when a guest taps:

• The tap shows up in your inbox. The button the guest tapped (for example, “Attending - 2 People”) appears in their Two-Way Chat conversation as their message, so you can see it in context.
• The response is tied to the message they answered. Weddingkart records the RSVP against the guest and wedding that the RSVP message was sent for. If the same person is a guest at two weddings you manage, each wedding keeps its own answer.
• The change is logged. Every RSVP change — including a guest changing their mind — appears in the wedding’s Activity feed, for example “confirmed for 3 guests” or “declined”.

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Use your own RSVP templates

If your wedding sends from your own WhatsApp number, you can use RSVP templates you made yourself — in Weddingkart or directly in Meta Business Manager. WhatsApp only tells Weddingkart the text of the button a guest tapped, not what it means, so each button needs to be set up once. Until it is, taps on that template are not recorded as RSVPs and no automatic reply is sent. Good to know:

• No re-approval. What a button means is stored only in Weddingkart — Meta never sees it — so setting up or changing buttons doesn’t send the template back to Meta for review. You can change it any time.
• You’ll be reminded before sending. If you pick a template whose buttons aren’t set up, Weddingkart asks Set up these buttons first? before it goes out. Choose Set up now, or Send anyway to send it as it is.
• Guests who answered early still count. If guests tapped a button before you set it up, their answers are recorded as RSVPs the moment you save. They don’t get an automatic reply for those earlier taps, because they answered before the buttons were set up.
• Stop buttons stay stop buttons. A button that reads like an opt-out — STOP, Unsubscribe, Opt out — can only be set to Opt out (stop messages), so a guest asking not to be messaged is always honoured.
• Templates you create in Weddingkart ask what each button does while you’re creating them, so they’re ready to use straight away.

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Why buttons outperform forms

Sending a Google Form link over WhatsApp is the most common RSVP approach — and the one with the lowest completion rate. The form requires guests to switch apps, wait for a page to load, fill in fields, and tap Submit. Each step is a moment where guests drop off. WhatsApp reply buttons remove every one of those steps. Everything happens inside WhatsApp, with no typing and no loading. Response rates with button-based RSVP consistently reach 75–85%, compared to 40–50% with Google Forms. Buttons also work for guests of all ages and phone types — anyone who can read WhatsApp can tap a button.

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Send an RSVP request

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Track responses

The RSVP screen also shows a Recent Responses list (tap See all N responses when there are more than five), and the Attending / Declined / Pending list has a Search by name… box and an Export to Google Sheet button.

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How the numbers are calculated

Each guest in the Attending tab shows their party size (for example, “4 guests”). For the total number of people coming, sync to Google Sheets: the Summary tab shows Total Guests Attending (with plus ones), which adds up the headcount of every guest who answered Yes. The RSVP tab has RSVP, RSVP No of Guests, and RSVP Last Updated columns for each guest.

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Changing a response

Guests can change their answer at any time by tapping a different button on the same RSVP message. The latest tap always wins — for example, a guest who first tapped Attending - 2 People and later taps Not Attending moves from Yes to No, and their headcount drops to 0. They get the matching automatic reply again. You can also change a guest’s RSVP yourself — useful when a guest tells you by phone:

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When a guest types instead of tapping

Some guests reply in words — “Yes, we’ll be 3 of us” — instead of tapping a button. A typed reply is not read as an RSVP button tap. It arrives in your Two-Way Chat inbox like any other message, and the guest stays in Pending until something records their answer. You can:

• Update their RSVP yourself (see Changing a response), or
• Reply in the chat and ask them to tap one of the buttons on the RSVP message.

If the WhatsApp Bot is switched on for your wedding, it reads replies like this and records the RSVP and headcount for you. When a guest says they’re not sure yet, the bot records them as Maybe rather than marking them as Yes. Guests on a voice call announcement can also give their RSVP on the call, and it’s recorded the same way.

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Send reminders

To follow up with guests who haven’t responded, resend the RSVP announcement. Instead of sending to your entire guest list, target only non-respondents using the auto-created RSVP: Not Responded group. Guests who already confirmed will not receive a second request. The RSVP: Not Responded group updates in real time — the moment a guest responds, they leave the group automatically. Keep in mind that RSVP: Not Responded contains every guest who hasn’t answered at all — including guests who were never sent an RSVP message. That makes it a safe audience for a reminder: nobody who has already answered is included. Guests who answered Maybe are in their own group, RSVP: Maybe — it appears once at least one guest has said maybe. Send them a gentle nudge closer to the date. Two sister groups are created automatically too: RSVP: Attending and RSVP: Not Attending. Use RSVP: Attending to send event-day details, venue directions, or travel requests only to guests who are coming.

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Customise the automatic replies

On the RSVP screen, tap Auto Replies to change what guests get back after they tap a button. Accepting, declining and undecided guests are configured separately on the Accept, Decline and Maybe tabs: for each, you can turn the reply on or off, choose whether it includes a text message and an image, edit the message, and upload a custom image instead of the default. Tap Save to apply, or Reset to go back to the default. Details worth knowing:

• Maybe replies. The Maybe tab works like the other two; its switch is Reply when a guest taps Maybe. It only matters for templates with a button set up as RSVP: Maybe (see Use your own RSVP templates) and for guests who tell the WhatsApp Bot they’re not sure yet.
• No Weddingkart label. RSVP replies go out exactly as written — they don’t carry a “Sent automatically by Weddingkart” line.
• Turning a reply off. Switch off Send an automated reply and that side sends nothing (“When off, guests get no reply to their RSVP.”). If you keep the reply on but turn off both Include a text message and Include an image, you’ll see Both text and image are off — no reply will be sent.
• Personalise with variables. Tap a chip under Smart Variables (Click to Insert) to add it to your message. GUEST_NAME becomes the guest’s name as it appears in your guest list. NUM_GUESTS becomes the party size from their RSVP — it’s only meaningful on the Accept Reply tab, and the Decline Reply preview shows it as 0.
• Preview. The WhatsApp-style Preview updates as you type, so you can check exactly what guests will see.
• The default replies. Unless you write your own, an accepting guest gets a thank-you mentioning the couple’s names. If they said more than 1 person, it adds that you’re excited to celebrate with them and the number of guests in total. A declining guest gets a short “sorry you can’t make it” note. Each of those comes with a default image. A guest who says maybe gets a short “no worries, we’ve noted you as a maybe” note with no image — add one on the Maybe tab if you like.
• Reset. Reset asks you to confirm — “Are you sure you want to reset Accept RSVP settings to default? This will affect both custom image and custom message.” Resetting one tab doesn’t touch the other.
• Paused weddings. If your wedding is no longer live, a guest’s tap is still recorded, but no automatic reply is sent.

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Messages you might see

• “Start collecting RSVPs” — you haven’t sent an RSVP message yet. Tap Send RSVP Request to pick a template, choose guests, and send.
• “RSVP Not Live” — your RSVP message has reached fewer than 10% of your guests so far. Send it to more guests.
• “No RSVP responses yet” — nobody has answered yet. Responses appear as soon as guests tap a button.
• “No guests found” — your search on the responses list didn’t match any guest name. Try a different search term.
• “Couldn’t pick that image. Please try again.” — the image you chose for an automatic reply couldn’t be opened. Pick it again, or try a different image.

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Best practices

• Send your RSVP request at least 3–4 weeks before the event to give guests enough time to respond.
• Follow up with a reminder 1 week after the initial message.
• After exporting, share the RSVP list and headcount totals with your catering and seating teams.

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Common questions

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Related pages