Event RSVP with Meal Choice Form Template

A plated dinner is a manufacturing run. The caterer does not cook "some beef and some fish" — they cook forty-two short ribs, thirty-one salmon, and eleven pasta, purchased days earlier from a count somebody swore was final. This template exists to make that count true. It is an RSVP shaped like the caterer's spreadsheet: attendance first, then one selection per course, then the allergy detail the chef reads before service.

Why these fields. Attendance leads and gates everything — decliners are routed by logic past the entire menu to a considerate regrets ending, so sending a no takes fifteen seconds and still improves your count. Accepters build their meal course by course: two starters, four mains, three desserts — realistic caterer arithmetic, with the vegetarian main standing as a proper dish among equals rather than a footnote. The allergy question is the template's quiet sophistication: it is a two-step. First a simple flag ("none / yes — details below"), and only a yes reveals the free-text field addressed to the chef. The ninety percent without allergies keep a shorter form, the ten percent with them get an unhurried box that asks for specifics, and the kitchen gets exactly one column to check before service. The invited-name field uses the phrase "as invited" so replies reconcile cleanly against the guest list you already hold.

What we left out. Wine and beverage ballots (service staff pour at the table; pre-collecting adds columns without adding accuracy), seating preferences (a chart decision, not a guest decision), and headcount questions — plated events invite by name, and each named guest replies once.

Who uses this. Wedding couples with plated receptions, award-dinner and banquet organizers, corporate hosts of client dinners, and caterers themselves, who send this link to their clients rather than chase counts by phone.

Make it yours. Swap in your actual menu — the option labels are the menu, so write them appetizingly. Set the close date to the caterer's final-count deadline; after that, changes go through a human. Watch the Summary view as replies land: it counts every starter, main, and dessert selection live, which means your caterer call is reading numbers off a screen. The CSV export is effectively the kitchen's order sheet, with the chef-notes column ready for the allergy briefing.

Cook to the count. When the form closes, the numbers are the menu. That is the whole promise — a dinner where plate forty-two exists because guest forty-two chose it. Kitchens repay that precision with better food: dishes prepped in known quantities, plated on schedule, garnished without triage. Hosts repay it with a dinner that ends on dessert instead of apology.