How to use Google Docs to create an online wedding RSVP tool

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Many wedding website or paperless invitation services offer a built-in RSVP tool, which is fabulous. However, if you're looking for a free DIY option, look no further than the much-lauded Google Docs. In addition to their other wedding planning tools, Google Docs offers a very easy and efficient way of creating an online RSVP tool using Google Forms.

Start by clicking "New" in your Google Drive

Yes, you need a Google Drive for this. But don't worry, you'll get plenty of use out of it. Select "Google Forms."

From there, the interface is very simple...

Choose a title for your form, like "RSVP for our wedding"

Then you can change the format of each question to text, paragraph text (longer), multiple choice, check-boxes, choose from drop-down list, scale, grid, date and time. You can also edit the questions later if you don't like how it looks.

A very simple sample RSVP could be:

Notice that, under "Confirmation Page," you can edit the confirmation message and choose to allow your guests to edit their responses. Be sure that "Publish and show a public link to form results" is unchecked, otherwise anyone can respond to your RSVP.

You can click "Change theme" at the top to change how the form appears

You can even get really fancy and click "Customize" to change the colors, header image, background, fonts, etc.

This is the one I used:

Once you're done, hit "Send form"

You can embed the form in your wedsite

We have a page called "RSVP," but you could also just include a short url on a paper invite or send this with your e-vite. You could even turn the URL for your form into a QR code and print that on your invites.

Note: You might want to ask your guests not to share the link to your form with anyone else. Otherwise you may have to deal with RSVPs from uninvited guests.

You can choose to store responses in a separate Google Sheets spreadsheet or within the form itself

If you're planning on using this information to create other reports, it may be best to create a new spreadsheet. However, if you keep them in the form, you still have the option of downloading a .csv file of the responses.