Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Create Your Own Online RSVP Form using Google Forms


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!


28 comments:

  1. Hi Saxon, just stopping by to say how delightful your blog is. Thanks so much for sharing. I have recently found your blog and am now following you, and will visit often. Please stop by my blog and perhaps you would like to follow me also. Have a wonderful day. Hugs, Chris
    http://chelencarter-retiredandlovingit.blogspot.ca/

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    1. Thanks for following Chris! I look forward to seeing you around, I popped in your blog too and started following a few days ago. :)

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  2. Very cool! Thanks for the how-to! I am a new follower. Have a great weekend!

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    1. Your welcome, Ashley! I hope you can make use for something! :)

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  3. Thanks for sharing this! It is so easy to understand!

    Tabby
    http://www.shoppingwives.com

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  4. This is a great RSVP form. Thank you for stopping by my blog and for sharing this wonderful information with everyone.

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    1. Donna,
      thank you as well for stopping by! I hope you found the information helpfu.!

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  5. Hi,

    How did your guests access the Google form? Did you embed the link in a page on your wedding website? Or were you able to embed the entire form in you website?

    Are you able to upload your own image to the form?

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    1. lfunder,
      Those are some great questions.

      Because I was working with a wedding website that didn't allow me to use HTML, I had to insert a link on the website directly to the google form. So it was not embedded on the website (which would have been ideal), but I placed the link in several places and bolded it. You can see for yourself at saxonandtyler.ourwedding.com.

      As of right now, I don't think you can upload your own image. They have a really small selection of page backgrounds for the google form...that is something I hope they'll improve upon in the future.

      Hope that answers your questions!
      ~Saxon

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  6. This is so awesome and helpful, thank you!

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  7. Saxon this is great!! thanks for the screen shots and step by step!

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  8. I love this- so handy, and the tutorial is very helpful! Thank you for bringing it to Treasure Box Tuesday! Tweeted! ♥

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    1. Thanks so much, Joy! I loved using this for the wedding, so I hope it can make other future bride's lives easier as well! Thanks for the tweet!

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  9. This would be so convenient! I really need to learn more about google's capabilities . . . but I need someone to walk me through the details so this is great. Thanks for sharing your tutorial. (And darn -- I was looking forward to the rice and water :-) )

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    1. Google has some nice services for sure, one of my other favorites being Google Voice! Glad to share!

      Hey, I guess rice and water could be an option for some of those picky eaters out there! ;)

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  10. Is there a way to setup up email notifications everytime someone RSVPs?

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  11. Hi Andy! Fortunately, there is a way to do this! It is pretty easy.

    After you've created your form, go to edit the spreadsheet where the data goes in google drive. Once you're in there, select "Tools" in the task area, then click "Notification rules..." A box will come up with some different options, and you can there check the box that says "When a user submits a form." Then below that part, I think you will also need to check "Email - right away" if you want one email per time someone submits an RSVP.

    Hope that helps, let me know if you have more questions!

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  12. I have it embeded on my website, is there a way to remove the scroll bar? I adjusted the height to make the full form fit and the scroll bar won't go away.

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  13. Awesome post!!! very helpful!!!!

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  14. This was super helpful, thank you!

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  15. So glad you found it helpful!

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  16. Thanks Kamila! Glad it helped!

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  17. It seems like I had the same issue with the scroll bar when I was testing it out. I don't know of a way to get it to go away, because I tried the same as you adjusting the height and it didn't work. I guess it is so "user friendly" that it limits the amount of changes you can make.

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  18. Hi, is there a way to allow guests to indicate that they're bringing multiple guests and select meals for each? (i.e. someone bringing 3 guests)

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