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Meals and dietary choices

Offer meal options with dietary tags, collect allergy notes at RSVP, and view or export the counts for your kitchen.

Last reviewed 5 min read

On this page7 sections
  1. Build your menu
  2. What your guests will see
  3. Viewing and exporting the counts
  4. Dietary tags vs the notes box
  5. Limits and important details
  6. Common questions
  7. Related articles

You can ask guests to pick a meal when they RSVP and to flag any allergies, then see the totals roll up for a clean kitchen count. This is the guest-facing side of the menu; for the full host setup, exports, and catering brief, see Building your menu and Meal counts and catering exports.

Build your menu

  1. Open your event and go to the Food & menu section.
  2. Under Build your menu, add each dish (up to 60) with a name and, if you like, a short description or photo. Move up and Move down set the order guests see.
  3. Mark any dietary tags that apply to a dish — Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Nut-free, Shellfish-free, Halal, Kosher, or No pork.
  4. To collect allergy notes as well, turn on Collect allergies & dietary notes in Menu settings.
  5. Optional: set Meal choices close on in Menu settings if you need final numbers by a certain day.

Turning on the menu is all it takes — there's nothing to send separately, and guests choose their dish inside the RSVP. Meal choices are included on every plan.

What your guests will see

During the RSVP, guests reach a menu step. It starts with your whole menu — every dish with its photo, description, and dietary tags (a long menu is tucked behind a See the full menu line) — and a short legend that spells the tags out (for example GF = Gluten-free) so nothing's a guessing game. Below that, each person picks their dish from a Choose a meal… list, labeled with their own first name, and the dietary tags show beside each dish name. If you set a meal deadline, they see Choose by and the date.

If a guest is bringing additional guests, they can choose a dish for each one under Meals for your other guests — labeled by name when they named their companions, or as Guest 2, Guest 3, and so on otherwise. When you've turned on allergy notes, an Allergies or dietary notes (for you and your party) box lets guests add anything else you should know, like a nut allergy, with a reminder to say who each note is for. Both the meal and the notes are optional for guests.

A guest who changes their answer to Yes, or who adds people to their party, from Manage your RSVP is taken straight to the menu step so every person ends up with a dish. Their Manage page shows how many meals are still needed.

Viewing and exporting the counts

Back in your Food & menu section, a live Menu breakdown tallies every dish chosen — including each additional guest's pick — and shows the share of each option along with a chosen of total figure. It counts everyone who hasn't declined, including guests who said maybe or haven't replied yet, so you can plan ahead; the caterer PDF and the spreadsheet use the same rule. A running summary also shows how many guests have chosen and how many dietary notes have come in.

To take the counts elsewhere, you have these exports. A caterer brief PDF (from the Food & menu section) lists guests with their meal and dietary note, grouped by meal. From the Guests & RSVP tab's Export menu, Spreadsheet (.xlsx) adds a meal-counts sheet and CSV file includes each guest's meal choice, their additional guests' meals, and their dietary notes, so you can hand a caterer a complete list. Both are covered in Meal counts and catering exports.

Dietary tags vs the notes box

These are two different things, and it helps to keep them straight:

  • Dietary tags describe a dish — a GF or VEG badge you add so guests can self-select what suits them.
  • The allergy/dietary notes box is where a guest writes their own needs in free text.

Use tags to guide the choice and turn on the notes box to catch specifics you can't predict. Full detail is in Dietary tags and restrictions.

Limits and important details

  • Meal choices and dietary notes are optional for guests unless you tell them otherwise.
  • If you set Meal choices close on, guests can still see their meal after that day but can't change their meal, their additional guests' meals, or their allergy note; the menu step tells them to contact you instead. The rest of their RSVP stays editable.
  • You get a notification whenever a guest changes a meal or an allergy note.
  • Dietary-note collection is tied to the menu, so turning the menu off turns off note collection too — and it's off by default.
  • Additional guests get one dish each, matched to the party size the guest entered.
  • Guests can revisit their meal and dietary answers from Manage your RSVP (until the close date, if you set one) — see Changing an RSVP.
  • Renaming a dish keeps the guests who chose it attached. If you remove a dish that guests already picked, you're asked to confirm; those guests show as Dish removed in your counts and exports, and are asked to choose again. Your Guest picks step lists them with a Message them button, but renaming is still gentler once replies are in.

Common questions

Do guests have to choose a meal? No. The meal step is optional for guests unless your invitation says otherwise. Anyone who skips it simply has no dish recorded, and their row shows a blank meal in your exports.

Can a guest change their meal after submitting? Yes. Guests reopen Manage your RSVP to change their dish or dietary note, and your counts update to match — unless you've set a Meal choices close on date and it has passed. See Changing an RSVP.

Can guests pick different meals for their plus-ones? Yes. A guest bringing others chooses a dish for each additional guest during the menu step, and every pick is counted in your breakdown and exports.

Where do allergy notes show up for me? In the Allergies & dietary notes review list in your Food & menu section, and in the caterer PDF, spreadsheet, and guest CSV exports. You can clear a note once you've handled it.

Is a dietary tag a guarantee the dish is safe? No — a tag is a label you apply to describe a dish, only as accurate as what you enter. For safety-critical needs, confirm with your caterer and rely on guests' written notes too.

How do I turn meal choices off? Turn the menu off in Menu settings. Your dishes are saved for next time, and note collection switches off with it.

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