🔢 1. The Guest List Is the Spine of a Filipino Wedding
Every downstream wedding decision rests on the guest list.
- The caterer's count comes from it.
- The seating chart comes from it.
- The abuloy projection comes from it.
- The sponsor table count comes from it.
- The invitation print run comes from it.
- The mobile bar's drink quantities come from it.
- The cake size comes from it.
- The favor count comes from it.
When the guest list is a mess, every one of those decisions is also a mess. When the list is clean, the rest of the planning has gravity to settle into.
A guest list app keeps the spine straight. Here is what to look for, what's specific to a Filipino wedding context, and how Nuptial handles it.
🔢 2. Beyond "Store Names" — What a Real Guest List Needs to Do
If a guest list app does only one thing, it stores names. Useful. Not enough.
The operational asks that come up across nine months of planning:
🔸 Group by side. Bride's family, groom's family, friends, office, sponsors. Not just for sentiment — your seating chart needs this split.
🔸 Group by relationship type. Immediate family, extended family, principal sponsors, secondary sponsors, entourage, friends, office contingents, barangay. Each group has different invitation timing, different RSVP-chasing strategy, different seating expectations.
🔸 Track +1s explicitly, not as an afterthought. Some guests get a +1. Some don't. Some get an open +1 ("bring a date"); some get a named +1 ("bring your spouse"). The tool has to model that.
🔸 Track dietary notes. Vegetarian, halal, gluten-free, no shellfish, diabetic. Free-text per guest. The caterer needs this in a clean exportable list two weeks before the wedding.
🔸 Track RSVP status. Invited, confirmed, declined, no response. The "no response" bucket is the one that drives your reminder strategy.
🔸 Feed the seating chart without re-entry. Updating a guest's table assignment in two places is how data gets out of sync.
🔸 Feed the catering count without re-entry. The caterer's number is downstream of the RSVP count. If those are in different systems, they will drift.
Most international guest list tools handle the first half. They typically drop the ball on sponsors, on the church-vs-reception attendance difference, and on the Messenger-reality of how Filipino RSVPs actually arrive.
🔢 3. Group by Side, Relationship, Office, and Barangay
In Nuptial's guest list, each guest record has:
- Name and salutation (Tita, Tito, Mr./Mrs., etc.)
- Side (bride / groom / both — the "both" category exists for mutual friends and shared family contacts)
- Relationship category — immediate family, extended family, sponsor, entourage, friend, office, barangay, other
- Sub-group — a free-text tag for finer grouping ("College Friends — UP", "Office — Sales Team", "Tito Boy's family")
- +1 toggle — yes / no, then the +1's name once confirmed
- Dietary notes — vegetarian, halal, gluten-free, shellfish allergy, anything custom
- RSVP status — driven by the public RSVP page or manually updated
- Table assignment — populated from the seating planner
- Contact — phone, Messenger, email (optional)
- Notes — anything else worth remembering ("Tita Cory's birthday is wedding week, mention in toast")
The same record drives every downstream view. Update a +1 in one place; the catering count, seating chart, and budget projection all update. No re-entry. No drift.
🔢 4. +1s, Dietary Notes, and Why They Have to Flow Downstream
This is where guest list management quietly does most of its work.
+1 example: You allow Maria's +1. Maria RSVPs through the public page and adds her boyfriend "Mark" as her +1. Inside Nuptial:
- The dashboard now shows Maria (confirmed) + Mark (confirmed, +1 of Maria)
- Your catering count goes up by 1
- Your seating planner shows two cards under "Maria" in Unseated — you drag both to a table together
- Your invitation count stays the same (only Maria got an invitation)
- The +1 is linked to Maria, so if Maria cancels, Mark cancels too automatically
Dietary example: You add a guest who's vegetarian. Two weeks before the wedding, you filter the guest list to "Confirmed + has dietary note." You get a list of 8 names with their dietary needs. You export to CSV. You hand it to the caterer. The caterer flags those 8 plates at service. No one ends up eating around the food they can't have.
That flow — the small administrative loop that ends with a caterer holding a clean list — is what guest list software actually earns its keep doing. The "store names" part is the easy half.
🔢 5. Filtering at Scale (Why a 250-Person List Needs Better Than Ctrl+F)
For a 250-guest wedding, the unfiltered guest list is unusable. Nuptial's filters cover what you actually need:
| Filter | When you use it |
|---|---|
| Confirmed only | For the caterer's final count, two weeks before |
| No response | For your reminder push, three weeks before |
| Sponsors only | For the church program |
| Declined | To see if a replacement is needed (especially for sponsors) |
| Bride's side, confirmed, with +1 | For one specific table layout question |
| Office contingent — Sales Team | When the team RSVPs as a group and you need to count them together |
| Has dietary note | The final caterer hand-off |
| OFW guests | To plan hotel block recommendations |
| No table assigned | The "who haven't I seated yet" view, three weeks before |
Most couples use 3-4 filters heavily across planning. The ones that come up most: "no response" (for chase reminders), "has dietary note" (for caterer), "no table assigned" (for the late seating panic).
🔢 6. Importing from a Google Sheet (Without Re-Typing Everything)
If your guest list already lives in a Google Sheet or Excel file, you don't retype it. Nuptial's CSV import maps common columns automatically:
- Name → Name
- Side / Side of family / Bride or Groom → Side
- Relationship / Category → Relationship category
- +1 / Plus one / Allowed +1 → +1 toggle
- Email → Email
- Phone / Cell → Phone
- Notes / Comments → Notes
You upload a CSV. Nuptial shows you a preview with the column mapping. You confirm. Names are imported. Re-import is safe — Nuptial dedupes on name + side, so re-running an import doesn't create duplicates.
For couples who built a guest list across multiple sheets (one from each family), you can import each sheet sequentially. The "side" column ensures the bride's-side list and groom's-side list don't collide.
🔢 7. What's Free, What's Premium
Free tier:
- Up to 50 confirmed guests
- Full guest list management (sides, groups, +1s, dietary, RSVP, seating)
- CSV import / export
- Public RSVP page
- Drag-and-drop seating
- Full ninong & ninang list (unlimited, separate from guest count)
Premium (₱560, lifetime):
- Unlimited guests
- Single-use RSVP codes
- Unlimited budget categories
- Supplier document vault
- All future premium features at no extra cost
For an intimate wedding under 50 guests, the free tier is the whole product. For a typical 200-guest reception, the ₱560 upgrade is the one-time payment that removes the cap permanently. No subscription. No auto-renew.
For a side-by-side comparison with international tools (The Knot, Joy, Zola) and other local options, see best wedding planner app Philippines (2026).
🔢 8. Frequently Asked Questions
Can I import my guest list from a Google Sheet?
Yes. CSV import maps common columns automatically (name, side, relationship, +1, email, phone). You preview the mapping before confirming, and re-imports dedupe on name + side so you don't get duplicates.
How does the +1 system work?
You toggle the +1 allowance per guest. When a guest RSVPs through the public page and adds their +1's name, the +1 appears as a linked sub-record under the original guest — counted toward your catering and seating, but always associated with the inviter. If the inviter cancels, the +1 cancels too.
What if a guest doesn't have an email or phone?
That's fine — name alone is enough. You can still share the public RSVP link with them by any channel, and mark their RSVP manually after they confirm verbally. Most older Filipino relatives RSVP this way — you mark them confirmed after they tell you in person.
Can I see who's been invited but hasn't replied?
Yes. The "No response" filter shows exactly that list, ranked by how long they've been pending. This is your reminder list. Three weeks before the wedding, you send a polite reminder link to this filter. Two weeks before, you start calling.
Does Nuptial store data securely?
Yes. Guest data is stored in Supabase with row-level security; only your account (and any account you explicitly share the wedding with) can access it. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. We never sell, share, or use your guest data for anything outside your wedding.
Can my mom add guests directly?
Once a wedding is shared between accounts, anyone with access can add guests. Useful when one side of the family is supplying their own list and you don't want to be the bottleneck.
What happens after the wedding?
Your dashboard stays live — guest list, RSVPs, seating, budget, suppliers — so you can write thank-you cards, reconcile abuloy received, and remember which sponsor gave which token. There's no expiration on a wedding record.
Related reading:
- Wedding RSVP Website for Filipino Couples
- Wedding Seating Planner — Drag, Drop, and Survive the Reception
- Ninong & Ninang List Tracker for Filipino Weddings
- Best Wedding Planner App Philippines (2026)
Stop chasing replies on three Messenger threads. Start your guest list →