How to choose a wedding RSVP service

An RSVP service sounds like a simple product: send messages, count replies. In practice the differences between vendors run deep — in the technology behind the sending, in the pricing, in legal compliance, and in what happens after the confirmation lands. These are the eight questions worth asking any vendor before you sign.

Where do the messages come from — an official sender or a regular number?

Guest messages should go out through Meta's official WhatsApp Business API — not from a regular number wired to automation software. Bulk sending from a regular number violates WhatsApp's terms of service, and such a number can be blocked mid-campaign — taking the replies already collected with it. An official sender works with a verified business name and pre-approved message templates, so ask directly: which number sends the messages, and is it connected to the official API.

How is the pricing built — and what exactly counts as a message?

Two models are common — a price per record (per guest on the list) or a fixed package — and the important question is what is included. A quote that looks cheap can grow once it turns out every extra touch of a guest is billed separately. Three questions that clarify the picture:

• Reminders — included in the price, or does every reminder round count as a new send?
• Re-sends — you fixed a wrong number and sent again; is that an extra paid message?
• Added guests — what happens to the price when the list grows after signing?

What happens when a guest replies asking to be removed?

Israel's spam law — Section 30A of the Communications Law — requires honoring a removal request immediately, not eventually. This is not a theoretical question: on any large list, someone will ask to stop receiving messages. Ask how it works in practice — is the request captured automatically and every future send to that number blocked, or is someone supposed to update a spreadsheet by hand and hopefully remember before the next reminder.

Where is the guest data stored — and who can access it?

A list of 500 guests is a database of names, phone numbers and food preferences — personal data in every sense under Israel's Privacy Protection Law (Amendment 13). Before uploading it into someone else's system, it is worth knowing where the data is stored, who at the vendor can view it, and whether you can export or delete it yourselves — without opening a support ticket.

What does the guest actually confirm — a bare yes/no, or party size and meal?

The venue bills per plate, not per household — so an RSVP that captures only coming / not coming leaves the phone work with you. A form that asks for party size and meal preference (meat / vegetarian / vegan) on the same screen turns closing numbers with the venue and the caterer into copy-paste. If the form stops at yes/no, someone still has to call every family and ask how many are coming.

Reminders — everyone again, or only the non-responders?

The difference between a polite reminder and spam is filtering by status. A guest who confirmed a week ago and still receives one more reminder to RSVP learns to ignore your messages — right before the day-of message, the one that matters most. Ask whether the system can send only to those who have not yet answered, and whether you can see exactly who will receive each send before it goes out.

What happens after the RSVPs are in?

The RSVP is the start of the road: after it come the seating chart, the day-of message with the table number, and collecting the guests' photos. When each stage lives in a different system, you copy lists between files every week — and a seating chart not wired to the RSVPs is a chart you arrange twice. Ask what else the system does with the list once the confirmation lands: one system, or five that talk to each other through Excel.

What happens to the list after the wedding?

The list you built should remain yours — not become the vendor's marketing asset. Ask whether you can export all the data to a tidy file after the event, answers and meals included; when the data is deleted from the system; and whether the vendor reserves the right to use the list for anything else. A mumbled answer here is worth more than any price comparison.

And what about guests without WhatsApp?

Every list has a few guests without WhatsApp — and a good service reaches them too, with the same form, over SMS. When the fallback channel sends the same personal link, those guests confirm on the same screen and their answers are counted in the same place. Ask what happens to a guest with no WhatsApp: is there a built-in fallback channel, and does it cost extra.

In Weddigo the answers are built in: a personal link per guest through the official WhatsApp Business API, with an SMS fallback for guests without WhatsApp; a one-tap RSVP with party size and meal preference; reminders sent only to non-responders; a removal request honored immediately and blocking any future send; and the seating chart, budget, checklist and the Snapigo photo album living in the same dashboard — no QR, no app.

Ask these questions before you sign. Once the invitations have gone out, it is too late to switch vendors.