Q: We are getting ready to think about save the dates and, later, invitations for our wedding, and it’s pretty clear from our guest spreadsheet that we don’t know anybody’s mailing address. Or their email addresses. Or their phone numbers.
Or, for some of them, the correct spelling of their partner’s last name, thanks to people creating fake last names on Facebook for privacy reasons! (Guilty of this one myself, but the problem persists.)
We’re not working with a huge guest list here, but regardless, my spreadsheet brain tells me to make a Google form and send it out to collect addresses all at once—but I’m not sure that’s the best way? We live in New York so there’s always to chance that we’ll have to correct an address later, but the idea of texting my friends saying, “Can you give us your contact info with this link?” sounds much easier to navigate than basically anything else.
Is sending a spreadsheet to collect addresses for my wedding ridiculous? Is it tacky? Will it ruin the sweet surprise of getting an invitation in the mail?
How did everyone else do this? I can’t be the only one who doesn’t keep an address book handy!
Answer from the editor:
Here’s a tool to manage all your wedding guests (and collect mailing addresses) all in one place! But we’d love to hear some DIY options or other tools that worked for you, since most of are in the same boat (AKA sending friends Instagram DMs rather than a postcard).
How did you collect addresses? Is it ridiculous to send your guests a form? Do you have any tips for collecting accurate information from all of your familY and friends?
If you want the APW community’s two cents, send it to QUESTIONS AT APRACTICALWEDDING DOT COM, and we’ll do our best to crowd source you some answers!