Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form
Meal choices, allergies and seating requests collected per guest, ready for the table plan.
A ready-to-use registration & events form for event organisers, venues and community teams: 11 questions, 1 page, 3 conditional rules.
- Questions
- 11
- Pages
- 1
- Layouts
- card · classic
- Conditional rules
- 3
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Live preview and test console
This is the real form. Answer it to test the 2 conditional rules — nothing is sent or stored.
2 questions are hidden by conditional logic right now — change an answer above to reveal them.
Compliance checklist
- Payment items priced — passingEvery payment question charges a real amount, so a submission always records a payment.
- Conditional logic resolves — passingEvery rule points at a question or page that exists in this template.
- Legal text not required — passingThis template collects neither health nor regulated financial information.
- Question labels unique — passingLogic and exports address questions by label, so duplicates are ambiguous.
What happens after submit: nothing is stored in this preview. On your own copy, every response triggers an instant email notification and lands in your response dashboard, ready to export or forward.
Happy with it? Take a copy into your workspace — every question, rule and setting comes with it.
Who this template is for
Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form is built for event organisers, venues and community teams who need to collect registrations, dietary needs and ticket choices in one pass.
- Event organisers, venues and community teams working in registration & events.
- Teams who need to collect registrations, dietary needs and ticket choices in one pass without writing code or paying for a custom build.
- Anyone replacing headcounts that change hourly and no single attendee list with one structured record per enquiry.
- Respondents are attendees, guests and speakers — the form asks them 11 questions across 1 screen.
- Mobile-heavy audiences, thanks to the one-question-per-screen card layout.
Why this form is useful
It removes the cost of headcounts that change hourly and no single attendee list and turns each submission into a record your team can act on immediately.
- 4 questions are required, so submissions arrive complete instead of needing a follow-up email.
- Conditional logic hides 3 questions until they are relevant — shorter forms convert better than long ones.
- Every response is stored, searchable and exportable, so nothing depends on one person's inbox.
How to use this template
From copy to live form is a few minutes of work, and every step is reversible.
- 1Press “Use this template” — a fresh copy of Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form lands in your workspace, ready to edit.
- 2Rename or delete any question, and change what is required. Nothing here is fixed.
- 3Open Notifications and add the email addresses that should be alerted on each submission; add an auto-reply to the respondent if the form collects an email address.
- 4Publish it, then either share the link directly or paste the embed snippet into your site — the embedded form resizes to fit and loads no marketing or advertising trackers.
- 5Watch responses land in Submissions, where you can filter, label and export them to CSV or PDF.
Logic and conditions blueprint
Exactly how this form behaves as it is answered — 3 conditional rules ship with it.
- Features advanced show logic: if “Children's meal needed?” is Yes, the form dynamically exposes “Child name and age”. Otherwise that question never appears.
- Features conditional validation: if “Children's meal needed?” is Yes, “Child name and age” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent.
- Features advanced show logic: if “Dietary requirements or allergies” is answered, the form dynamically exposes “Kitchen confirmation note”. Otherwise that question never appears.
- All 3 rules are editable in the Logic tab, and the built-in checker warns about rules that contradict each other.
About this template
Once an invitation is accepted, the two things a host still needs from every single guest are what they will eat and where they would rather sit, and asking for both together avoids a second round of messages closer to the date. The form opens with the guest's name and an invitation reference, which matters when several people are replying under one household booking. Starter, main and dessert are asked as fixed choices rather than open text, with the main course explicitly including a vegetarian option, because a caterer working from a printed list needs a countable number, not a paragraph. Dietary requirements are kept separate from the meal choice itself, and answering that question opens a short kitchen confirmation note, reassuring the guest that their answer has actually been passed on rather than filed and forgotten. A children's meal question reveals a request for the child's name and age only when needed, since most adult guests should never see that field at all. The two seating questions close the form, giving the table planner both the requests to honour and the pairings to avoid.
What this form asks
Every question is editable — rename it, make it optional, or delete it entirely.
Meal & seating
- Guest full namerequired
- Party or invitation reference
- Starter choicerequired
- Main choicerequired
- Dessert choicerequired
- Dietary requirements or allergies
- Kitchen confirmation note
- Children's meal needed?
- Child name and age
- Anyone you would like to sit with
- Anyone you would rather not sit near
11 questions in total.
How the form changes as it's filled in
This template ships with 3 conditional rules, grouped into 3 behaviours driven by 2 questions. Everything below is already set up — edit or delete any rule once the template is in your workspace.
Driven by “Children's meal needed?”
- Reveals questions
If “Children's meal needed?” is Yes, the form reveals “Child name and age”.
- Makes answers required
If “Children's meal needed?” is Yes, “Child name and age” becomes required before the form can be submitted.
Driven by “Dietary requirements or allergies”
- Reveals questions
If “Dietary requirements or allergies” is answered, the form reveals “Kitchen confirmation note”.
Set it up step by step
- 1
Send it only after the RSVP is confirmed
Collecting meal choices from guests who have not yet accepted wastes catering headcount planning.
- 2
Give the caterer fixed choices, not free text
A countable list of set options is far easier to cost and prepare than open descriptions.
- 3
Pass allergy answers to the kitchen the same week
Waiting until the final week risks a substitution nobody had time to check.
- 4
Use both seating fields when building the table plan
Requests to sit together matter, but the requests to be kept apart usually matter more.
- 5
Confirm children's meals separately from adult catering counts
It keeps portion sizes and pricing accurate on the final catering order.
Mistakes to avoid
- Sending the meal form before guests have confirmed they are attending at all.
- Recording allergies in a note nobody forwards to the kitchen.
- Ignoring the seating avoidance requests when the table plan is finalised.
What it pairs with
Most teams don't run this form on its own. These are the forms and systems it sits next to.
What to do with the responses
Compile the meal counts for catering, forward allergy answers to the kitchen, and use the seating notes when drafting the table plan.
Works in both layouts
Forms that overlap this one
These pages cover the same subject ground as the guest meal & seating preference form, matched on the words people actually search for.
Wedding RSVP Form
attendeechoiceconferencecoordinatingevent
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attendeechoiceconferenceeventguest
Wedding Planning Consultation Form
attendeeconferencecoupleeventguest
Webinar Attendee Sign-Up
attendeeconferenceeventguestlist
Wedding Day Timeline Questionnaire
attendeeconferenceeventguestlist
Webinar Sign-Up Card
attendeechoiceconferenceeventguest
Frequently asked questions
When should this go out relative to the RSVP?
Only once a guest has confirmed attendance, usually a few weeks before the final catering numbers are due.
What if a guest has multiple allergies?
The long text field allows for as much detail as needed; forward it verbatim to the caterer.
Should children have a separate menu list?
Yes, most caterers price and prepare children's meals differently from the adult menu.
Can seating requests be guaranteed?
Treat them as strong preferences rather than guarantees, especially the requests to avoid particular pairings.
Is the Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form template free to use?
Yes. You can preview and test Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form on this page without an account, and take a copy into your own HelloForms workspace on the free plan. There is nothing to install and no card required to publish it.
What does the Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form template ask for?
It asks 11 questions across 1 page, 4 of which are required. Every question is listed in full further down this page, and each one can be renamed, reordered, made optional or deleted after you copy the template.
Can I edit the Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form form after copying it?
Yes — the copy is entirely yours. Change wording, add or remove questions, switch between the card and classic layouts, restyle it to match your brand, and set who gets notified on each submission.
How does the conditional logic in this registration & events form work?
3 conditional rules ship with the template: Features advanced show logic: if “Children's meal needed?” is Yes, the form dynamically exposes “Child name and age”. Otherwise that question never appears. Features conditional validation: if “Children's meal needed?” is Yes, “Child name and age” becomes mandatory before the form can be sent. Features advanced show logic: if “Dietary requirements or allergies” is answered, the form dynamically exposes “Kitchen confirmation note”. Otherwise that question never appears. All rules are editable in the Logic tab.
Where do responses to the Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form form go?
Submissions land in your workspace under Submissions, where you can search, filter, label and export them to CSV or PDF. You can also email a notification to your team on every submission and send the respondent an auto-reply.
Can I embed the Guest Meal & Seating Preference Form form on my own website?
Yes. Publish the form and paste the embed snippet into any page or share the direct link. The embedded form resizes to fit its container and loads no advertising or marketing trackers inside the iframe.
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