For a dinner party, settle the date before anything else: the guest count determines the menu, the table and the shopping, and all three are expensive to redo. Propose three or four evenings, collect answers in one place, and treat maybe as a real answer, since a small table means one person's uncertainty changes the plan. Who can when? does this free with no accounts.
Small groups are less forgiving
With eight people around a table, one drop-out is twelve per cent of the room and can change the character of the evening entirely. That makes certainty worth more here than it is for a big party, where numbers average out.
So chase the maybes rather than accepting them, and ask early enough that people are answering about a free evening rather than choosing between you and something else.
Worth asking at the same time
- Allergies and what people do not eat. In the comments, alongside the answer.
- Whether partners are included. Ambiguity here costs you two chairs or embarrasses somebody.
- Who needs to leave early, which quietly decides what time you serve.
- Whether anyone is bringing something, if it is that kind of evening.
Three weeks, not three days
A dinner party is competing with everything else in people's own time, and their own time gets booked far earlier than their work time. Three weeks out is about right for six to ten people; a week out means you are asking them to move something.
Common questions
- How many dates should I offer?
- Three or four. A small group can usually converge on that many, and more options makes the answers less careful.
- Can I collect dietary requirements in the poll?
- Yes - leave comments on and ask in the description. Answers and notes arrive together.
- Do guests need an account?
- No. They open the link and tap.
Ready when you are
Friends, family and the weekend
The occasions where everyone is willing and nobody is free on the same evening.
Related
- Scheduling a team dinner Organising the team dinner? Propose a few evenings, send one link, and see who can make which. Free, no account, and the calendar invitation sends itself.
- "When are you free?" The most expensive question you can ask a group. Here is what to ask instead, and a free tool that asks it for you.
- Book club scheduling Pick the book club date without the group chat. Propose a few evenings, share one link, and everyone marks when they can. Free and no account needed.
Read next
- How to plan a team dinner Date first, venue second, and a few things that decide whether people come. A practical order of operations for whoever got handed the team dinner.
Or see everything we have written in one list.