Every guide to this question gives you the same thing: a line of wording to copy. That is the easy part, and it is at the bottom of this page if it is all you came for.
The harder parts are where the answers end up, and the fact that you are collecting medical information about your friends without anyone mentioning it.
The wording, if that is all you need
On a printed RSVP card, where you have one line:
Allergies or dietary needs: ________________
On a wedding website, where you have room for a reason:
Any allergies or dietary requirements we should know about? Anything you write here goes straight to the kitchen.
Two things to avoid, both common:
- Do not use a list of tick-boxes. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, nut allergy — you will always miss one, and the guest whose allergy is not on your list will tick nothing and tell you on the day.
- Do not make them declare a category. "Allergy or preference?" sounds tidy and puts the guest in the position of grading their own condition. Let them write it and let the caterer judge.
Where the answers actually go, platform by platform
This is the part that decides whether you spend an evening with two lists and a highlighter. Every quotation below is from the platform's own help centre, read on 20 August 2026.
The Knot — inside the RSVP, and it works
Credit where it is due: The Knot handles this properly. Its help centre describes adding a follow-up question to the RSVP and is specific about which type to use:
"Short Answer is good for marriage advice, food allergies, song requests and any other open ended question. Multiple Choice is good for meal choice collection, transportation requests or anything that will limit guest options."
The replies land in the guest list tool, next to the guest. That is exactly the right shape, and if you are already on The Knot there is no reason to change anything.
Hitched, bodas.net, mariages.net, matrimonio.com — a separate survey
These four are one platform under four brands, so the answer is the same on all of them. Here the RSVP button is fixed:
"While the standard RSVP button is not fully editable, we have creative ways to help you get the information you need, such as meal preferences… Create a survey… To see your guests' feedback, head to the activity section of your website where you can filter by survey."
So the "who is coming" list lives in one place and the "who eats what" list in another, and joining them is your job. Perfectly workable for thirty guests. Less fun at a hundred and forty.
Ours
Since we make one of these, the honest disclosure: on our RSVP the allergy field sits directly under the meal choice, per guest, in the same submission — and you can download the whole list as a spreadsheet to hand to the caterer.
That is one design choice among several, not a revelation. The Knot arrives at the same place by a different route.
The part nobody mentions: this is health data
When a guest writes "coeliac" or "severe nut allergy" in your form, they have told you something about their medical condition. Under the GDPR that is data concerning health, a special category with a higher bar than a name and an email.
We are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. But we went through this in our own product this month and these are the four things that came out of it, none of which require a solicitor:
- Ask only if you will use it. If your caterer is serving one dish and cannot vary it, do not collect allergies you cannot act on.
- Say what it is for, where you ask. One line next to the field. "So the kitchen can prepare something for you" is enough, and it is also what makes people answer honestly.
- Keep the list small. The caterer needs it. Your cousin who offered to help with the seating plan does not.
- Delete it afterwards. There is no reason to still hold a list of your guests' medical conditions in a spreadsheet two years later.
If you take one thing from this page, take that one. The wording is on every wedding blog; this is not.
What to do with the answers before the day
- Read them a month out, not the week before. A guest who writes something unexpected may need the caterer to source an ingredient.
- Send the caterer names, not counts. "Four gluten-free" becomes a problem at the table; "table 6, Ana, coeliac" does not.
- Tell the venue about the serious ones separately. A severe allergy is a conversation with a person, not a row in a file.
- Check the late replies. The guests who answer last are disproportionately the ones who forgot to mention something.
Frequently asked questions
How do you ask about dietary restrictions on a wedding RSVP?
Ask once, in plain words, next to the meal choice: "Any allergies or dietary requirements we should know about?" with a free-text box. Avoid a list of tick-boxes — you will always miss someone, and a guest with an unusual allergy will assume it does not apply to them.
What is good wording for dietary requirements on a wedding invitation?
On a printed card, space is short: "Allergies or dietary needs: ______" under the meal choice does the job. On a website you can afford one more line, and it is worth adding why you are asking: "so the kitchen can prepare something for you".
Should I ask about allergies or about preferences?
Both, but in the same field and without making the guest classify themselves. A caterer needs to know the difference between coeliac disease and preferring not to eat gluten, and the person who knows is the guest. A free-text box lets them tell you; a dropdown does not.
Does The Knot let you collect dietary restrictions in the RSVP?
Yes. Its help centre describes adding a custom follow-up question and recommends a short answer for food allergies and multiple choice for the meal, with the replies appearing in the guest list tool.
Why is my meal choice separate from my RSVP on bodas.net or Hitched?
Because the RSVP button on that platform is fixed. Its own help centre states that "the standard RSVP button is not fully editable" and directs couples to build a separate survey, with the answers read in another section. It works; it just means matching names by hand later.
Is an allergy personal data I have to be careful with?
Yes, and it is the part almost nobody mentions. Under the GDPR an allergy is data concerning health, a special category. In practice: ask for it only if you need it, tell the guest what it is for, keep the list to the people who cook, and delete it after the wedding.
Platform quotations were read in each help centre on 20 August 2026 and cover The Knot and the Hitched/bodas.net family. Help pages change: if something no longer matches what you see, write to support@wedding30s.com and we will update it.