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Wedding RSVPs

How to collect wedding RSVPs

Collecting wedding RSVPs is four stages in a fixed order: set up one main channel and one fallback, send the ask, keep every reply resolved to a household in a single list, and close that list on a stop-waiting date you fixed before you needed it. The whole chain is measured backwards from the one date somebody else set for you — the final-count clause in your catering contract — and the channel you pick in stage one decides how much room the rest of the chain has. For most couples the best way to collect RSVPs is one digital channel for the bulk of the list plus stamped reply cards for the specific households you already know will not answer online. Below, all four stages are worked through on one wedding, with 16 setups showing exactly what you print, send and say on each channel at each stage.

Stage one · pick a lane

Which channel to ask on, and what it does to your dates

This routes you; it does not score anything. One line per channel carrying the only three facts that set the rest of the schedule — how fast it answers, how much of your list answers without being chased, and the reply-by date it forces you into. What each channel costs, what chasing looks like on it and how much friction a guest meets is a different question, and it is worked end to end on its own page. Reply speeds and unchased shares are planning estimates built from the ranges vendors publish, so treat the ranking as the useful part and the digits as rough.

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Printed reply cards — about 12 days to reply, roughly 55 in 100 answer without chasing

Send them to the households who genuinely need them, not to the whole list. Reply-by it forces: five weeks before the wedding, and a mail date two weeks earlier than any online channel, because the mail travels twice. Its downside is that you cannot tell who is missing without tallying cards against the guest list by hand. Route here only the households you have counted by name.

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Wedding website form — about 5 days to reply, roughly 70 in 100 answer without chasing

Best when you are building the website anyway. Reply-by it forces: four weeks. Its downside is a URL that has to be typed correctly off a piece of paper, which is exactly the step your phone-only guests will not complete. Route your list here when you need meal choice by dish name, dietary notes and a separate yes/no per sub-event, which no other channel collects as cleanly.

3

QR code to a reply page — about 3 days to reply, roughly 75 in 100 answer without chasing

The bridge from a printed suite to an online reply. Reply-by it forces: four weeks, the same as the form it points at — a code changes how a guest arrives, not the schedule. Its downside is that there is no fallback inside a QR code, so the link written out and a number to text have to be printed beside it. Route here when the printed suite matters to you and typing a URL does not.

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Reply by text — about 1 day to reply, roughly 88 in 100 answer without chasing

The fastest and most complete of the four, and not free of costs. Reply-by it forces: three weeks, the latest of the four, which is the single thing this summary is really measuring. We sell this one, so the constraint first: it reaches only the households you have a current mobile number for, a wrong number tells you nothing, and a texted reply is not a keepsake. Count the gaps by name before you route the whole list here.

Stage one · before anything goes out

🧰 Setting each channel up

Every setup below is the same wedding — Saturday, October 16, 2027, 90 households, caterer's final count due Wednesday, October 6 — so the only thing that changes between them is the channel and the dates it forces. Do this stage before you send a single thing to print, because the mail date moves by two weeks depending on which one you choose.

Example 01

Setting up printed reply cards — 90 households, wedding Saturday, October 16, 2027 · Order: 90 reply cards, 90 reply envelopes, 180 stamps (outer and return) · Print on the card: the reply-by date as a full date, a line for names, and a line for anything they cannot eat · Pre-address and pre-stamp every return envelope before they go in the suite. An unstamped return envelope adds about a week · Number the back of each card in pencil against your guest list — this is the only thing that makes an unsigned card attributable · Invitations mail: Saturday, August 7 (10 weeks out) · Reply by: Saturday, September 11 (5 weeks out) · Build the tally sheet now: one row per household, columns for yes, no, count and date received

Paper setupPersonalize
Example 02

Setting up a wedding-website form — 90 households, wedding October 16, 2027 · Confirm before you build anything: can you export the guest list to CSV, and what is the guest cap on the free tier? · Keep the form to attendance per named guest, meal choice by dish name, dietary notes, and one yes/no per extra event · Use dropdowns and radio buttons, never free text — free text is what creates the second round of chasing · Shorten the RSVP URL and check it reads cleanly in lowercase. It is going to be typed off paper with one thumb · Invitations mail: Saturday, August 21 (8 weeks out) · Reply by: Saturday, September 18 (4 weeks out) · Test it on your own phone, then on somebody else's, before it goes to print

Website form setupPersonalize
Example 03

Setting up a QR code on the invitation — 90 households, wedding October 16, 2027 · Generate a DYNAMIC code pointing at your reply page. A static code is frozen the moment it goes to press · Print it at least 2cm square, on a pale panel, well away from a fold · Print underneath it, always: the link written out, and "or text us on 555-0148" · Scan the proof with two different phones before you approve the print run · Invitations mail: Saturday, August 21 (8 weeks out) · Reply by: Saturday, September 18 (4 weeks out) · Note who you cannot expect to scan — usually a dozen households — and mail them a stamped reply card instead

QR setupPersonalize
Example 04

Setting up a texted ask — 90 households, wedding October 16, 2027 · Collect one current mobile number per household, and count the gaps by name rather than estimating them · The households with no number get a printed reply card and a phone call. Usually eight to fifteen of ninety · Decide the reply format now: a yes or no in words, plus a number of guests, plus meal choice by dish name if the caterer needs one · Write the ask so it is answerable in one tap and one line. If it needs scrolling, it needs cutting · The ask goes out: Saturday, August 28 (7 weeks out) · Reply by: Saturday, September 25 (3 weeks out) — the latest reply-by of the four channels, and the only one that is comfortable · Keep the printed suite if you want it. The card carries the details; the text carries the question

Text setupPersonalize

Every channel above still leaves you typing the list in by hand

Cards, forms and codes collect an answer. None of them ask the question, none of them know who has gone quiet, and none of them chase. Text My Wedding sends the ask to each household by text, records the replies against the right names as they land, and messages only the households that have not answered.

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Stage two · the moment you ask

📣 What the guest actually gets

This is the stage that decides your reply rate, and it is one line of work: make the answer a single obvious action. Each of these shows what lands in front of the guest on that channel and exactly what they have to do next.

Example 05

Paper — what is in the envelope on August 7 · The invitation, the details card, the reply card, and a stamped, addressed reply envelope · The reply card asks four things and no more: who is coming, yes or no, how many, and anything they cannot eat · The reply-by date is printed as "Saturday, September 11, 2027" — never as "four weeks before the wedding", which makes the guest do arithmetic, and a guest doing arithmetic puts the card down · What the guest does: writes on the card, seals the envelope, walks it to a mailbox · What that costs you: about 12 days from their mailbox back to yours, as a planning estimate, and roughly 40 of the 90 households never mailing it back without being chased

Paper askPersonalize
Example 06

Website form — what is on the invitation on August 21 · One line, in a size readable in a dim hallway: "Please reply by Saturday, September 18 at ourwedding.example/rsvp" · The form opens on the household's names already filled in if your platform supports a per-household link. If it does not, the first field is "who is replying?" and you will be reconciling by hand · What the guest does: types a URL off paper into a phone, finds their name, taps through four questions · Where it fails: the typing. That step is where your phone-only guests stop, and it is invisible to you — a guest who gave up looks exactly like a guest who has not looked yet · Planning estimate: a reply inside about 5 days, and roughly 63 of 90 households answering unchased

Website askPersonalize
Example 07

QR code — what is on the invitation on August 21 · The code, the words "Scan to reply by Saturday, September 18", the link written out underneath, and a number to text instead · What the guest does: opens the camera, taps the banner, answers on the page that opens · It removes the single worst step of the website route — typing — and changes nothing else about it · Where it fails: guests who will not scan, and guests who scan on a phone with no signal in the hallway they opened the post in. Both are why the written link and the number are on the card · Planning estimate: a reply inside about 3 days, and roughly 68 of 90 households answering unchased

QR askPersonalize
Example 08

Text — what arrives on August 28 "Hi Marcus and Elena — our wedding is Saturday, October 16 at Halstead Barn, and we would love you there. Can you both make it? Just reply YES or NO by Saturday, September 25. If yes, tell us how many of you and whether anyone can't eat something." · One message per household. Never the group chat — it invites everyone to wait for somebody else to answer first · What the guest does: replies in the thread that is already open on their screen · Planning estimate: a reply inside about a day, and roughly 79 of 90 households answering unchased · Where it fails: the eight to fifteen households you have no current number for. They are not slow, they are unreachable, and you will not find out from the channel itself

Text askPersonalize
Stage three · replies start landing

🧮 Keeping the count straight

Whichever channel you chose, the answers have to end up in one list, resolved to households rather than to messages. This is where two-channel setups go wrong — two half-lists in two places are worse than either channel on its own.

Example 09

Tallying paper — the Sunday routine, September · Open the week's cards in one sitting, at the same table as your guest list · For each card: mark yes or no, write the head count, copy any dietary note verbatim, and date it · Any card with no name on it goes on a pile called "unattributed". Match those by the pencil number on the back · Then look at the gaps, not the replies. On September 11 the number that matters is the households you have NOT heard from · Worked example, Sunday, September 12: 51 of 90 households returned, 39 silent, 4 cards unsigned and matched by number · This tally takes about an hour a week and cannot be skipped, because nothing else on this channel tells you who is missing

Paper tallyPersonalize
Example 10

Tallying a website form — the weekly export, September · Export the responses to CSV every Sunday. Do not work off the dashboard: it shows submissions, and you need households · De-duplicate first. Two submissions from the Okonjo household means one of them changed their mind, and the later one wins · Reconcile names to your guest list, because guests type "Ben" where your list says "Benjamin" and your caterer's sheet will not join them for you · Worked example, Sunday, September 19: 71 submissions, 4 duplicates, 67 households resolved, 23 silent · Add a column for the sub-event answers if you asked for them. They roll up into a different number than the wedding-breakfast count

Website tallyPersonalize
Example 11

Tallying a QR route — same list, one extra column, September · Scanned replies land in exactly the same place as typed ones, so the tally is the website tally · The one thing worth tracking separately: how many households arrived by scan versus by typing the link. If almost nobody scanned, your code is too small, badly placed, or on a dark panel · What you cannot see: guests who scanned and abandoned. There is no partial submission to chase, so treat a silent household as silent whatever the analytics suggest · Worked example, Sunday, September 19: 68 households resolved, 22 silent, 3 replies arrived by text on the fallback number printed under the code · Those 3 fallback replies are the argument for printing the fallback

QR tallyPersonalize
Example 12

Tallying texted replies — September · Each reply is already attached to a household, because the number it came from is the number you sent to. That is the whole advantage and it removes the reconciliation step entirely · What still needs doing by hand if you are texting from your own phone: transcribing "yes, 2 of us, Elena is gluten-free" into a list somebody else can read · Keep the list off a single phone. Export it, or write it somewhere both of you can see · Worked example, Monday, September 27: 82 of 90 households answered, 8 silent — 5 of them the households you never had a number for · The silent list on this channel is short enough to work through by phone in one evening, which is the real reason the reply-by date can sit three weeks out

Text tallyPersonalize
Stage four · the stop-waiting date

🔒 Closing the list and submitting a number

Every channel ends in the same place: one number, submitted on Wednesday, October 6. Fix the stop-waiting date at Sunday, October 3 — three days earlier, so you have time to total the list — and treat every household still silent on that day as a no.

Example 13

Closing a paper list — Sunday, October 3 · Final tally against the guest list, cards and all. 78 households resolved, 12 never replied · Phone the 12 rather than writing them off unread. On paper, more of them are lost cards than lost interest — expect two or three yeses out of twelve · Anyone still silent by the end of that evening is marked no, and gets one short message saying you have had to close the numbers · What goes to the caterer on Wednesday, October 6: 141 adults, 8 children, 11 vegetarian, 2 gluten-free, 1 nut allergy · Keep the cards. They are the only channel that leaves you something to keep, and you paid for it

Closing on paperPersonalize
Example 14

Closing a website list — Sunday, October 3 · Final export, de-duplicated, resolved to households. 80 of 90 answered · Reconcile the meal choices to the caterer's actual dish names, not the labels you used on the form. "Chicken" and "herb-roast chicken" have to be one column before this goes anywhere · Check the sub-event columns separately — the welcome-drinks number is not the wedding-breakfast number and the venue will need both · Close the form. A form left open after the count is submitted collects answers nobody will ever read · What goes to the caterer on Wednesday, October 6: one CSV, plus a one-line email stating the guaranteed number in words

Closing a formPersonalize
Example 15

Closing a QR route — Sunday, October 3 · Same close as the form, plus one job: check the fallback number and the written-link route for replies that never touched the code · 79 households resolved, 11 silent. Of the 11, four are households you already knew would not scan — call those first · If you used a dynamic code, re-point it at a plain thank-you page once the count is in. A live RSVP form after the deadline just produces awkward conversations · What goes to the caterer on Wednesday, October 6: the same CSV a form produces. The code was only ever the door · Keep the code working until the wedding if it also points at directions and timings — just not at the RSVP form

Closing a QR routePersonalize
Example 16

Closing a texted list — Sunday, October 3 · 85 of 90 households answered. The remaining 5 are the ones you never had a mobile number for, so this close is a phone call, not a message · Send one closing line to anyone being written off: "Hi Rowan — I've had to close our numbers today as I hadn't heard back, so I've marked you as unable to come. No hard feelings at all." · Total the yes count from the thread list and check it against the invitation list one final time. A reply that says "we'd love to" is a yes; a reply that says "we'll try" is not · What goes to the caterer on Wednesday, October 6: 148 adults, 6 children, 9 vegetarian, 1 dairy-free · Anything that arrives after the count goes in is a phone call to the caterer before it is an answer to the guest

Closing by textPersonalize
Whose date is it?

Five dates in a row, and only two of them are yours

The most expensive mistake in the incumbent corpus is treating the reply-by date you chose, the count date your contract imposes and the number you actually submit as one deadline. They are three different decisions, and the channel you pick moves a fourth.

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The date the invitations physically go out

The channel does, not you · 10 weeks before for a printed suite, 8 for a form or a QR code, 7 for a texted ask. Everything downstream compresses, and you cannot recover it by moving the reply-by date later, because the caterer's date does not move with you. On a paper setup this is the date that quietly decides the other four.

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The reply-by date on the card, the form or the message

You do — inside the window the channel allows · 3 weeks out by text, 4 by form or QR code, 5 on paper, 5 to 8 for a destination list. Nothing happens, which is exactly why guests treat it as soft. It is not the day you need a number — it is the day you start having time to chase, so leave at least ten clear days between it and your caterer's count.

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The nudge one week before it

You do · seven days before the reply-by date. You lose the cheapest reply in the chain. Skipping it breaks nothing, but it converts a friendly message sent before anyone was late into a chase sent after they were, which costs more goodwill for the same answer.

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The caterer's or venue's final count

Your contract, not you and not the channel · 7 to 14 days before the wedding, 21 at many venues and 30 at resorts abroad. This is the only date with money attached. Miss it and you are billed on the last number you gave or on the venue's contracted minimum, whichever is higher. Find the clause before you choose a channel, because every other date here is measured backwards from it.

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The number you actually submit

You do, on the vendor's date · the day the final count is due. Submit your confirmed yes count, resolved to households rather than to replies, and resist trimming it for guests you doubt will show. Most contracts bill the guaranteed number or the number who attend, whichever is higher, so shaving saves nothing and risks a short kitchen.

The running order

Collecting RSVPs, in the order the decisions actually arrive

Couples rarely get stuck on the channel. They get stuck because they made decision four before decision two. This is the sequence, and each step names the page in this cluster that goes deep on it.

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1. Read the final-count clause in your catering contract

It is the only fixed date in the whole process and it varies from seven days to thirty. Everything else — the mail date, the reply-by date, the day you stop waiting — is derived from it. The final headcount page covers what that number has to contain and who else needs one.

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2. Work out how many invitations produce the room you want

Between roughly one in eight and one in three of the guests you invite will decline, depending on how far they have to travel. Sizing that before you print is the difference between a full room and forty spare chairs. The attendance-rate page does the math in both directions.

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3. Pick the channel, then let it set your reply-by date

Not the other way around. The routing summary above is the short version; the online-versus-paper page runs each channel end to end with what it costs. Whatever you choose, choose one main channel and one fallback, and make sure both land in the same list.

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4. Decide what you are actually asking for

Attendance per named guest is the minimum. Meal choice by dish name, dietary notes and a yes/no per sub-event each add a question and each add abandonment, so only ask for what a vendor will genuinely use. The what-to-ask page has twenty field blocks and what each one costs you.

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5. Send the ask, then leave it alone for two weeks

Chasing on day three teaches guests that your deadline is decorative. Send once, note the reply-by date in your own calendar, and do nothing until the week before it — at which point one nudge to the silent households does most of the remaining work.

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6. Fix your stop-waiting date before you need it

Three days before the vendor's count, written down while you are calm rather than at eleven at night with the caterer waiting. Households still silent on that date go down as no. The no-response page is the dated version of those two weeks, rung by rung.

Avoid these

Six ways RSVP collection falls apart

Not one of these is a channel problem, which is why they belong on this page rather than on the channel one. Every one is a sequencing failure — a decision made before the decision it depends on — and each is free to fix in the right order and expensive to fix in the wrong one.

Choosing the channel before reading the catering contract

A venue that wants the number 30 days out cannot be served by a paper reply-by date five weeks before the wedding — the two dates collide, and you find out in the week you were meant to be chasing. Read the clause first; it takes two minutes and it decides everything else.

Sending the invitations before you have sized the list

Between roughly one in eight and one in three of the guests you invite will decline, and the moment the suite is in the mail that number is fixed. Work out how many invitations produce the room you want first, hold the balance as a B-list, and you keep a lever you otherwise spend the whole summer wishing you had.

Choosing the reply-by date before the mail date

The reply-by date is not a free choice — it is whatever the mail date and the channel leave you. Pick the date first and you will quietly discover that a paper suite needed to be at the printer two weeks ago, and there is no way to buy that back except by moving to a faster channel.

Deciding what you are asking for after the form is built

Adding a meal-choice column once replies are already landing means going back to every household that has answered. Settle the question set before anything is printed or published: the fields you need are decided by how your caterer serves and how many separate gatherings there are, and both of those are knowable months earlier.

Counting replies instead of households

A form counts submissions, a phone counts messages, and a caterer counts plates. Duplicate submissions, a partner replying separately and a card returned unsigned all inflate the number you think you have. Resolve everything to one row per household before you submit anything.

Leaving the stop-waiting date until the caterer asks for it

Decided in advance it is a line in a calendar; decided at eleven at night with the count due it is an argument. Fix it three days before the vendor's date while you are calm, tell the households still silent on it, and submit the number without them — silence is a no you have not written down yet.

Free, and it runs in your browser

Date all four stages from your own wedding date

Enter your wedding date and the lead time your catering contract asks for. It gives you the day the invitations mail, the reply-by date to print, the nudge and the dated final notice after it, and the day your caterer's number is due — the whole chain, in the order the four stages above happen. Switch the mode chips to compare channels or chase a silent list. Everything runs in your browser — the dates and numbers you type never leave the page.

Wedding RSVP deadline calculatorFree · no sign-up · runs entirely in your browser

Work backwards from the wedding to the day invitations mail, the reply-by date, and the two follow-ups after it.

Leave it blank and every answer below still works — you just get “four weeks before the wedding” instead of a printed date.

The common case: a local core plus a scattering of guests who need a flight or a hotel.

A mix lists usually sit around 4 weeks.

Read it off your catering contract — 7 to 14 days is typical.

Private by design: every date and number here is worked out in your browser, and the dates and counts you enter never leave this page. We count anonymous usage — which mode people pick, nothing they type. Close the tab and it's gone, so copy your dates somewhere safe.

Your five RSVP dates

Reply by 4 weeks before the wedding

Five dates, in the order they happen. Only the last one belongs to somebody else.

  • Mail the invitationsAdd your wedding date
    8 weeks before the wedding

    The common case: a local core plus a scattering of guests who need a flight or a hotel. Mailing here leaves guests a comfortable window to answer.

  • Reply-by date printed on the cardAdd your wedding date
    4 weeks before the wedding

    This is the date you choose. Print it as a full date, not “two weeks before” — guests read a date and act on it.

  • First nudge to silent householdsAdd your wedding date
    3 days after the reply-by date

    Short and friendly. Most of the missing replies land in the two days after this one.

  • Dated final noticeAdd your wedding date
    8 days after the reply-by date

    Name the caterer's date. A deadline someone else set is easier for a guest to hear than one you chose.

  • Final headcount to the catererAdd your wedding date
    10 days before the wedding

    Your contract sets this one, not you. Check it before you print anything — everything above works backwards from it.

Decline, reply, and no-show rates here are planning estimates built from the ranges wedding vendors publish — useful for sizing a list, not a survey result.

Want the replies to chase themselves?Text My Wedding texts the invitation, collects the RSVPs, and nudges the households that go quiet — so the list is done before your caterer asks.
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Good to know

Questions about collecting wedding RSVPs

What is the best way to collect wedding RSVPs?

One main digital channel plus one paper fallback. Ask the bulk of your list by text or through a wedding-website form — both get you a reply-by date three to four weeks before the wedding — and mail stamped reply cards only to the specific households you know will not reply online. As a planning estimate, a texted ask gets an answer inside a day and roughly nine households in ten answer unchased; a mailed reply card takes about twelve days and roughly half of them need chasing.

How do you collect RSVPs without a wedding website?

You do not need one. Ask by text, one message per household, with the reply-by date in the first line and a yes-or-no answer as the only thing required — that is the fastest of the four channels and it needs nothing installed. A printed reply card with a stamped return envelope works without any internet at all, and a QR code on the invitation can point at a free form rather than a full website. A website is a good place to put travel and timing details; it is not a requirement for collecting an answer.

Can you ask for wedding RSVPs by text?

Yes — and the question worth answering first is how much of your list it actually reaches. Count the households you have a current mobile number for, by name. If that is most of them, text is your main channel: it answers fastest, needs no account and no URL, and it buys you the latest reply-by date of the four. If it is only half the list, text is the fallback and something printed is the main route. Either way the households with no number are getting a card or a phone call, so decide which before anything goes to print.

How many ways to reply should you offer guests?

Two: one main channel and one fallback, both landing in the same list. Offering four routes feels generous and produces four partial lists that have to be merged every week, with duplicate replies you cannot tell apart. Print the fallback beside the main route — the link written out under a QR code, or a phone number on a reply card — so nobody is stranded, and reconcile everything to one row per household.

How far ahead of the wedding should you ask for replies?

Far enough ahead that you still have time to chase, which in practice means the channel decides most of it and your catering contract decides the rest. Text buys a reply-by three weeks out, a form or QR code four, printed cards five. Leave at least ten clear days between whichever of those you land on and the day your caterer needs a final number. The free calculator on this page dates the whole chain from your wedding date.

What do you do if guests never reply at all?

Give it about three days past your reply-by date, then contact the silent households one at a time and change channel at each rung: a short text, then a dated message naming the day your caterer needs numbers, then a phone call. Set a stop-waiting date roughly two weeks after the reply-by date and at least three days before the vendor count, mark everyone still silent as a no, and send one short message saying you have had to close the numbers.

You picked the date.
Let us collect the replies.

Text My Wedding sends the invitation by text, records every RSVP against the right household, and nudges the ones who go quiet — so your caterer gets a number instead of a guess.