Fondue Party RSVP Website: Pot Seats, Dippers, and a Dairy Line

A fondue party breaks when six people crowd a pot built for four, or when the cheese has wine and dairy and someone at that pot cannot eat either. Cheese, bread, and dippers are bought before you heat anything. A maybe does not hold a fork.

You can create a fondue party RSVP that fills seats at each pot, separates cheese from broth and chocolate, and stops when the burners are full.

Count pots, then count seats

A fondue pot is a small table, not a party. Most cheese pots work for four people. Six forks in one pot means cold cheese and a line for the burner. Before you send the link, write down how many pots and burners you will run, how many seats each pot gets, and whether you are doing cheese, a hot broth or oil course, chocolate, or some combination. Each course is its own pot of food. Do not promise three courses if you own one burner.

If a restaurant is hosting, ask their pot size, whether the menu is fixed, and the last time you can change the headcount. If you are hosting at home, test the burners on the table you will use. Fuel cans, electric pots, and a crowded tablecloth are a real limit. That limit is your cap.

Set a capacity limit on people who will sit down to eat, not on everyone who was invited. When the last fork is assigned, the form should say the table is full. A drop-in who "only wants dessert" still needs a seat at the chocolate pot if that is a seated course. Say whether dessert is seated or a stand-up tray.

What is in the pot, and who cannot share it

Cheese fondue is often dairy, gluten from the thickener or the bread, and alcohol from wine or kirsch. The alcohol does not fully vanish. Broth can be made without those things. Chocolate often brings dairy and nuts. Ask yourself what you will actually serve, and do not offer a swap you will not cook.

Ask each person:

Which course they will eat: cheese, broth, chocolate, or a combination you listed

Which dippers they want counted for them, such as bread, vegetables, potato, or fruit, so you buy portions instead of a vague spread

Not attending is a no, not a maybe that holds a burner until the cheese is melted

Collect a dietary line with severity beside those choices. "I skip wine" can mean a broth pot. "Dairy will make me sick if it shares a fork" can mean they need a separate pot or a no. Ask which one it is. A shared pot cannot be made safe by picking around the bread.

Households and seats

Couples and families often answer once and forget a second fork. Ask for each person in the household, with their own course and dietary line. One yes is one seat. If two adults and a child are coming, that is three seats and three sets of dippers, unless you have a real child portion and you said so.

If you have more than one pot, ask who must sit together and who cannot share a pot. Seat from the dietary line first. A request to sit with friends loses to a pot they cannot eat.

Shop the yes list and lock the burners

Buy bread and cheese for the seats that said cheese, vegetables for the seats that said broth, and fruit or cake for the seats that said chocolate. A bag of "extra" does not fix a pot that has the wrong ingredients for the people assigned to it. Put the deadline on the page as the day you shop or the restaurant's change deadline. A yes after that is a call, not a fork.

Say where people should park or enter if the table is in a small apartment and the burner setup cannot move. Ask for a phone number in case you have to shift the start because a pot fails.

Say how the pots are heated. An open flame, a fuel gel, and an electric pot are different risks on a table with paper napkins and long sleeves. Ask whether any child will sit within reach of a pot, and require an adult at that seat if the answer is yes. Do not promise a kids' cheese that you will not make. If the only cheese pot has wine, a child who should not have that pot needs the broth course or a no.

Chocolate is where nuts hide. If the chocolate course uses a hazelnut spread or a garnish, name it on the page and ask for a yes or no on nuts, separate from the cheese answers. A person who ate the cheese course can still be unable to stay for chocolate. Count those seats only if they are staying. A fork that leaves before dessert should not be in the chocolate shop.

Export the list the day you shop: seat or not, course, dippers, dietary line and severity, household count, and who shares a pot. A fondue party RSVP is finished when every fork has a pot that person can eat, the grocery list matches those forks, and you are not melting cheese for a maybe.