How to Organize What People Bring

One of the best things about our weekly Friday Night Pizza tradition is that everyone plays a part—not just in eating the pizza but in making it happen. Instead of taking on all the work (and cost!) ourselves, we’ve found a way to make it easy, organized, and inclusive for guests to bring ingredients.

If you’re looking for a smooth, low-stress way to handle this for your own pizza night, here’s exactly how we do it.

Why We Have Guests Bring Ingredients

When you’re hosting a weekly event, it needs to be something sustainable. If one person is responsible for all the ingredients every week, it quickly becomes a burden. By sharing the load, everyone feels like they’re part of the tradition, and it makes pizza night something we do together rather than just something we host.

It also helps reduce waste—people often already have things in their kitchens, gardens, or pantries that they can bring. Someone might have a spare pack of bacon, fresh herbs growing at home, or a specialty olive oil they want to share. By giving guests the choice of what to bring, they can contribute in a way that works for them.

How We Organize It: What Didn’t Work

Over the years, we’ve experimented with different ways of organizing what guests bring:

• Telling people what to bring – At first, we just assigned ingredients to people. But this didn’t account for what they already had or what they felt comfortable buying. Some people prefer to bring something small and inexpensive, while others love picking up specialty ingredients.
• A spreadsheet system – We later tried a shared spreadsheet where people could sign up for ingredients. It was better, but not great. Not everyone likes spreadsheets, and sometimes people wouldn’t update it properly, leading to duplicates and missing ingredients. Plus, we’d still get texts saying, “What do you need me to bring?” and I’d have to check the spreadsheet for them.

The System That Works for Us

Now, we use a shared “What to Bring” form on a webpage that automatically updates in real time. Here’s how it works:

1. We finalize the pizzas we’ll be making based on the RSVPs.
2. A list of needed ingredients goes up in the form, with the exact amounts required.
3. Guests check off what they want to bring, add their name and email, and hit submit.
4. Once an ingredient is selected, it disappears so no one else picks the same thing.
5. Guests receive an email confirmation listing what they’re bringing (with a note to let us know if they can’t make it so we can reassign their items).
6. We get a copy too, so if we’re wondering, “Who’s bringing the pineapple?” we can check.

Later in the day, we do a quick scan of the form to see if any ingredients are still listed. If needed, we’ll ask someone if they can add an extra item, or we’ll check what we already have in the pantry.

What Do Guests Typically Bring?

Aside from pizza ingredients, we also ask guests to bring their own drinks. This keeps things simple—some bring a couple of beers or a bottle of wine, others bring juice, soda, or nothing at all (which is totally fine—we just show them where the water and glasses are).

What If Someone Forgets Their Ingredients?

It happens! We have a few backup staples in the pantry, like canned pineapple or frozen bacon, which can fill in gaps. If we’re missing something last-minute, we might send someone on a quick run to the store, or we’ll just adapt—making more margheritas or swapping out a topping.

Guidelines for Guests

• Small quantities – We often only need a small handful of something e.g., 50g (1.75oz) of smoked chicken, not a whole breast.
• Good quality ingredients – If possible, we encourage people to grab items from a deli or specialty store rather than the cheapest supermarket option. But no stress if that’s not possible!

If someone isn’t sure what to bring, or if they’re on a tight budget, we tell them just to bring themselves. We also sometimes add snacks to the list, so if the main ingredients are taken, people can contribute in another way.

Want to Use Our System?

We built this “What to Bring” system ourselves because we couldn’t find an app that did exactly what we needed. If you’re interested in using something like this for your own gatherings, let us know—we’re considering making it available for others!