You have two catering quotes for the same Saturday. One includes late-night snacks and expires Friday. The other is quieter on dietary restrictions and cheaper if you cut dessert. Your fiancé is in back-to-back meetings and will otherwise get a photo of a tart and a question mark.
Two quotes. One date. Ask them to pick.
Close the list: vendor A, vendor B, or walk
Name the decision in one sentence. "I need A or B by Thursday night — Friday the hold dies." Walking is a third option if you mean it. "Thoughts on food?" is how Friday arrives with no signature.
For each vendor, a few lines:
- per-head number and what is excluded (service, tax, cake)
- dietary constraint you already promised guests
- expiration, in both of your time zones if you are apart
- the one reason you lean this way
Label guesses. "Aunt Mei will be upset without a late snack" is your read. "They can do the allergy plate" is what the salesperson said, or it is inferred from a menu PDF your assistant summarized — say which.
Do not attach the menus. The decision should be possible from a phone between meetings.
The deadline is the hold, or it is your anxiety
An honest deadline names the default. "If I don't hear by Thursday 8 I will release A and keep B's window." That is a plan. "ASAP" is not.
If you can still book either next week, say so. Fake urgency on a tart is how they will treat the next real hold.
A sufficient reply is "A" or "B, cut dessert." One line. If they want a tasting, that is a condition, and it belongs in the reply, not in another thread that loses the quotes.
Hand it to yourself first if two assistants are in play
You may have worked the numbers in one place and want another assistant to keep the guest list. Sending a briefing to yourself is that hand-off. It sends no email. Then you send the same cleaned package to your fiancé.
You approve both. The session still has the joke about their uncle's speech and the number you will not tell the parents. Those stay.
They need no account. Email and a link. If they already have a RelayLink account, you need an accepted contact. A reply is how you know they have it. A fetched link is not a read. You will not see whether they have told their mother.
When the next vendor hold is sitting in a session, connect your assistant and send the two quotes as a closed choice, instead of a photo of a tart.