Guides for couples
Wedding invitation guides: timing, wording and costs
Plain answers to the questions couples ask us while they are planning. What things cost, how to run the RSVPs, what to send and when, and how to get the numbers your caterer and venue actually need.
Planning guides
Timing and cost
9 min read
When to Send Wedding Invitations: A Back-Planning Timeline
Work backwards from your caterer, not forwards from the engagement. Every date on this timeline is set by the one after it.
Read the guide →
7 min read
How Much Are Wedding Invitations? Costs for 50 to 150 Guests
Wedding invitations cost $220 on average in the United States, and a full paper suite averages $510. Here is where the money actually goes.
Read the guide →
9 min read
Wedding RSVP Deadline: How to Set the Date, With Examples
Set your wedding RSVP deadline three to four weeks before the wedding, and one to two weeks before the date your caterer needs final numbers.
Read the guide →
Wording
15 min read
Wedding Invitation Wording: Formal and Casual Examples
Wedding invitation wording follows a set order: who is hosting, the request to attend, your names, the date and time, the venue, the reception, and how to reply.
Read the guide →
13 min read
Wedding Invitation Etiquette: Paper and Digital Rules
Most invitation etiquette is a solved problem pretending to be a minefield. A few of the rules are load-bearing.
Read the guide →
11 min read
How to Address Wedding Invitations: A Name for Every Guest
The envelope was always the addressed part. Sealed-cover designs keep that opening moment intact.
Read the guide →
12 min read
Wedding Invitation Message for WhatsApp: 32 Ready to Send
A bare link in a chat looks like something you should not tap.
Read the guide →
14 min read
Birthday Invitation Message Ideas: Text and Card Wording
A children's party invitation and a fortieth are the same five facts in completely different voices.
Read the guide →
The day
11 min read
Multi-Day Wedding Invitations: Wording and Guest Planner
Three ceremonies used to mean three cards, three maps and three sets of questions.
Read the guide →
15 min read
Wedding Seating Plan: How to Seat Guests, Step by Step
A seating chart is a list until you notice one table faces a wall.
Read the guide →
8 min read
How Much Alcohol to Buy for a Wedding: Guest-Count Table
The bar is the one order you cannot correct halfway through the evening.
Read the guide →
11 min read
Wedding Venue Directions for Guests: Checklist and Wording
A venue name is not directions, and a screenshot of a map is not either.
Read the guide →
10 min read
Contact Number on a Wedding Invitation: Whose, Where, How
Someone is going to be asked about parking, dress code and whether children are invited. Decide who.
Read the guide →
Going digital
7 min read
Personal Invitation Link: Why Each Guest Gets Their Own
One link shared with everyone cannot know who is reading it. Here is what changes when each guest gets their own.
Read the guide →
9 min read
How to Track Who Opened Your Wedding Invitation, by Channel
Two ticks tell you a message arrived. They do not tell you anyone read the invitation.
Read the guide →
10 min read
WhatsApp Link Preview for Wedding Invitations: Fix the Card
Most guests judge the invitation from the preview card, before they ever open it.
Read the guide →
9 min read
Wedding Invitations With QR Code: Size, Placement, Wording
The hybrid invitation is not a compromise. It is paper that stays current.
Read the guide →
More planning guides
6 min read
How Guests Find Their Table Without Queueing at a Board
Two hundred people reading one board is how a reception starts twenty minutes late.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Add to Calendar - Getting Your Date Into Guests' Phones
The gap between intending to come and being free that day is a calendar entry.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Your Story on the Invitation - What to Include and Cut
Write it for the aunt who has never met your partner, not for the two of you.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Why a Longer Guest List Should Not Cost More
Per-guest pricing quietly turns your guest list into a budget decision.
Read the guide →
Using Link Invitation
How each feature works, one guide per feature.
Inside the invitation
6 min read
Adding Music to a Digital Wedding Invitation
Sound on a web page has a bad reputation, most of it earned. This is how to use it well.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Collecting Guest Photos From Your Wedding Day
The best photo of your wedding is probably on a guest's phone, and you will never see it.
Read the guide →
5 min read
The Wedding Countdown and Why Guests Look at It
A number that changes is the difference between a card that is read once and one that gets reopened.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Bilingual Wedding Invitations - Two Scripts, One Card
Two languages on one invitation is a design problem before it is a translation problem.
Read the guide →
5 min read
Will It Open on Grandma's Phone? Old Handsets
The oldest phone on your guest list is the one that decides whether digital works.
Read the guide →
Replies and RSVP
6 min read
Tracking Wedding RSVPs Without a Spreadsheet
The spreadsheet is not the problem. The four places replies arrive from are.
Read the guide →
6 min read
One RSVP Per Ceremony, Not One Yes for Everything
One yes across three ceremonies is three guesses wearing a confident number.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Custom RSVP Questions Worth Actually Asking
Each question you add is a small tax on your reply rate. Spend it deliberately.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Dietary Requirements - The Numbers Your Caterer Asks For
Forty vegetarian guests and forty vegetarian meals are not the same number.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Plus Ones and Seat Limits Without the Awkward Talk
Nobody wants to tell a cousin their number. The invitation can do it without a word.
Read the guide →
6 min read
The Guests You Forgot, and the Shared Link They Used
Your invitation will be forwarded. The question is whether you find out.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Approving RSVPs Before They Count Toward Your Numbers
Every approved reply is a chair, a meal and a favour you are paying for.
Read the guide →
6 min read
The Messages Guests Leave With Their RSVP
Most of what you need to know arrives in the box you nearly did not add.
Read the guide →
7 min read
Getting Told the Moment a Guest Replies
The dashboard you keep refreshing is a notification you have not set up.
Read the guide →
6 min read
The Final Head Count and How to Project It Early
You have to commit to a number before the people it describes have answered.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Added, Sent, Opened, Replied - Where Guests Drop Off
There is a difference between a guest who has not replied and one who never received it.
Read the guide →
Sending it out
6 min read
Sending Invitations on WhatsApp Without Copy-Pasting
It is not a broadcast, and that is the point. Here is how to work through a long list anyway.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Preview Before You Send - Catching a Mistake at Scale
Placeholder text hides the errors. A real name in the preview shows them.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Inviting Some Guests to Some Events, Politely
The problem with one invitation for three events is that it advertises the events you were not invited to.
Read the guide →
6 min read
A Wedding Invitation Link That Reads Like Your Names
The link is the first thing a guest sees. Random characters read as a scam.
Read the guide →
6 min read
A QR Sign for the Door, the Table and the Welcome Board
Most QR signs fail for one reason: nobody knows what scanning it will do.
Read the guide →
Planning the day
6 min read
A Wedding Checklist That Survives Contact With Reality
Most checklists assume a year. Most couples do not have one.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Splitting a Wedding Budget Before You Spend It
A budget written after the venue deposit is not a budget, it is a receipt.
Read the guide →
5 min read
Keeping Every Vendor Contact and Payment in One Place
The information is not missing. It is in three phones, two inboxes and a paper folder.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Entering Two Hundred Guests Without Losing an Evening
The guest list does not exist. What exists are four lists that disagree.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Groups and Sides - Organising a Guest List That Grew
You will never ask 'show me everyone'. You will ask 'who from his office has not replied'.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Finding One Guest in a List of Three Hundred
Filters are not a convenience. They are how you turn a list into a to-do list.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Exporting Your Guest List for the Caterer and Venue
The export takes your current filter, not everything. That is the feature, not a limitation.
Read the guide →
6 min read
What Invitation Views and Trends Actually Tell You
The useful thing about a view count is the shape of it, not the size.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Getting Help Without Explaining It Twice
A screenshot removes the two days spent asking what you can see.
Read the guide →
Design
6 min read
Choosing a Wedding Invitation Design You Will Not Regret
You are not choosing a picture. You are choosing what your guests do with their thumb.
Read the guide →
5 min read
Changing Your Mind About the Design, Keeping the Words
Commitment to a design is usually commitment to not retyping everything.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Choosing the Cover Photo for Your Invitation
The photo you love is usually the wrong shape for the screen it has to fill.
Read the guide →
6 min read
What to Put on a Wedding Invitation and What to Cut
The invitation is not a website. It has one job, and most sections delay it.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Autosave, Undo and the Fear of Losing an Evening
Careful editing is slow editing. Autosave is what lets you stop being careful.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Briefing a Custom Wedding Invitation Design
Designers do not need you to describe the design. They need you to describe the day.
Read the guide →
Pricing and payment
6 min read
Building and Previewing an Invitation Before You Pay
A sample with strangers' names tells you nothing about how yours will look.
Read the guide →
6 min read
The Venue Changed After You Sent the Invitations
Details change. The question is only whether the change costs you a reprint.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Paying for a Digital Invitation - Cards, PayPal, Refunds
Nobody asks how payment works because they are curious. They ask because they are deciding.
Read the guide →
5 min read
One Payment, No Subscription - What That Means Later
A wedding lasts a day. A subscription lasts until you remember to cancel it.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Seeing the Price in Your Own Currency, Not a Conversion
The price you were shown and the price on your statement should be the same number.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Paying by Bank Transfer Instead of a Card
For a lot of people a transfer is not a fallback, it is the normal way to pay.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Planning a Second Celebration - The Returning Discount
One wedding is rarely one invitation. Most couples send at least two.
Read the guide →
6 min read
Priority WhatsApp Support on the Excellence Plan
Two weeks out, a support queue is not an inconvenience. It is a deadline.
Read the guide →
Editorial standard
How these guides are written
Named sources, with dates
Every figure is attributed to a named source and carries the date we checked it. Where a source disagrees with another, we say so rather than picking the flattering one.
We answer the question first
The number you came for is in the opening lines, not four hundred words down. If the honest answer is that our product is not the right fit, the guide says that.
Kept current
Postage rates, industry averages and competitor pricing all move. Guides carry an updated date and we revisit the figures rather than leaving them to rot.
No numbers we cannot stand behind
The guides about our own features carry no statistics, because we have not measured them. Where a figure is a planning rule of thumb it says so, and what we describe the product doing is what it does, including the parts that are an add-on, a paid plan or switched off until you turn them on.
When you are ready to send
Build your invitation, preview it free, and send it when it looks right.
