A link sent on its own reads as a mistake. With no words around it, it looks like something forwarded by accident, or something you should not tap. The message that carries the link is what gets it opened, and it has five small jobs to do in about four lines. Here is what to write, how long to make it, and which parts fill themselves in.
Why a naked link gets left unopened
Put yourself on the other end of it. A guest’s phone buzzes, and there is a web address and nothing else. Before they can decide whether to tap, they have to work out three things: who this is from, what it is, and whether it was meant for them. Your number may not even be saved under your name.
Most people will not do that work. They leave it, mean to come back, and it scrolls out of sight under a school group and four forwarded videos. Worse, an unexplained link from an unrecognised number looks exactly like the parcel-fee messages everyone has been trained to ignore.
The five jobs a covering message has to do
Every good version of this message, formal or casual, does the same five things in the same order.
- Who it is from. Your names in the first line, not the last. This is the line that stops a guest wondering whose number this is.
- What it is. Use the word invitation, early. Not “have a look at this”.
- Why them. Name the part of the celebration they are invited to, especially if there are several and they are not coming to all of them.
- The link. On its own line, at the end.
- What to do next. Open it and reply. If you have a date you need answers by, this is where it goes.
Nothing else is compulsory. The venue, the timings and anything a guest might look up twice belong on the invitation page, not in the chat. The message is the doorstep, not the room.
How long it should be
Short. There is no correct number of words, and we have not measured one. Three or four lines, one idea in each, with a blank line above the link, is a working habit and nothing more official than that. The reason is mechanical: a long message arrives folded behind a tap, and what gets folded away is the end, which is where you have just put the link.
Put nothing after the link. Anything below it competes with the one thing you want tapped. A reply-by date, or a note about children, goes above the link or on the invitation itself.
The parts that fill themselves in
You write the message once. The parts that change from guest to guest are tokens - placeholders you drop into the text, filled in per guest as each message is prepared. There is one for the guest’s name, one for your names, one for the events that guest is invited to, one for the date, and one for their links.
Two are worth understanding properly. The events token lists only the events that guest is on, so a cousin invited to the homecoming alone is not told about a ceremony she was never asked to. The date token follows the same rule where your ceremonies carry dates of their own, giving her the first day she is invited to rather than the headline one; where only the wedding itself is dated, that is what everybody sees. The links token prints one labelled line per invitation, so a guest on two cards receives two named links rather than two bare addresses stacked up.
One caution about the name. It prints exactly as you saved it on your guest list, so “Aunty (mum’s side)” will arrive in her chat looking like that. Tidy the names before you write the message, not after.
Three messages you can adapt
The words in square brackets are where the tokens go. Take the register that sounds like you and rewrite the rest in your own voice.
Formal. Dear [name], [couple] request the pleasure of your company at [events] on [date]. Your invitation, with the details and a form to reply, is here:
[link]
We would be grateful for your response in good time.
Warm. Hello [name]. We are getting married on [date], and we would love you there. Everything is on your invitation - where to be, when, and a place to tell us if you can come.
[link]
Do say yes.
Short. [name] - we are getting married on [date] and we want you with us. Your invitation and RSVP:
[link]
Read whichever one you choose aloud before you save it. If it sounds like a circular from a bank, rewrite it in the words you would use if you rang them instead. The test is not elegance; it is whether the reader can tell at a glance that you, personally, want them there.
The guests no wording will reach
Be honest about who is on your list. Some people will not tap a link, and no sentence you write changes that. There are guests who read every message and have never once opened a blue underline; for them the wording is beside the point, and the invitation has to arrive as your voice on the telephone or a card put into their hands. Ring first, then send the message afterwards so the details sit in their chat.
The same goes for anyone you should be inviting face to face. In plenty of families handing the invitation over is an occasion of its own, and no chat message replaces it. Visit them, then let the link carry the address and the reply form afterwards.
One thing about the sending shapes the wording. Messages go out a guest at a time: the WhatsApp send opens that guest’s chat with their message already written in it, and you press send yourself. Nothing goes to a list in one action. That is slower than pasting a link into a family group, and it is exactly why the message can greet the person by name and carry the links that belong to them. A link dropped into a group greets nobody, and nobody there can tell who it was meant for.
Frequently asked questions
Should everyone get the same message?
Mostly, yes. Write one message and let the tokens do the varying - hand-typing a message per guest is where an evening goes, and where the typos come from. The exceptions are the people you would ring anyway: parents, elders, the friend helping you organise it.
Should the link go at the top or the bottom?
The bottom, on a line of its own, with nothing after it. A guest needs the two lines of context first, and anything typed below the link takes attention away from the only thing you want them to tap.
Can I write the message in another language?
Type it in whatever script you like. WhatsApp carries the words as you keyed them, and the tokens fill their slots in Tamil or Sinhala as readily as in English. Our own screens are in English, which does not constrain what you write into them. The card behind the link is the part worth a check, since an ornamental cover face may not carry every script - send us the script and the design you are considering, and we will look at the two together first.
Related: Sending invitations on WhatsApp