How to send wedding invitations online: by text, WhatsApp or email, with message templates

Is it OK to send wedding invitations online?

Yes: sending wedding invitations online, by text, WhatsApp or email, is now normal etiquette for most weddings, as long as each message is personal. What feels cold is a link with no words dropped into a group text. Message each guest by name, with two or three lines of your own and your invitation link; for grandparents, or anyone who barely uses their phone, call first or mail a printed card with the QR code, so their RSVP lands in the same place as everyone else’s.

When to send wedding invitations, and who gets them first

Send invitations six to eight weeks before the wedding, with the RSVP deadline three to four weeks before; save-the-dates go out four to six months ahead, or eight to twelve for a destination wedding. Order matters too: tell your wedding party and closest people first, in person or with a call; then family, with a call to older relatives before the text; then friends and coworkers, all in the same week, so nobody hears from someone else that the invitations are out.

How to send wedding invitations by text, step by step

• Open the invitation on your own phone first: date, time, each address and the RSVP form.
• Text each guest individually. A group text shows everyone’s number to everyone and floods it with “Congrats!!” replies.
• If you use WhatsApp and the list is long, a broadcast list sends the message to each person’s private chat, but it only reaches contacts who have your number saved.
• Paste the link and wait a second for the preview card (your cover photo, your names, the date and the venue) before you hit send: without it, the message looks like any other link.
• Put the RSVP deadline in the message itself. “Please RSVP by May 10” gets more replies than “whenever you can.”
• Keep track of who you’ve sent it to. With twenty guests you’ll remember; with a hundred and fifty, you won’t.

Text message templates to send with your wedding invitation

• Family: “Hi Aunt Carol! Daniel and I are getting married on June 14, and it wouldn’t be the same without you. Here’s the invitation with all the details: [link]. Could you RSVP by May 10? Love you!”
• Friends: “Yes, you read that right: we’re getting married! It’s June 14, and you have to be there. Everything’s here, and you can RSVP in one tap: [link]”
• Wedding party, after asking in person: “Thank you again for saying yes. Here’s the official invitation with the ceremony and reception times: [link]. We’ll send the rehearsal details separately.”
• Coworkers: “Hi Laura, as I mentioned, Emma and I are getting married on June 14. We’d love for you to come; the details and RSVP are at this link: [link]”
• Someone you haven’t talked to in a while: “Hi Paul! I know it’s been a while, but we couldn’t get married without inviting you. It’s on June 14, and everything is here: [link]”
• Out-of-town guests: “We’re getting married on June 14 in Asheville! We’re sending this early so you can plan the trip: addresses, times and RSVP are all here: [link]”

If your invitation is an image or a PDF

An image or a PDF looks nice in the thread, but guests can’t reply to it: the text that goes with it has to say how to RSVP. Send the image first and, in the same message or right after, the link or number for replies, with the deadline:

“Here’s our invitation! To RSVP, tap here by May 10 and let us know who’s coming and about any allergies: [link]. Thank you!”

By email or by mail: for guests who don’t text

Email works for guests who don’t text much and for work invitations: a clear subject line (“You’re invited: Emma & Daniel’s wedding, June 14”), the same short note and the link; if you send it to several people at once, put the addresses in BCC. For grandparents, print the invitation with the QR code and “Scan to RSVP”: hand it over or mail it, and their reply arrives in the same place as everyone else’s. The QR code replaces the RSVP card and its stamp.

The reminder for guests who haven’t replied

A week before the deadline, text only the people who haven’t answered, one by one and without guilt-tripping. If there’s still nothing two or three days later, call: at that point it’s the fastest way.

“Hi Megan! The caterer needs our final head count by Friday and yours is the last reply we’re missing. Can we count you in? It takes a minute here: [link]. Thanks!”

Send it from the dashboard, with the message already written

If you make your invitation here, sending is built in. Create it in the editor (free, and no account needed to design it), and once it’s published the dashboard gives you your link — the same for everyone and for good: if you edit something, it updates on its own —, a QR code to print and a “Send on WhatsApp” button that opens the app with a message already written with your names, the date and the link; pick the contact, change what you like and send. On most phones, “Share with another app” opens the share sheet with the same message, for Messages or email. In the guest list you paste names one per line, see who still hasn’t replied, and each pending guest has a “Remind” button with the reminder already written. See it in the sample dashboard and open the sample invitation to see what a guest receives.

Mistakes to avoid when you send them

• Sending the link with no message: it looks like spam and goes unopened.
• Starting a group chat with every guest: each reply pings fifty phones and everyone sees who’s invited.
• Sending in waves: some on a Monday, others three weeks later. The late ones notice.
• Forgetting the RSVP deadline, or setting it so close to the wedding that the caterer can’t wait.
• Fixing a detail by sending a new image: if your invitation is a link, you change it once and everyone sees the right information.

Before you send: the wording on the invitation itself

The text message goes with the invitation; it doesn’t replace it. For the invitation wording itself there are formal, casual and religious examples in wedding invitation wording; if you’re asking for cash gifts or a honeymoon fund, the lines and where to put them are in wedding registry wording, and the deadline and reminder texts in the wedding RSVP guide.