How to make your invitation

Before you start

You don't need an account to look around — browse the designs first if you like. To build something you'll need to create an account, which is free. Designing, previewing and changing your mind cost nothing; you only pay when you're ready to publish and send it to guests. Nothing renews, and there are no per-guest fees.

It helps to have three things to hand: your two names as you want them written, the dates and venues of each celebration, and a rough guest list. None of it has to be final — you can change everything later, even after guests have replied.

1. Pick a design

From your dashboard, choose Create an invitation and pick a design. There are over fifty, grouped by the kind of celebration they suit — Nikah and Walima, Hindu and Sikh ceremonies, church weddings, Pacific and Chinese traditions, and plenty that belong to no tradition in particular.

Every design comes in several colourways, and each one has an opening animation — a sealed envelope, palace doors, a velvet curtain — that plays when a guest first opens the link. You can change the design at any point without losing a word of what you've written, so pick whatever catches your eye and move on.

The Design tab also lets you change fonts and colours. If you're matching a colour from your outfit or flowers, paste the hex code straight in.

2. Add your names and wording

The Wording tab is where your invitation becomes yours: your names, your families' names, the line that invites people (“request the pleasure of your company” and so on), an opening blessing or verse if your tradition has one, and a closing message.

Everything has sensible wording already written, so you can change only what matters to you. Watch the preview beside you as you type — what you see is exactly what your guests will see.

3. Add every celebration

Most weddings aren't one event. Under Events, add each one — the Mehndi, the Nikah, the church service, the reception, the lovo — with its own date, time, venue and address. Guests see them in order, with a map link for each, and you can let them say which ones they'll come to rather than answering once for everything.

Set the time zone correctly if family are travelling. The calendar buttons your guests use rely on it, and an invitation that puts the ceremony at 3am in Sydney causes a lot of worried phone calls.

4. Choose what the page shows

Under Sections you decide what appears below the main invitation: your story, a photo gallery, a countdown, directions and maps, gift or registry details, a dress code, a wishes wall where guests leave messages, and a shared album guests can add photos to on the day. Turn off anything you don't want — a short invitation is often a better one.

5. Set up your RSVP

The RSVP tab controls the reply form. You can set a reply-by date, decide how many guests one reply may cover, ask for an email or phone number (or neither), let guests add a note, and add your own questions — anything from “will you need a lift from the hotel?” to “which bus are you taking?”

Replies arrive instantly in your dashboard. Guests never need an account, an app, or a password.

6. Ask what guests want to eat

Still under RSVP, switch on Food planning and list the dishes you're considering. When guests reply they see them as a menu and tap what they'd like, and you can also ask how many in each family eat vegetarian.

This is the part couples tell us saves them the most. Instead of guessing, you arrive at the caterer with real numbers: how many people are coming, how many are vegetarian, and which dishes people actually chose. Ordering for the appetite in the room rather than the worst case is usually the single biggest saving of the day.

7. Choose a plan and publish

When you're happy, go to Share and publish. You'll be asked to choose a plan first. Both are a single payment — nothing renews, and you'll never be charged again without choosing to be.

• Essential — 3 months. Every design, RSVPs for every celebration, food planning, personal guest links, the QR card, guest photos and the wishes wall.
• Signature — 6 months, and adds the three things that save the most work: add-to-calendar for guests, the automatic seating plan you can email to every household, and a printable card for the relatives who want paper.

If you're having a seated dinner, Signature pays for itself the first time you don't have to rearrange forty place cards by hand. If your celebration is standing, buffet or small, Essential is plenty. You can upgrade later and the new features switch on straight away.

Until you publish, your invitation is a private draft only you can see, and previews carry a watermark. Publish when you're ready — you can still edit everything afterwards, and changes appear for guests immediately.

8. Decide how people reply

This is the most important choice on the page, and it's the first thing you'll see in the Share tab.

One link for everyone

A single link you can put anywhere — the family group chat, a Facebook post, a printed card. Anyone who opens it can reply for up to the number of guests you set. Simple, and right for a relaxed celebration where a few extra people are welcome.

A private link for each family

You add each household by name and say how many people they may bring. Each one gets its own link that greets them by name and will only accept a reply for the seats you gave them — so a link forwarded to a cousin can't be used to bring six more. With this on, the general link still shows the invitation but won't take replies.

Adding families is quick: type a name and a number, or click Or paste your whole list and paste the lot at once, one family per line — The Shah Family, 4. Each line can include a phone number too, which puts a WhatsApp button next to that family so you can send their link in one tap, with the message already written.

If you choose private links, remember to actually add your families — with none added, nobody can reply at all. The page warns you if you're in that state.

9. Send your invitation

Still in Share, you have everything you need: buttons for WhatsApp, text message, email and Facebook with the message pre-written, and a QR card you can download. The QR card is worth printing — on save-the-dates, on table cards, on a sign at the entrance. Guests scan it to open the invitation, reply, and later add their photos.

On Signature there's also a printable card: your invitation as a 5×7-inch image at print quality with the QR code at the bottom. Send it to a print shop or run it off at home for the grandparents who would like something to hold.

You can give your invitation a password under Privacy, and hide it from search engines. Both are on the Share tab.

10. Watch the replies arrive

Open your invitation's Guest list from the dashboard. You'll see who's coming, who can't, how many are still to answer, a headcount for each celebration, and the food totals — how many people, how many vegetarian, and which dishes won.

You can edit or add a reply by hand for the aunt who phones instead, and export everything to a spreadsheet whenever you like.

11. Let the seating plan build itself

On Signature, open the Seating tab. Choose your table shape — round, rectangle or square — and how many seats each table has, then press arrange.

It seats every household together, keeps families from the same side at the same tables, and never splits a family across two tables unless they're bigger than one. If you don't like the result, shuffle for a different arrangement, or drag a household to another table yourself. When you're happy, email every household its table in one click.

12. On the day, and afterwards

If you switched on the shared album, guests can add photos from their phones — up to five each — by scanning your QR card. They appear in your dashboard, where you can approve them before they show on the page if you'd rather check first, and download the lot as a zip afterwards.

Your invitation stays live for the length of your plan. After it ends, it rests for 30 days in case you want to bring it back, and then everything — replies, photos and all — is deleted automatically. Export anything you want to keep before then.

Questions people ask

Do my guests need an app or an account?

No. They tap a link, read the invitation and reply. It works on any phone.

Can I change things after sending it out?

Yes — edit anything at any time and guests see it immediately. The one thing to avoid is changing your web address after you've shared it, which breaks links already sent. The app warns you before you do.

What if someone replies for more people than I invited?

With private family links they can't — each link is held to its own number of seats. With one shared link, set Max guests per reply on the RSVP tab to the most you'd accept.

Can two of us work on it?

Share the account sign-in for now. Changes save as you type, so avoid both editing the same invitation at the same moment.

Something isn't working.

Send us a message and a real person will reply. If it's about a specific invitation, mention its web address so we can look straight at it.

Soulful Ties · Still stuck? We're happy to help.