Online wedding invitations with RSVP: how they work and when to send

An online wedding invitation is a page each guest opens on their phone from a personal link sent by WhatsApp, text or email. They see the date, the church, the reception venue, the schedule and a map, then reply in seconds: coming or not, and how many people. You see every answer in one list, without chasing anyone by phone.

How an online invitation with RSVP works

1. 1The wedding page: your names, date, ceremony and reception venues, the schedule, a map and any practical notes (dress code, accommodation). If a time changes, you update the page instead of reprinting cards.
2. 2A personal link: every guest or household gets their own link or code. It greets them by name and knows how many people are on the invitation.
3. 3The RSVP: guests say whether they are coming, how many of them there are and, if you ask, their meal preferences. They can change their answer until your deadline.
4. 4Your guest list: you see who has opened the invitation, who has replied and who has gone quiet.

This matters even more at a Romanian wedding, where guest lists tend to be long and part of the family often lives abroad.

Printed, online or both?

In Romania, many families still deliver invitations to godparents (nașii) and close relatives in person, so the mix usually wins: a small printed run for them, with a QR code to the same page, and online invitations for everyone else.

When to send each message

These timings are a guide based on Romanian wedding practice. Always check your venue contract for the date the final headcount is due, and work back from it.

Example: a wedding on Saturday 11 September 2027. Save the date in February, invitations in early July, RSVP deadline 18 August, reminder around 8 August, reconfirmation on 1 September, final numbers to the venue a week before. Note that 15 August is a public holiday in Romania and many people are away, so do not leave your reminder until then.

What to ask in the RSVP

Ask only what you will use.

• Essential: coming or not; how many people and the names of plus-ones; children and their ages, if menus or seats differ.
• Useful if relevant: dietary needs (vegetarian, Orthodox fasting menu, gluten-free, allergies); accommodation, if you have reserved rooms; transport between church and venue; whether they will attend the civil ceremony, the church ceremony or the reception, if these fall on different days.
• Avoid: anything about gifts, home addresses or ID numbers.

Headcounts and meal preferences feed directly into your seating plan.

Sending it personally by WhatsApp, text or email

A personal link only works if you send it to each person. Dropping one link into a family group of 40 people turns it back into a public page and mixes up the replies.

• WhatsApp is what most Romanian guests use, at home and abroad. Write the person's name, two warm lines, then the link.
• Text message for relatives without WhatsApp: shorter still, no emoji.
• Email for colleagues, international friends and more formal guests, with a clear subject: "Invitation to our wedding, 11 September".

You will find more messages, including bilingual Romanian and English ones, in our wedding invitation wording guide.

Split the list: you send to your friends, each set of parents sends to their relatives. A message from the bride's mother lands differently from one sent by a number the cousin has never saved.

Older relatives and guests without smartphones

• Deliver a printed card with a QR code and add their reply to the online list yourself after a phone call.
• Ask a grandchild to open the link with them.
• Give each set of parents the list of their relatives so they can call and record the answers.

Privacy: who sees what

• Public places (church, venue) belong on the page; private home addresses do not.
• The guest list and the replies should be visible only to you, never to other guests.
• A personal link with a hard-to-guess code is safer than a page where anyone can search a list of names.
• Do not post the link publicly on social media unless you are happy with uninvited visitors.

The two-step confirmation

The most common last-week surprise: guests who said yes two months ago and can no longer come, or who now bring a child. So we work in two steps:

1. 1The reply, by the deadline on the invitation (3 to 4 weeks before). This gives you the numbers for the seating plan and the venue.
2. 2The reconfirmation, 7 to 10 days before, sent only to those who said yes: "See you on Saturday? If anything has changed, let us know today."

Between the two, guests can update their own answer from their link. After the deadline, replies close and any change goes through you. Give the venue your final number after the reconfirmation, not after the first round.

What Celebrum does, concretely

• A wedding website with your own logo, colours and fonts, the schedule, venues and map.
• A personal link for each guest, with the invitation in their name and an RSVP (how many people, plus-ones, meal preferences).
• Notifications when someone opens the invitation and when they reply.
• An RSVP deadline that actually closes replies after the date you choose.
• Separate links for parents and godparents, so they can add their own guests instead of sending you lists.
• Matching stationery, if you also want printed cards with a QR code to your page.

If you are just starting, read how to build your wedding guest list first, then set up your site.