Create and Send Invites

Invitations allow you send emails to your guests. Whether you want to spread the word about your site, send a 'Save the Date' or use it to invite guests to your occasion, it's a great organizational tool. Any invite can be optionally associated with an RSVP, so you can track your guests responses.

Creating an Invite

Creating an invite is a multistep process. Once you start creating an invite you can stop at any point and your progress up to that point will be saved. To create a new invite go to the Invites->Invites tab and create an invite for a new occasion. Choose 'other' to pick your own name for the occasion.

Step 1 - Invite Info

This step allows you to specify the date, time and location of the occasion. Note the occasion name itself is the only required field, so if your date is not set yet you do not have to specify it.

Do you want to include an RSVP?
This is also the step where you decide whether you want your guests to RSVP, if you choose to collect RSVPs for this occasion then each guest will be sent an email with a unique RSVP link which they can click on to RSVP on your site. The RSVP permission area affects your guests ability to say how many people they will be bringing to the occasion. You can either let your guests bring as many people as they want, specify exactly how many people each guest can bring, or not allow your guests to bring others.

Step 2 - Add Guests

This step allows you to choose which guests to invite. If you have already added guests or groups to this website then they will be available to choose on the right hand side of the form. Simply click on the checkboxes next to the guests or groups you wish to invite.

You can also add new guests to this invite by clicking on the 'Add New Guests' link. You'll see an option to either add guests one by one or import guests from web email services. Note you can add guests in exactly the same manner in either the guests or groups tabs. Groups however can only be created in the groups tab.

Adding New Guests One By One
If you choose to add new guests one by one simply enter the name and (optionally) email and mailing addresses of your guest.

Importing Guests
If you have a webmail account with AOL, GMail, Yahoo, Hotmail or other several other services you can import your contacts by entering your webmail email and password. If your login is accepted then you will be presented with a list of all of your contacts, check as many contacts as you want and then choose 'Add' to invite them to your occasion. This is a handy way to bulk import your contacts without having to retype each guest one by one. See Figures 1 and 2 below to see what a successful import looks like.

Editing Guests
Once you have added a guest you can edit their name, email or mailing address anytime by clicking on the field and editing it.

Figure 1: Importing Guests from a Webmail Account

Figure 2: A Successful Import

Controlled RSVPs - choosing how many people a guest can bring
If in Step 1 you chose your RSVP permission to be 'Controlled' you'll see an extra column beside any invited guests that allows you to specify the maximum allowable number of people that guest can bring along. If you change the dropdown the value will automatically update. Figure 3 shows an example.

Figure 3: Selecting the maximum number of people a guest can bring

Step 3 - Message Details

This step allows you to customize the message you will be sending to your guest. Use the preview and send test email functions in the 'Preview and Send' step to see how these fields affect the look and feel of the email you will be sending. You can edit the message details as many times as you like before finally sending the invite.

Step 4 (Maybe!) - RSVP Options

If you have decided to include an RSVP with this invite then you can configure your RSVP options in step 4. See our RSVP How To for a detailed explanation of RSVP options.

Step 4 or 5 - Preview and Send

Depending on whether you have included an RSVP or not this will either be step 4 or 5. This step allows you to preview your email, send test emails to any email address and send the invitation itself. If you are not satisfied with your email you can go back to steps 1-4 anytime and edit any aspect of the invite.

After An Invite Is Sent

Once an invite is sent it cannot be deleted. You can always navigate to the Invites->Invites tab to view your past invites and see the message that was sent. You can also go to the Invites->RSVPs tab to track RSVPs and invite additional guests at any time.