How to create an RSVP link to send on WhatsApp

Most invitations in Britain now go out as a WhatsApp message, and most replies come back as forty "yes!" messages in a group chat, which is not a guest list. An RSVP link fixes that: the message carries one link, the link opens a page with the details and a reply form, and the replies come to you in a list. Here is what the link needs to do, the three ways to make one, and the message to send with it.

What a good RSVP link does

• Opens on a phone without an app or an account. If a guest has to sign in, half of them will not.
• Shows the invitation, not just a form. The date, the venue with a map, the timings and the dress code, so the link answers the questions before they are asked.
• Takes one reply per household. "Priya and Tom, two guests, one vegetarian", not two separate forms.
• Asks what you need to know. Meal choice, dietary needs, which events, whether they need the coach.
• Tells you who has not replied. The point of collecting replies is the list of people who have not.
• Lets a guest change their answer by opening the link again.
• Works for a month, because people reply late.

Three ways to make one

1. A form builder

Google Forms, Microsoft Forms, Jotform and Typeform all make a form with a shareable link in ten minutes. Add fields for name, number of guests, attending yes or no, meal choice and a note. The replies land in a spreadsheet.

What you get: a link, a spreadsheet, no cost. What you do not get: an invitation (the form is a form), a reply per household (each person fills it in, or nobody does), a list of who has not replied (the form only knows who did), or anything a guest wants to look at twice. Fine for a work lunch; thin for a wedding.

2. A wedding website with an RSVP page

Joy, Zola and the others give you a site with an RSVP page, and you share the site's link. Guests find their name and reply. The replies sit in a guest list with the non-responders visible.

What you get: a proper guest list and an RSVP page. What to check: most are American, charge or upsell in dollars, push a registry, and put the RSVP behind a site with twelve sections. The link you send opens a home page, not a reply.

3. An invitation page with the reply built in

The invitation itself is the page: your names, the date, the venue and map, the timings and dress code, and the reply form at the bottom. One link does everything. Each household can have its own link with their names already on it, so the form asks only about them, and your dashboard shows who has replied and who has not.

This is what RSVP Websites does. You fill in a form, you get a page at yourname.invalia.io (or your own domain), and you copy either the open link for the group or a personal link per household. Guests reply from WhatsApp in under a minute. One payment of £40, for any number of guests, and the page stays live for a year.

The message to send with the link

The message should be short, because the link carries the detail. Four that work:

Wedding, to a household

Dear Priya and Tom, we would love you both at our wedding on Saturday, 12 June at Hawthorne Hall. Everything you need, and the reply form, is here: [link]. Please reply by 1 May. Amira and Daniel

Wedding, to the group

We're getting married! Saturday, 12 June, Hawthorne Hall, Great Missenden. All the details are on the link, and please reply there rather than here so we have everyone in one place: [link]

Party

Leo's 18th, Saturday 19 June, 8pm, The Barn at Hawthorne Hall. Food, DJ, bar. Reply on the link by 5 June: [link]

Reminder

Hi Priya, we are giving the caterer numbers on Friday. Could you reply on the link when you get a minute? [link]

Getting one reply per household

The group-chat problem is not the replying, it is the counting. Three people from one family say yes and you do not know if that is three guests or one household of five. The fix is to send each household its own link. The page greets them by name, the form lists the people in the household, and the reply says who is coming and what each eats. You still send the same message to everyone; only the link differs. Our guide to sending wedding invitations by WhatsApp covers the mechanics, including broadcast lists.

Tracking who has not replied

Whatever you use, the list you want is the one of households who have not replied, a week before the deadline, with their link ready to resend. A form builder cannot make it; it does not know who was invited. A guest list can. Decide this before you choose a tool. The guide to chasing wedding RSVPs has the messages for when the list is ready.

Things to get right

• Test the link on a phone before you send it, from a different account, and reply to yourself.
• Set a reply-by date on the page, not just in the message.
• Keep the link live. People reply to a wedding link three months after it was sent, usually because they lost it and found it again.
• Do not put the reply in a group poll. WhatsApp polls are public and anonymous at once; everyone sees the count and nobody knows who said what.
• Save the replies somewhere you can export. The caterer wants a spreadsheet, not a screenshot.

Where to start

If the event is a wedding, a nikah, a birthday, a baby shower or a party with more than a dozen households, make the invitation page, copy the link, and paste it into the message above. If it is a company party or a client dinner, the company events page shows the same thing with your own domain on it. If it is a work lunch, a form will do.