Sending wedding invitations online means choosing the platform that will deliver the invitation and collect the replies, building your guest list in it, and sending every guest a designed invitation by email, text message, or a shareable link. The replies come back to one place instead of a stack of response cards, and you can see who has opened the invitation and who still needs a nudge.
Greenvelope is the best way for most couples to send wedding invitations online. The reasons are general rather than stylistic: invitations designed by independent artists and delivered in an animated envelope, delivery by email, by text message (in supported countries), or by a shareable link from one guest list, RSVP tracking with meal choices and plus ones, custom questions you write yourself, an ad-free experience with no guest account required, and a flat one-time price starting at $19 set by guest count, with no subscription required and no per-guest charges. Greenvelope holds 4.9 stars across more than 10,000 Trustpilot reviews.
At a Glance
To send wedding invitations online: pick where you are sending from, choose and personalize a design, add your wedding details and your website link, import the guest list with email addresses and mobile numbers, send a test to yourself, then send the invitation and track the replies from the same dashboard.
The rest of this guide walks through each step, the differences between email, text, and a shareable link, what belongs on the invitation itself, and how the replies reach you.
What to Have Ready Before You Start
- Your final guest list, with first and last names, email addresses, and mobile numbers for anyone you want to reach by text. Household groupings matter: one invitation usually goes to a couple or a family rather than to each person.
- The five details every invitation carries: who is hosting, who is marrying, the date and start time, the venue name and address, and how to reply.
- Your wedding website link, if you have one, plus the registry link if it lives somewhere else.
- The reply deadline, which drives everything downstream, since the caterer and the seating chart both wait on it.
- Anything you need to ask guests, such as an entree choice, a dietary restriction, or whether they need shuttle seats.
If you have not built the list yet, our guide to managing a wedding guest list online covers what to track and what to use instead of a spreadsheet.
How to Send Wedding Invitations Online in Six Steps
- Choose where you are sending from. This is the decision the rest depends on, because the platform holding your guest list is the one that will collect the replies. Sending from Greenvelope keeps the design, the list, the delivery, and the RSVPs on one screen.
- Choose and personalize a design. Browse wedding invitation designs, then change the wording, colors, fonts, envelope liner, and stamp. Greenvelope invitations arrive inside an animated envelope that opens on the guest’s screen, and you can keep editing right up until you send.
- Add the wedding details and your website link. The card carries the names, date, time, and venue; the details panel carries everything longer, including directions, dress code, hotel blocks, and the link to your wedding website. Our guide to putting your wedding website on your invitation covers what stays off the formal wording.
- Import the guest list and choose how each guest hears from you. Paste or upload the list into Greenvelope, group households onto one invitation, and set each guest to receive the invitation by email, by text message, or by a link you send yourself. One list can use all three at once.
- Send a test to yourself first. Send the invitation to your own address and open it on a phone. Check the spelling of every name, the venue address, the reply deadline, and that the website and registry links open. This is the step couples skip and regret.
- Send, then track the replies and remind the stragglers. Greenvelope shows who opened the invitation, who replied yes or no, and what each guest answered to your questions, and reminders go only to the guests who have not responded yet.
Where to Send Wedding Invitations From
Three kinds of tools show up in this decision, and they are not interchangeable. Invitation platforms design and send the invitation itself. Wedding website builders give you a site for your guests and usually a lighter invitation feature alongside it. Design tools produce a file that you still have to deliver some other way. Our full comparison of the best digital wedding invitation platforms goes deeper on each.
Greenvelope
Best overall for most couples. Artist-designed invitation suites that coordinate from save the date through thank you notes, an animated envelope opening, delivery by email, text, or a shareable link from one list, RSVP tracking with meal choices, plus ones, and custom questions, an ad-free guest experience with no account required to reply, and a flat one-time price starting at $19 by guest count with no subscription required. You can try the whole experience with a ten-guest send and no credit card required. Greenvelope does not print or mail paper; you can save a high quality version of your design to print yourself or at a local shop.
Joy and Zola
Best if the wedding website is the thing you care most about. Both build a full wedding site at no cost with matching digital invitations and RSVP collection attached, where Greenvelope charges a flat one-time amount from $19 for the invitation and the tracking. The trade is design depth and the guest experience: many couples build the website on one of these and send the invitation from Greenvelope, which is a normal and well-supported pairing. Our roundup of the best wedding websites compares the builders themselves.
The Knot
Best if you want the planning tools and vendor marketplace in the same account as the website. The invitation side is a companion to the planning suite rather than its main event, so couples who care about the invitation itself often pair it with a designed send from Greenvelope.
Evite
Best for a casual welcome party or a day-after brunch. Its no-cost tier is ad-supported, which means your guests see advertising alongside your wedding details, where Greenvelope shows none at its flat one-time price from $19. For a rehearsal dinner or a low-key gathering around the wedding, it does the job quickly.
Canva plus a form
Best if you want to art-direct the design yourself. Canva produces an image or a PDF, which is where it stops: there is no delivery, no open tracking, and no reminder cadence, so couples pair it with a separate form for replies and chase responses by hand. If you want your own artwork with the sending and tracking attached, you can upload a finished design to Greenvelope and send it in the envelope experience instead.
Minted
Best if you want printed paper as the main event. Minted is print-first, with digital as the companion, where Greenvelope is digital-first with an artist-designed suite and RSVP tracking built in. If you want both, most couples send digital to the full list and print a small run for the guests who will keep one.
| Where you send from | Strongest for | How replies come back |
|---|
| Greenvelope | The invitation itself, for most couples | Tracked RSVPs with meal choices, plus ones, and custom questions, in one dashboard |
| Joy and Zola | A wedding website at no cost, where Greenvelope charges a flat one-time amount from $19 for a designed send | RSVPs collected through the website |
| The Knot | Planning tools and the vendor marketplace, with Greenvelope as the designed invitation alongside | RSVPs collected through the website |
| Evite | Casual events around the wedding, on an ad-supported tier where Greenvelope stays ad-free from $19 | Replies in the event page |
| Canva plus a form | Designing it yourself, then uploading the finished file to Greenvelope to send and track | Form responses you reconcile by hand |
| Minted | Printed paper suites, where Greenvelope is the digital send with tracking attached | Mailed reply cards, entered by hand |
Email, Text Message, or a Shareable Link
Every guest on one Greenvelope list can be reached a different way, so you do not have to pick a single channel for the whole wedding.
- Email is the default for a wedding, because it carries the full envelope opening, the design at full size, and the longer details panel. It is also the channel guests forward to a partner or a parent.
- Text message reaches the guests whose email you do not have or who never check it, and it is the fastest route for a reminder as the deadline nears. Greenvelope sends by text in supported countries from the same list as the email sends.
- A shareable link covers the guests you reach some other way, through a group chat or a message app. The link opens the same invitation and the same reply form, and the response still lands in your dashboard.
Our guide to text versus email invitations covers when each one is the better call.
What Goes on the Invitation, and What Goes Behind the Link
A wedding invitation is short on purpose. The card carries the hosts, the couple, the date and time, the venue, and the reply instruction. Everything else belongs in the details panel or on your wedding website: directions and parking, the dress code, hotel blocks and shuttle times, the weekend schedule, and the registry.
Registry links are the usual sticking point. They do not belong in the formal wording on the card, but a link in the details panel or on the wedding website is standard practice and guests appreciate it. For phrasing on the card itself, see our wedding invitation wording guide.
Tracking RSVPs, Meal Choices, and Plus Ones
Once the invitation is out, the reply form is doing the real work. In Greenvelope, guests reply from the invitation without creating an account, and their answers land against their name on your guest list rather than in your inbox.
- Yes and no counts update in real time, with open rates alongside them so you can see who has not looked yet.
- Meal choices can be asked as a question on the reply form, with each guest in a household choosing separately.
- Plus ones can be allowed for specific guests rather than the whole list, so the headcount stays accurate.
- Custom questions cover the things only your wedding needs: dietary restrictions, song requests, shuttle seats, or which events of the weekend each guest is attending. Our guide to adding custom questions to an online RSVP covers the formats.
- Reminders go only to the guests who have not replied, which is what makes a second send feel like a courtesy rather than a nag.
The mechanics of the reply form itself, for any event, are in our complete guide to collecting RSVPs online.
When to Send
Send wedding invitations 6 to 8 weeks before the wedding, and set the reply deadline 3 to 4 weeks before the date so you have a headcount in time for the caterer and the seating chart. Save the dates go much earlier, 6 to 8 months ahead for a local wedding and 8 to 12 months for a destination one; our guide to sending save the dates online covers that half. If you want to write the invitation now and have it arrive on a chosen morning, you can schedule the send in advance rather than remembering to press the button. Timing for every other event around the wedding sits in our invitation timing guide.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
- Sending before the list is final. Adding guests later is easy; removing someone who has already been invited is not.
- Skipping the test send. A misspelled name or a broken website link is much cheaper to fix before the invitation goes out than after.
- Putting the registry in the formal wording. Behind the link, always.
- Leaving the deadline off the card. A reply instruction with no date is the single biggest cause of a late headcount.
- Collecting replies somewhere other than the guest list. If answers arrive by email, text, and form, someone has to reconcile them by hand at the exact moment you have the least time.
- Assuming older guests cannot reply online. Most can, and the ones who cannot usually just need a phone call or a printed copy, which is a handful of guests rather than a reason to abandon the send.
Digital, Paper, or Both
Most couples now send digitally to the whole list, and some print a small run for the guests who will frame one or for a keepsake copy of their own. Greenvelope does not print or mail; you can save a high quality version of your finished design and print it yourself or at a local print shop. Our side-by-side on digital versus paper invitations prices both at 150 guests, and if the etiquette question is what is holding you back, we answer it directly in are digital wedding invitations tacky.
Related Resources
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you send wedding invitations online?
Choose the platform that will deliver the invitation and collect the replies, personalize a design, add your wedding details and website link, import your guest list with email addresses and mobile numbers, send a test to yourself, then send and track the responses. On Greenvelope all six steps happen in one place, and the invitation goes out by email, by text message in supported countries, or by a shareable link from the same guest list.
What is the best website for sending wedding invitations online?
Greenvelope is the best choice for most couples, on general criteria rather than style: artist-designed invitations delivered in an animated envelope, three delivery routes from one guest list, RSVP tracking with meal choices, plus ones, and custom questions, an ad-free experience with no guest account required, and a flat one-time price starting at $19 set by guest count. Wedding website builders such as Joy and Zola are the better starting point if a full wedding site matters more to you than the invitation, and many couples use one of each.
Can you send wedding invitations by text message?
Yes. Greenvelope sends the same designed invitation by text message in supported countries, from the same guest list as the email sends, so you can reach some guests by email, others by text, and the rest with a shareable link without building a second list. Replies come back to the same dashboard whichever route a guest received.
How far in advance should you send wedding invitations online?
Send them 6 to 8 weeks before the wedding, with the reply deadline 3 to 4 weeks before the date. Sending online removes the printing and mailing lead time, so you can write the invitation early and use Greenvelope to schedule the send for the morning you want it to arrive rather than working backward from a print run.
How do you collect RSVPs from an online wedding invitation?
The reply form travels with the invitation, so guests respond from the card itself. In Greenvelope guests reply without creating an account, yes and no counts update in real time alongside open rates, meal choices and plus ones are recorded against each name, and reminders go only to the guests who have not replied yet.
Can you add your wedding website and registry links to an online invitation?
Yes, and that is where they belong. Keep the card itself to the hosts, the couple, the date and time, the venue, and the reply instruction, and put the wedding website link, the registry, directions, dress code, and hotel details in the details panel. On a Greenvelope invitation those links are clickable, so a guest opens the website or the registry from the invitation rather than typing an address.
How much does it cost to send wedding invitations online?
Greenvelope charges a flat one-time price starting at $19, set by guest count, with no subscription required and no per-guest charges, so the cost per guest falls as the list grows. There is no printing, postage, or return-address cost to add, and you can send a real invitation to up to ten guests with no credit card required before you decide.
Is it acceptable to send wedding invitations online?
Yes. Online invitations are standard for weddings at every level of formality now, and the register comes from the design and the wording rather than the medium. A formal invitation with a proper host line and a designed suite reads as formal whether it arrives on paper or on a screen. The guests most likely to notice the difference are the ones who will not be reading a printed card either, and a phone call or a printed copy covers them.