How to make a free wedding website, with RSVP

What a wedding website needs

• The date, the time and the place, at the top, so nobody has to scroll for them.
• The plan for the day: ceremony, drinks, dinner, dancing, and when each starts.
• Getting there: the address with a map, parking, the nearest station and where to stay.
• Good to know: what to wear, whether children are invited, plus-ones, the gift list.
• A way to reply by a date, with food needs, so you can give numbers to the venue.

The Wedding template has all of this on three pages: Home, The day and RSVP. Change the names, the date and the words, and take out anything you don’t need.

Make yours, step by step

1. Open the Wedding template. There’s nothing to sign up for.
2. Change your names and the date in the big welcome, and the countdown’s date and time.
3. On The day, change the timings and the questions, and put in the venue’s address for the map.
4. On RSVP, type the email address replies should go to, or choose WhatsApp or Text and type your number. Turn on a song request if you’d like the guests to help with the playlist.
5. Open Add to calendar on the home page and check the date, the times, the place and the time zone.
6. Pick a theme, a colour and a font, then tap Share.

How the RSVP works

Guests type their name, choose Coming, Can’t come or Maybe, how many of them there are (up to the most you set, so a single invitation can’t become a party of eight), any food needs and a message. When they press Send, their own email app, WhatsApp or messages app opens with the reply written out, for example:

Nothing goes through Yuzool and nothing is stored on a server: the reply is an ordinary email or message to you. Keep a list as they come in. A spreadsheet such as Gridwork works well, with a row for each guest and columns for the answer, how many and food.

Add to calendar, in the right time zone

The Add to calendar buttons give guests three ways to save the day: a calendar file that opens in Apple Calendar and most calendar apps, Google Calendar, and Outlook. The event is saved with its time zone, which Website Maker sets from your device. If you’re planning a wedding abroad, change the time zone to the venue’s, and guests at home will see the ceremony at the right time on their own clock.

Put it on your printed invitations

Print an invitation makes an A5 or 5 × 7 inch card as a PDF with your names, the date, the place and a QR code that opens your site. Guests scan it with their phone camera.

A shared site lives inside its own link, so the link is long. The QR code fits while the site is mostly words; pictures make the link too long for a QR code people could scan, and the app says so. Website Maker Pro gives the site a short address, yuzool.com/site/your-names, which always makes a small QR code and stays the same when you change the site. Or download the site and put it online at an address of your own.