How do you send wedding invitations on WhatsApp?

Decide what you are sending

• An image of the card is seen at once in the chat, but WhatsApp compresses images, so the timings and the address in small type are often unreadable on a phone.
• A PDF keeps the card sharp, but the guest has to download and open it, and many do not.
• A link to an invitation page opens in the browser. The details are text, the venue opens in maps, and the guest can reply on the page.

Many hosts send the card image and the link together: the image for the moment, the link for everything the guest will need later.

Personal chat, broadcast list or group

• A personal chat is the one that gets answered. It lets you use the guest’s name and add a line that is only for them.
• A broadcast list sends one message to many people as separate chats, but it reaches only the people who have saved your number. Relatives who have not saved it do not receive the message.
• A group is the fastest and the least personal. Replies bury the invitation within the hour, and anything meant for one guest is read by all of them.

What the message should say

1. Their name. Start with the name you actually call them. “Namaste Sharma uncle” is read; “Dear all” is scrolled past.
2. Who is inviting, and to what. One line: whose wedding, and that they and their family are invited.
3. The date and the city. Enough to hold the date. The full schedule belongs on the invitation, not in the message.
4. What you need from them. Ask for the reply, and say by when. A message with no ask gets a folded-hands emoji and no head count.

When to send

Guests who have to travel need the date before they need the invitation, so a save-the-date can go to them as soon as the date is fixed. Send the invitation itself once the venues and timings are final, and set the reply date a few days before your caterer needs the numbers. A reminder is worth sending only to the people who have not replied; sending it to everyone teaches people to ignore you.

How Momen9 does it

• Every guest on your list has a personal link, and the Share tab writes the WhatsApp message with the guest’s name and their link already in it. You tap, WhatsApp opens on that chat, and you send.
• The guest is marked as invited when you send, and as viewed when they open it, so you can see who to follow up with.
• For a family or friends group there is a separate open invitation link that belongs to nobody. Each person who opens it gives their name and gets a page of their own.
• If a venue or a timing changes, you change it once. Every link already sent opens the corrected invitation.
• For guests who get a printed card, a QR code on it opens the same invitation.