Image via Paperless Wedding Instagram. 

Wondering about the etiquette of digital wedding invitations? We come across lots of engaged couples who would like to save money (and paper!) by sending out digital wedding invitations. In this day and age, it’s quite common to have a wedding website that hosts all of the details for the big day, so going digital with the invitations is a convenient way to invite guests and link directly to the website.

But we often get asked about the etiquette of digital wedding invitations! Is it the same as with paper invites? When do we chase our guests, and how? Well we can help address some of these contemporary etiquette dilemmas!

  • Guests being slow to respond

Just because you’ve sent a digital invitation, doesn’t mean that you will get an instant reply! As with a paper invite, guests will need to check diaries, work commitments, holiday dates, childcare arrangements etc. so be patient! You can always chase people up nearer the time (see below).

  • When should guests reply?

It’s good manners for a guest to reply to an invitation in good time, and prior to the RSVP date stated. If save-the-dates have been sent, then the date should already be held in diaries and you can expect a quicker response. Hopefully they will be eagerly anticipating the invitation!!

  • What wording should we use?

To help encourage a quick response, it’s important to include a RSVP date. This also gives you a valid point at which you can chase up your guests without coming across as being too pushy!

For example, on your invite include “Please respond by 1 June 2017 by visiting weblink” or “RSVP online by 1 June 2017 + weblink”.

  • How do we follow up?

Don’t chase up before your RSVP date as this may embarrass your guests and you could come across as being too pushy – no-one likes a bridezilla!! Once the RSVP date has passed, you could drop non-responders a short reminder e-mail, keeping the tone light and casual. Also try to make your messages personal and use it as an opportunity to ask how they are doing and share some of your news.

Our system enables couples to send reminders out to only guests who have not RSVP’d, avoiding having to pester people who have already sent their replies.


Ms Zigzag says: Just as online dating has become the norm, so has digital wedding invitations. I used digital invitations for my wedding in Feb 2017 and it made tracking the RSVPs so much easier.

About Paperless Wedding: We are a company offering couples a personalised wedding website with matching digital wedding invitations. Paperless Wedding was born back in 2008 for our wedding.  We wanted to provide our guests with all of the information for our wedding in one place, and customise the site and invitations to suit our wedding theme.  We also had a lot of overseas guests so sending digital invitations just made sense.  But we couldn’t find a service that suited our needs, so together we designed and produced our own site!