RSVP and confirmations

The guest's journey

1. They get the invitation and click the answer button.
2. The event's landing page opens and recognises them: their details are already filled in.
3. They choose to confirm or decline.
4. If they confirm, they declare companions and pick a slot, where you have enabled them.
5. They complete the required fields and give their privacy consents.
6. They submit.
7. They get the confirmation email, with the QR code if the event uses one.

The recognition comes from the {{rsvp}} placeholder used in the invitation: it is the personal link that carries the guest's identity. If somebody opens the landing page from a generic address, the page works but does not know who they are, and the answer comes in as a new guest.

What changes immediately

The moment the guest submits, with no step on your side:

• Their state becomes confirmed or not confirmed.
• Companions and slot are recorded.
• The form fields update the contact in the address book.
• The consents are filed with the time and the version of the text.
• The automatic confirmation or refusal email goes out, if you enabled them.

The list you are looking at is already up to date: there is nothing to import and nothing to sync.

The confirmation email

It is the most read of the whole event: it is opened by somebody who has already decided to come, and they come back to it on the night to check the address.

Put the practical information in it — where, when, how to get in, the QR code — not the pleasantries. It is set on the event, on the mail settings tab: see Creating and running an event.

Add to calendar

In your templates you can use {{addToCalendar}} and {{addToGoogleCalendar}}. They are the links that create the appointment in the guest's calendar.

They belong in the confirmation email rather than the invitation: it makes sense to diarise something you have already said yes to. It is the simplest way to reduce last-minute no-shows.

Changes of mind

The answer link keeps working: anyone reopening the invitation can change their answer for as long as the landing page is open. Which is why setting a closing date is worth it when the numbers have to become final — see Creating a landing page.

After closing, the page stays reachable but accepts no more changes, and whoever needs to change something writes or rings you: at which point you do it by hand.

Confirmations by hand

Half the confirmations for an important event arrive by phone, by message or in person. You record them by editing the guest from the list.

While doing so you can turn off the automatic email: if you are tidying up twenty rows after a round of phone calls, those twenty people do not need a confirmation of something they just told you.

Remember the three states are independent: confirming by hand does not mark somebody as invited, and neither of those makes them checked in. See Guests and their states.

The ones who do not answer

They are the majority after a first invitation, and that is normal. Those rows are the raw material of your second campaign: filter by no answer and write only to them.

A short nudge, sent a few days after the first invitation, reliably recovers a meaningful share of confirmations. See Creating and sending a campaign.

When something does not add up