Share your wedding website with the save-the-date, six to eight months before the wedding, or ten to twelve for a destination wedding, with the date, the city and where to stay already on it. Send the link again with the invitation, when the schedule, RSVP and registry are complete. The site is the one thing you send that can improve after you send it, so the first version does not have to be finished, only correct.
With the save-the-date: the travel version
Guests who fly need the date, the city and the hotel block before anything else, and they need them months out. That is the whole job of the first version of your site. Put the link on the save-the-date and make sure the site has the date, the venue city, the hotel block with its deadline, and the nearest airport.
Do not wait for the design to be perfect or the story to be written. A site with four facts on it, sent early, is worth more than a beautiful one sent late. On Lazo the link never changes, so whatever you add later reaches the same guests.
With the invitation: the complete version
By the time invitations go out, eight to ten weeks before the wedding, the site should carry the full schedule, the dress code, the RSVP with its deadline, the registry and the FAQ. Put the link on the invitation and, if you are collecting RSVPs online, say so plainly: 'please reply at the link by May 1'.
This is the version most guests will actually read, on their phone, the evening the invitation arrives. Check it on a phone that day.
The reminders nobody sends
Two weeks before the RSVP deadline, message the people who have not replied, with the link. On a Lazo site the planner shows who has not replied, so this is a list, not a search.
One week before the wedding, send the link once more to everyone with the final schedule and the shuttle times. Details change in the last month, and the site is where the current version lives.
Destination and multi-day weddings
Go earlier: ten to twelve months for the save-the-date and the first version of the site, because guests are booking flights and taking leave. Put the whole weekend on the schedule as soon as it exists, with who is invited to what, so guests can book the right nights.
For a multi-day celebration, an RSVP per event matters more than the deadline. Every Lazo design handles a multi-day schedule, and the RSVP note can ask which days a guest is coming.
After the wedding
The site is still useful the week after, for the thank-yous and the photos, and for guests who want to sign the guestbook. On Lazo it flips to married mode the morning after on its own; send the link one last time with the first photos and it becomes the place the wedding lives.
What to actually do about it
- Ask your stationer to leave room for the link on the save-the-date, not only the invitation.
- The save-the-date is the one guests pin to the fridge for months. A link there is read many times; a link on the invitation is read once.
- Ask the hotel how long the block holds and put that date on the site before you send anything.
- Blocks commonly release 30 days out. A guest who sees the deadline in month one books; one who sees it in month six finds the block gone.
- Ask your caterer for the final-count date before you set the RSVP deadline.
- The RSVP deadline should be two weeks before the caterer's date, and the invitation should carry the same date as the site.
Common questions
Is it too early to send the website with the save-the-date?
No, as long as it has the date, the city and where to stay. Travelling guests want it early, and everything else can be added later without changing the link.
Should the RSVP deadline be on the website or the invitation?
Both, and the same date on each. Set it at least two weeks before your caterer's final-count date so you have time to chase the last replies.
How do we send the link?
On the save-the-date and the invitation in print, and by message for reminders. On Lazo the link is meetlazo.com/w/ and your names; short enough to print and to say out loud.
The vendors this depends on
Every review on Lazo comes from a couple who proved they actually got married with that vendor, and rankings can't be bought at any price.