Civil Wedding Invitations: Two Times, Two Addresses

Two weeks before the ceremony and the same message keeps arriving: where exactly, and at what time? You sent the details once. They got lost somewhere between the group chat and the fridge door. It usually comes down to two things: an address with no map link, and a second venue with no time next to it.

Civil wedding invitations can carry all of that without looking crowded. The ceremony itself is short and legal; the day around it is yours. The invitation is the only place your guests can check the details without asking you, so it has to answer the obvious questions before they are asked. Here is what goes on it, when to send it, and how to collect replies without chasing anyone.

A civil wedding invitation isn't the short version

The registry office gives you an exact hour, not a window. If lunch follows, that is a second hour at a second address. Write both: 12:30 at the town hall, 14:30 at the restaurant. Add the full street address and a map link. If your city has more than one registry office, name the branch — 'City Hall, North Annexe' tells guests something that plain 'City Hall' does not. There is no religious wording to fall back on either, so the rest of the card is yours: your names, the date, and a line you would actually say out loud.

• The time and the full address of the registry office, plus the branch if the city has several.
• A second time and address for the meal, the drinks or the dancing, if they happen somewhere else.
• A map link for every location. A venue name on its own sends people to the wrong building.
• A dress code chosen for the hour and the space: long dress and suit for a ballroom, something lighter for a terrace in July.

What every civil wedding invitation has to include

Names exactly as you want them read out, spelled in full: 'Marta Ruiz and Luis Prado', not 'M. Ruiz & L. Prado'. Then the date, the time and the place of the ceremony. If there is an aperitif, a dinner or a party afterwards, each one gets its own address on its own line. The dress code follows the hour and the room more than the season — a terrace at six in July is not a ballroom at eight.

Send it as soon as the date and the time are confirmed. You do not have to wait for the menu, the seating or the last few names. Guests book trains, take a day off or find a babysitter around your date, and the earlier they know it, the easier that is.

A clear invitation answers, in advance, the messages your guests would otherwise send you one by one.

Digital or paper: what actually fits

A digital invitation is a page of your own, not a PDF and not an image. Guests open the link in a browser on a phone, and there is nothing to install. You share it as a link, a QR code or a message, and you build it in the browser with a preview that updates as you type: cover photo, names, date, place, your own line, music, and the questions you want on the reply form. If you also want paper, the practical version is the link for everyone and a few printed copies for the people who will keep one in a drawer. One price, 29.99 EUR, no subscription, and you can keep editing after it is sent.

RSVPs without chasing anyone

Replies arrive inside the invitation, in one ordered list, instead of scattered across four chats. You choose what the form asks: a name, a plus one, a comment. Set a deadline guests can see, and if someone answers after it, the list updates itself. Your civil wedding invitation can stay that simple from the first message to the last reply. Build it when the date is locked, test it for free, and publish it.