Digital invitation: a wedding in 30 days, step by step

Thirty days out, the kitchen table is already full: a half-written guest list on the back of an envelope, two espresso cups and a phone note that just says 'confirm Saturday'. You don't need a year to fix this. You need a Digital invitation that goes live the day you buy it, so you can pick a design from the collection, fill in the names and send the link before dinner.

Everything below works on one condition: the invitation exists from day one and stays editable. If the plan moves on day 24, and it will, you change the scene and the same link shows the new version. No reprints, no second round of messages, no group chat asking what time dinner starts.

Days 1 to 3: how to start a wedding in 30 days

Before you look at anything pretty, close the three boxes that block the rest: a date (a Saturday still to be confirmed is fine), a venue with an exact street address, and a guest list with first and last names. Do it in one sitting, in a note on your phone. Then decide the language: the content can be set per language, so the cousins in Hamburg and the friends in Mexico City read the same link in their own words.

• A date and the exact address of the venue, even if one detail is still pending
• A guest list with full names: no nicknames, no '+1'
• Three or four of your own photos at good resolution, one for the cover and the rest to decorate
• The line you want people to read when the invitation opens, plus the dress code and the dinner time

Days 4 to 7: your Digital invitation goes out before the menu

Build the skeleton in the browser editor, one field per piece of information: the line above the names, the names, the date, the sentence, the place. There's a character counter, so nothing spills out of the frame. Add up to six of your own photos, which are framed automatically, and mark which one is the cover. Any photo can be swapped later without starting over.

Then publish with one button and send the link to the four people who will tell you the truth: your sister, the friend who plans everything, the one who spots typos. Open it on a real phone. Check the music, check how the names sit on a small screen. Guests install nothing: the link opens in any browser on a phone, tablet or laptop. Set the RSVP questions here too, name and whether they're coming, and keep it short. Every extra question is one more reason to answer tomorrow.

A wedding in 30 days works when the invitation is the first thing you publish and the last thing you have to worry about.

Days 8 to 30: Digital invitations that change without a resend

Confirmations arrive inside the invitation, in one ordered list. At ten at night you know who's coming without scrolling back through a thread. If the caterer falls through and dinner moves to eight, edit the scene, hit publish, and the link stays exactly the same: nobody gets a new message, everybody sees the new time. Put the map and the dress code in the arrival scene, the one people actually read. If someone says the link won't open, send them the QR. It's the same invitation, no app required.

If your grandmother wants something for the drawer, print ten copies for the people who will keep them and send the link to everyone else. The paper is a keepsake; the digital version is the one that rules. Decide today and publish this afternoon, then spend the next thirty days on what guests remember: what they eat, where they sit, who they dance with. That's what digital wedding invitations are for, cutting the admin and leaving the party.