Wedding invitations with audio description: a real guide

Ana sends her wedding invitation as a photo on WhatsApp. Her cousin Marta opens it with VoiceOver and hears one word: 'image'. No names, no date, no venue. She rings her sister to ask what time the ceremony starts.

If you're looking into audio-described wedding invitations, this is the moment where the ordinary one falls apart. A screen reader can't read a JPEG, and nobody should have to phone around for details that are written down somewhere. An invitation your guest can't read or hear isn't an invitation — it's a picture of one.

Audio description starts with real text

The base of any audio-described wedding invitation is a web page with real text. Send a PDF or a flat image instead and the screen reader has nothing to announce. A page opens in the browser and reads in order: names, date, venue, RSVP. Write alt text for your photos too, so the reader describes them rather than saying 'image'. Before you send anything, ask someone to open your link with VoiceOver on an iPhone or TalkBack on Android and listen. If the reader jumps from the headline straight to the button and never says the address, that's the first thing to fix.

• Share a web page, not a PDF or a screenshot.
• Test the link with VoiceOver or TalkBack before you send it.
• Use large type and high contrast, like black text on a cream background.
• Skip long strings of capitals. 'Saturday 14 June, 7 pm' reads better than 'SATURDAY 14 JUNE AT 19:00'.

The audio description fits in a voice note

The audio side doesn't need a studio. A 30- to 40-second voice note covers it: 'We'd love you at Ana and Luis's wedding on 14 June at 7 pm, at Finca El Olivo. The link is in this message, and you can confirm from your phone.'

Send it in the same thread as the invitation link rather than a separate message, so your guest has the context and the way to reply in one place. And if your invitation plays music, don't count that as the description. Music never says the time or the venue. The audio version is a voice giving information, not decoration.

A guest who hears 'image' and nothing else has been left outside the wedding before it starts.

Confirming without WhatsApp

An accessible RSVP inside the invitation saves your blind guest from hunting for your number or asking someone to type a message for them. They open the link, answer, done, and the replies arrive in one sorted list instead of scattered across chats. Keep the questions few and plain — 'Are you coming?' and 'How many of you?' — because a long form with unlabelled fields is where screen readers get lost. Change the time or the venue later and the link stays the same: nobody has to receive a new message and start again.

The day of the wedding gets described too

Add a 'Getting there' section to the same link and describe what's around it: 'There's parking at the entrance and the path is gravel.' If you have a dress code, write it out — 'long dress, sage green' — instead of leaving a colour swatch to speak for itself. On the day, ask a friend or relative to be your guest's eyes for the moments that matter: the entrance, the toast, the first dance.

If you'd rather nobody was left out, start with an invitation people can read, hear and answer without friction. A Send The Joy invitation is a web page you share with a link or a QR code, and your guests install nothing. Edit the time, the venue or the dress code after sending and the link stays the same. It's €29.99 per invitation, one payment, and you can try a design for free first.