The RSVP link
The most useful wedding code opens your RSVP form. Make the form first, on your wedding website or with a free form builder, and then make a link code to it.
- Use a short, stable address. If your wedding site lets you choose it, keep it short. Long form addresses make dense codes that have to be printed bigger.
- Fill the form in yourself on a phone, start to finish, before the invitations go to print.
- Ask for everything in one form: names, meal choices, dietary needs, song requests. Nobody wants to scan twice.
- Print the address in text under the code for guests who would rather type it.
If the form might move, say from a form builder to your wedding website, a dynamic code lets you repoint invitations that are already in the post. For one print run with an address that won’t change, a free static code is fine. Our guide to static and dynamic codes explains the difference.
Save the date: a calendar code
A calendar (event) code holds the event itself: the title, start and end times, the place and a short description. Scanned with the camera of a recent iPhone or Android phone, it offers to add the day to the guest’s calendar, with no website involved. Before you choose one, know its limits:
- It’s dense. Every detail is in the pattern. A wedding with a venue name and one line of details came to 264 characters in our test, which needs a code at least 5.5 cm (2.2 in) wide. That is a lot of a postcard.
- It can’t be changed. If the time or venue changes, you reprint.
- Times are local. A calendar code written with a plain local time lands at that clock time in guests’ calendars, which is what you want for a wedding.
- Some scanner apps show the details as text instead of offering to add them. The phone’s own camera app is the most dependable.
For save-the-date cards sent months ahead, a link to your wedding website is often the better choice: it prints smaller, and the page can carry an “add to calendar” button and any updates.
The venue location
There are two ways to put the venue on a code:
- A location code holds the coordinates (
geo:followed by latitude and longitude). iPhones open it in Maps with a pin; Android phones offer a map app. It is precise, which matters for a field, a beach or a venue with a confusing entrance. - A map link, the share link from Google Maps or Apple Maps, opens the place itself, with its name, photos and directions, in the browser or the map app.
For a rural venue, drop the pin on the entrance or the car park, not the middle of the estate, and say so on the card: “Pin: car park entrance”.
A shared photo album
A code on each table that opens a shared album collects photos from every corner of the day. Most photo services can make an album that guests add to from a link. Check these before printing:
- Guests can add photos without an account, or the card says which account they need.
- Adding photos is switched on for people with the link, not just viewing.
- You’re comfortable that anyone with the link can see the album: the code on the table is effectively its key.
- An upload works from both an iPhone and an Android phone, over mobile data.
Welcome sign, table cards and invitations
Size each code for the distance it is read from, roughly a tenth of it:
| Where | Read from | Code width |
|---|---|---|
| Invitation or save-the-date card (link) | 25–30 cm | 2.5–3 cm |
| Invitation with a calendar code | 25–30 cm | at least 5.5 cm |
| Table card or place card | 40–60 cm | 4–6 cm |
| Welcome sign on an easel | 1–2 m | 10–20 cm |
| Large board across the room | 3 m | 30 cm |
- Leave a light margin around each code, four modules wide, even on a busy floral design.
- Choose matte card. Gloss and acrylic reflect fairy lights and candles at exactly the angle people scan from. If you love acrylic, test it in the venue’s evening light.
- Chalkboard-style signs look lovely, but keep the code itself dark on a light panel; see our guide to QR code colours.
- Label every code: “RSVP here”, “Add the day to your calendar”, “Share your photos”.
Test on your guests’ phones, not just yours
Your phone is new and already knows your wedding site. Your guests’ phones include a grandparent’s five-year-old Android, a work phone with restrictions and one with a cracked camera lens. Before you print:
- Ask two or three people with different phones, including an older one, to scan the printed proof.
- Scan from the real distance, in dim evening light, as at the reception.
- Check the venue’s mobile signal. If it is weak, ask whether guests can use the venue’s Wi‑Fi, and put a Wi‑Fi code beside the photo album code.
- Make sure every link opens without a login, and that the form and the album work on a small screen.
Have a fallback for each code: the address in text, and someone at the welcome table who can help.
Make it in QR Island
The studio makes all of these for free: an Event code for the save-the-date (title, start, end, all-day, location and details), a Link code for the RSVP form or the album, and a Location code for the venue. Pick a world to suit the theme, such as Sakura Night, Scholar’s Garden or English Cottage, then press Get QR code for the flat code to print.
The Island pack (US$6.99, one-time) adds your island picture in print sizes for the invitations and a 12-second island video for the announcement. The island sign pack (+US$4.99, added to an Island pack) adds an Event template: a PDF in each of its four styles with a poster, flyers, a table tent, cards and stickers, plus story, post and screen pictures.
