WhatsApp wedding invitations & RSVP

Why send your wedding invitation on WhatsApp?

For guests outside the US, WhatsApp is not an app — it is how they communicate all day, every day. Email invitations from an address they do not recognize slide into spam or a promotions tab and are never seen; a WhatsApp message is read within minutes — open rates for the channel are widely reported to be far higher than email. If half of your family is traveling from India, the UK, the Gulf, or East Africa, WhatsApp is the single most dependable way to reach them.

That reliability is exactly what an RSVP needs. You cannot finalize catering, seating, or hotel blocks until people respond, and every guest who never sees the invite becomes a phone call you have to make yourself. Sending the invitation where guests already read means more replies, sooner, with far less chasing.

• Reaches relatives abroad. Family in India, the UK, or the diaspora get the invite in the messenger they use every day — no international SMS fees, no missed email.
• Read within minutes. WhatsApp opens far outpace email, so RSVP deadlines actually get met instead of ignored.
• Nothing for guests to install. They already have WhatsApp. There is no new app to download and no account to create with Duva.

How WhatsApp wedding RSVP works

You build your guest list once, and Duva handles the rest. Because each message is one-to-one and personalized with the guest’s name, it never reads like a mass blast — and no one sees anyone else’s number.

• Add your guests. Import a CSV or add guests by hand with their phone numbers and the events they are invited to.
• Send the invite on WhatsApp. Duva delivers a personalized WhatsApp message to every international number, each with its own RSVP link.
• Guests RSVP in one tap. They tap the link and confirm for their whole party — no login, no app, no account required.
• Watch responses roll in. Attending, pending, and declined counts update live on your dashboard, split out per ceremony.

WhatsApp save-the-dates and invitations

Start the whole arc on WhatsApp. Send an animated save-the-date months ahead, then follow it with the formal invitation and RSVP request when the date is locked — each one a personal message rather than a forwarded image with no way to respond.

Every save-the-date and invite carries a one-tap RSVP link and, if you want, a link to your Duva wedding website with the schedule, venue, and travel details. Guests who prefer to browse can also look themselves up by name on the site and RSVP there — no link required.

• Animated save-the-dates. Send a designed save-the-date by WhatsApp long before the paper invites go out.
• Links to your wedding website. Every message can point to your custom site with schedule, maps, and hotel blocks.
• In their language. Send invitations in English, Hindi, or Gujarati so elders read them comfortably.

Per-event RSVP for multi-day celebrations

A wedding is rarely one event, and a WhatsApp invite that lumps everything together forces you to untangle who is coming to what. Duva tracks a separate headcount for every function, so the mehndi list, the sangeet list, and the reception list stay independent.

Only the guests invited to the sangeet get the sangeet invite; only the ones who said yes to the reception count toward the seating plan. Each guest confirms per event for their whole household in a single tap.

• A headcount per ceremony. Welcome dinner, mehndi, sangeet, ceremony, reception — each with its own RSVP and count.
• Household RSVP. One tap confirms the whole party, so families do not respond five separate times.

Automatic WhatsApp reminders — only to non-responders

You should not have to remember who still owes you an answer. Set a reminder schedule and Duva quietly re-messages only the guests who have not yet replied, leaving everyone who already responded alone. When the day arrives, broadcast a live update — a shuttle time, a hall change, or “the baraat is starting” — to an entire function’s guest list in seconds.

• Smart reminders. Auto-nudge only the guests who have not responded, on a schedule you choose.
• No one gets nagged. Guests who already RSVP’d never receive another reminder.
• Day-of broadcasts. Send a WhatsApp update to a whole ceremony at once when plans change on the day.

SMS and WhatsApp together, chosen automatically

Not every guest is on WhatsApp — many US guests prefer a plain text. Duva looks at each phone number and picks the right channel automatically: WhatsApp for international numbers, SMS for US numbers. You send one invitation and every guest gets it the way that works best for them, with responses flowing back to the same dashboard.

If most of your guest list is in the US, start from the SMS & text-message RSVP page instead — it covers the text-first experience in detail. Either way, the two channels work as one system.

What it costs

Duva is free to set up: your wedding website, guest list, and RSVP collection cost nothing, and you get 50 message credits to start. After that, messaging is pay-as-you-go — you buy credit packs ($40, $99, or $165) that never expire, and each message uses one credit per recipient. There is no subscription and no per-guest fee for the website or RSVP tools. You only pay when you actually send messages.