Send a save-the-date: announce the date before the invitation

A save-the-date announces the date before the invitation: the names, the day and the city. Your loved ones save the date and add it to their calendar; later, the same link becomes the full invitation. You prepare and send it almost like an invitation, with a few differences.

1The steps

1. 1

   Step 1

   Start with a save-the-date

   In the creation flow, choose “A save-the-date first”. The create button on the site’s Save the date page opens the creation directly in this mode.

2. 2

   Step 2

   Fill in the essentials

   The day is required: it is what the save-the-date announces. Add the city (“The city”), not the venue: it comes with the full invitation. If you don’t know the time yet, check “I don’t know the time yet”: only the day shows, with the Hebrew date of that day. There is no program to enter.

3. 3

   Step 3

   Publish it

   In “Prepare”, the “Save-the-date” step offers “Publish the save-the-date”: every household gets a link to your save-the-date, which must be online before sending. “Make the save-the-date private” takes it offline.

4. 4

   Step 4

   Add your households

   As for an invitation, in the “Invite” step: one by one, by pasting a list or from your contacts. A household without a WhatsApp number won’t get a send button.

5. 5

   Step 5

   Send it on WhatsApp

   In the “Send” step, “Send the save-the-date” prepares a short message with each household’s personal link. As with an invitation, you tap “Open WhatsApp”, press Send in WhatsApp, then confirm with “Yes, it’s sent”. Tov sends nothing on your behalf.

6. 6

   Step 6

   Or drop a link in the family group

   Under “Link for a WhatsApp group”, turn on “Open the link to groups”, tap “Copy the link” and paste the link in the WhatsApp group. Everyone answers “Who are you?”: they give their name and WhatsApp number, then say whether they save the date. They join your list with the note “Came through the group link”. Only the owner of the celebration can open or close this link.

7. 7

   Step 7

   Track the answers

   In “Follow up”, four counters: “saving the date”, “can’t make it”, “to reconfirm” and “no reply”. Your loved ones don’t say yet how many of them will come: the final answer, with the number of people, comes with the full invitation.

8. 8

   Step 8

   Switch to the full invitation

   When you have the venue, the time and the program, use “Move on to the full invitation” (the “Next step” card in your space): Tov first reminds you what is left to complete. The same link then shows the full invitation, with nothing to retype. In the “Send” step, Tov offers the households already told first, then the others.

2What your loved ones see

• Two answers: “I’ll save the date” or “I can’t make it”. Never a number of people.
• “Add to my calendar”: their calendar subscribes to the celebration’s link, and the time, the address and the program arrive when you publish the full invitation. This works on iPhone, Mac, Outlook and Google Calendar on a computer. On Android, it is a simple one-time add, without automatic updates (“Add to Google Calendar (no automatic updates)”). Changes arrive at the pace of the calendar app.
• If they are coming from far away: “Coming from far away?” followed by a sentence that takes Shabbat and the holidays at the celebration’s location into account, to know when to arrive.

3If the date changes

Change the date in “Prepare”: “Send” then offers to tell the households that already received the save-the-date (“The date has changed”). They save the new date with one tap; those who had saved the old one move to “to reconfirm”. In calendars that are already subscribed, the date updates.