A Wedding Website Checklist for the Week You Launch It

You've built the site, written the welcome, set up the RSVP form. Before you fire the link out to a hundred relatives, give it a proper once-over. The week you launch is the moment to catch the small stuff: the wrong postcode, the RSVP button that doesn't quite work, the date that says June when you meant July. Twenty minutes of checks now saves a dozen confused texts later.

Read every word out loud

Proofreading on screen is unreliable because your brain fills in what it expects to see. Read the whole site aloud instead, or get your partner to read it back to you. You'll hear the typo you've skimmed past ten times.

Pay special attention to the things guests will act on:

• The date, day of the week, and start time. Check the day actually falls on that date.
• The venue name, full address and postcode. Paste the postcode into a maps app and confirm it lands on the right spot, not a field two miles away.
• Dress code wording, so nobody turns up in black tie to a garden party.
• Any deadlines, especially the RSVP date.

Get a second person who isn't you to read it cold. They'll spot the bit that makes perfect sense in your head but reads as gibberish to a guest.

Test the RSVP form as a guest would

This is the single most important check, because the RSVP form is the part that has to work. Don't just look at it. Use it.

Submit a real test response from start to finish. Pick a fake name, choose your meal, add a plus-one, answer any custom questions, and hit send. Then check the reply actually landed where you expect it. If your site lets you collect dietary requirements or song requests, test those fields too. A form that looks fine but silently drops responses is the nightmare scenario, so prove it works before anyone relies on it.

With Build The Day, RSVPs and meal choices land straight in your guest list and dashboard, so once you've sent a test reply you can confirm it shows up correctly and then clear it out before the real ones arrive.

While you're at it:

• Submit one "attending" and one "can't make it" so you've seen both paths.
• Check the confirmation message guests see after they reply. It should reassure them it worked.
• Make sure the deadline is set and clearly shown.

Check it on a phone

Most of your guests will open the link on their phone, often standing in a kitchen with the kettle on. So that's where it has to look right.

Open the live site on your own mobile and scroll the whole thing. Look for text running off the edge, images that won't load, buttons too small to tap, or a menu that won't open. Try it on a different phone too if you can, ideally one that isn't yours, because what works on a newer handset sometimes breaks on an older one.

Tap every link and button. The map link, the registry or honeymoon fund link, the travel and accommodation details, the RSVP button. A dead link is an easy thing to fix now and an annoying one to discover after launch.

Sort out passwords and privacy

Decide who should be able to see the site and how they get in. If you've put a password or a guest passcode on it, make sure it's actually switched on, and that the wording on your invitations or save-the-dates matches it exactly. The classic slip is printing one passcode on the cards and setting a different one on the site.

Then test getting in from scratch. Open the site in a private browser window, as a stranger would, and check you can reach the RSVP form using only the details you'll give guests. If anything blocks you, it'll block them.

Do a soft launch first

Resist the urge to send the link to everyone at once. Share it with three or four people first: a parent, a bridesmaid, a friend who'll be honest. Ask them to actually RSVP and tell you anything confusing.

This soft launch nearly always surfaces something. A question guests want answered that you forgot to include, a heading that's unclear, a step that tripped them up. Fix those, then go wide with confidence.

A final five-minute list before you press send:

• Spelling and dates checked, read aloud
• Venue address confirmed on a map
• A full test RSVP submitted and received
• Every link tapped and working
• Viewed on at least one phone
• Password matches your printed details
• Three trusted people have tried it and replied

Tick those off and you can share the link knowing it'll do its job: answering every guest question before they have to ask, and gathering replies without a single chasing text from you.