After you’ve set a date for your big day, edited the details of your site, and uploaded your full guest list, you’re ready to send your Save the Dates and/or Invitation eCards.
Save the Dates, Invitations, and Change The Dates and Custom Cards all work the same exact way. We’ll walk through Save the Dates.
To edit and send Save the Dates, click on Send from the admin dashboard, then Save the Dates. You’ll be redirected to the Save the Dates page where you can begin to design, customize, test, and send your Save the Dates. (You’ll also notice our default Save the Date design on the right-hand side of the page.) From here, navigate to Design and Send to start editing your Save the Date and making it your own.
Designing the eCard
Next, you’ll be brought to the Design Card page. You can edit the design and content of your Save the Date by clicking Edit Design and Edit Content to the right of the card preview.
Choosing a design
When you click on Edit Design, you’ll see dozens of our beautiful themes from which to choose for your Save the Dates. You’ll also notice that as you click on various designs, the Save the Date will reflect what you’ve chosen in the background.
After choosing a design, click on Done at the bottom. From there, navigate to Edit Content on the right-hand side of your Save the Date.
Editing the eCard content
On this page, you can edit your Save the Date eCard content. You can customize all of the text, choose a date format, and choose up to two additional links. As you edit the content, you’ll notice your changes will be reflected on the eCard preview.
Including external links
Maybe you want to direct guests to the wedding venue, the hotel, a separate wedding-related website, or something else. You can add the external link on either the Message or Optional Message from the Edit Details section. To ensure your link is clickable and directs guests to where you intend, add a ‘www’ before the URL.
- Do: www.thompsonhotel.com
- Don’t: thompsonhotel.com
Using a custom domain
You can also add a custom domain purchased through Joy or through a different provider to your eCard.
If you’ve already purchased a custom domain and haven’t added it under your settings page yet, click “Edit” under “Your URL.” You’ll be redirected to the Settings page where you’ll want to click on “Add a Custom Domain (optional)” under Joy URL. You’ll also want to make sure you’ve set that domain up to forward to your Joy site. You can find out more about that here.
If you would like to purchase a custom domain through Joy, click on “Add. custom Domain (optional),” from Settings, then “Find the Perfect Domain.” This will open up a new tab where you can browse or search for a domain you like. After that, follow the rest of your on-screen instructions. If you’re looking for how to connect your newly bought domain to your Joy site, go here.
Once you’re happy with your edits, click on Done to save your changes.
Editing the email
When you’ve finished designing and editing your Save the Date eCard, it’s time to edit the email that will house your Save the Date. Click “Edit Email,” at the bottom of the page.
Click Edit Email on the right-hand side of the preview email to begin editing the details of your email.
From here, you can edit the Subject, Reply-to-Email, Headline, and Subheadline, and add a customized photo.
If you want to use a customized photo — meaning pulling an image from the internet to use as the featured photo in your email — select Paste Image URL. A new text box called Image URL will appear. This is where you can add your image URL so it appears as the featured photo. Click here to learn how to add a custom image to your email.
Note: If you don’t want to use an image from the internet, you can select Use Event Photo. This means that whatever image you’ve set as your Event Photo on your Photos page will be the featured image that appears in your email. Alternatively, you can keep the Event Photo blank if you don’t want an image in your email.
When you scroll down on the Edit Email page, you’ll see you can also edit the message Salutation and Message Body, checkmark whether you want to use guest name(s), and customize button text.
Check “Use guest name(s)” if you want your guests’ first names to appear in the salutation of the emails. However, please note that if you’ve grouped guests together on the Guest List, the names in the email will be listed in the same order in which they were added to your Guest List. Alternatively, if you don’t want your guests’ names to appear in your email, simply uncheck Use guest name(s) and customize your salutation.
You also have the option to customize the button text. This means you can change the text for the button that directs guests to your Save the Date eCard. To edit this text, click “Customize button text…” A new text box called Button Text will appear. This is where you can change the text for the button at the bottom of your email.
Note: If you’ve tested a few button text options, but you want to return to the original text prepopulated for you — ‘Open Save The Date’ — simply click Reset to Default.
As always, you’ll see the changes you make reflected in real-time in the background email! When you’re happy with everything, be sure to click Done at the bottom of the page.
Now that you’ve edited your Save the Date theme, details, and email message, it’s time for the final steps!
Sending the email and eCard
Navigate to Confirm & Send at the bottom of your Save the Date page. You’ll be directed to another page that will allow you to verify your email (if necessary), select guests (each guest will receive a unique invitation), send yourself a test, as well as send and track your Save the Dates.
The next step is to add recipients for your Save the Date eCards! When you click Select Guests, you’ll be redirected to a page where you can select specific guests from your guest list by name and/or label in the search box — or, you can select all of your guests by clicking Select All. You’ll see that each guest you select will be reflected in the Selected column on the right-hand side of the page so you can keep track of everything.
Once you’re done selecting the pertinent guests, be sure to click Done at the bottom of the page. You’ll then be redirected to the prior Confirm & Send page.
You’re just about done! But if you want to make sure you didn’t make any mistakes (after all, we’re human!), you can send a test email to yourself to see how your Save the Date and email will look from a guest perspective.
Just navigate to Send Test Email, add your first name and whichever email address you’d like to use for the test, and click Send. To note, the test email will only be addressed to the name you enter when sending the test email.
Check your email and Save the Date when it arrives in your inbox, and if all looks good, you’re ready to send your eCards to the recipients you selected!
Click on Send Now at the bottom of the Confirm & Send page, and you should be all set. You can also check the email status of the eCards — i.e. who has and has not opened their Save the Dates — under the Last Email Status column on your Guest List.
Still have some questions?
Ask us directly! Click on the black and white chat bubble in the bottom-right corner of this page to ask us your questions, or you can email us at support@withjoy.com. You’ll get a friendly response from someone on our team! 🙂