How to Send Baby Shower Invitations Online: Steps and Messages to Copy

01 How to send baby shower invitations online, step by step

Start the guest list six to eight weeks out, send the link four to six weeks before the shower, and nudge anyone missing a week before the RSVP date. Here are the six steps, in order.

1. 1
   Six to eight weeks out: get the guest list

   Ask the parents-to-be for every name, a phone number or email for each, and who’s invited with them: a partner, kids, a plus-one. Anyone who’ll travel gets a save-the-date right away. Both messages are in the next section.
2. 2
   A few days before: proofread the invitation out loud

   Names, date, start time, place, registry link and RSVP date. Then have someone else read it: a fresh pair of eyes catches the typo you’ve stopped seeing.
3. 3
   Four to six weeks out: test the link on your own phone

   Text it to yourself and open it. Tap every button, like directions or the registry, but skip the test RSVP unless you can delete it: otherwise it counts with the real replies.
4. 4
   Same day: send it to everyone

   So nobody hears about it secondhand. Use each guest’s usual channel, and note the date next to their name.
5. 5
   A week before the RSVP date: check your list

   Check off every reply, then send a friendly nudge to the names still missing.
6. 6
   The day after the RSVP date: count heads

   Add up the people coming, answers by text or phone included, for the food and the chairs.

For a Sunday, April 18 shower: the guest list by March 7, the invitations out between March 7 and March 21, and replies due April 4 or April 11.

02 Baby shower invitation texts and emails to copy

The message around the link needs five things: who it’s from, who the shower is for, the day and time, the link, and the RSVP date. The invitation holds everything else.

That last point matters. A reply to your text won’t appear with the other RSVPs unless you add it yourself.

Paste the link itself, not a screenshot of the invitation: a picture can’t be tapped. Want to send the picture too? Send the link right after it.

In these messages, Maya & Jordan are a made-up couple, Priya is the host, and [link] is where your link goes. Swap in your own details.

Before you send

By text

In a group chat

By email

Throwing a second shower at work? It needs its own invitation and link.

On WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram

Saying who’s invited

Add one line when the invitation covers more than one person, so guests know who to count when the RSVP asks how many are coming.

Before you have a place

No venue yet? Say so, and send the address later to everyone who said yes or hasn’t answered yet.

When you have it, send one of our update messages; they also cover a changed time or place.

For the invitation text itself, start with our baby shower invitation wording guide.

03 Text, email, WhatsApp or paper: the right channel for each guest

Send each guest the link where they already read their messages. Mixing channels is fine: the link is the same everywhere, and every reply lands in the same place.

• Friends who text every day: an individual text. It’s the quickest to open.
• A crew that already has a group chat: that chat, if everyone in it is invited.
• Relatives who live in their inbox, and coworkers: an email, with every address in BCC so nobody’s address goes out to the whole list.
• Guests on WhatsApp, Messenger or Instagram: a private message in that app.
• Guests in another country: WhatsApp or email, which travel over the internet, with the time zone next to the time. A text to a number abroad can cost extra on some phone plans.
• The parents-to-be: the link first, unless it’s a surprise. They’ll want to see it, and they’ll spot a wrong name fast.
• A guest who doesn’t text or email: a phone call, or a card in the mail with the details, the link and your number.

Putting the link on a card

Print the address in full, without the https://, large enough to read: a guest can type it into any web browser.

A QR code works too: make one from your link with any QR code generator. Pick a static code, which holds the address itself, so it keeps working whatever happens to the site that made it. Then scan it with two different phones before you print.

Co-hosts can send it too

Sharing the hosting? Each co-host can send the same link to their part of the list, and the parents-to-be to theirs. Every reply still lands in one place.

04 Group text or individual texts?

Individual texts are the safer choice for most guest lists.

A group text is fast: one message, and everyone’s invited. But in most group texts, everyone can see everyone else’s number, and every “Can’t wait!” pings the whole thread.

Individual texts take longer, but each one feels personal, nobody’s number gets shared, and you can add a line just for that person.

A group text is fine for a close crew that already has a chat going, like college friends or cousins. Just ask for RSVPs on the invitation, not in the thread, or the answers get buried under the congratulations.

05 Make sure every guest can open the link

To make sure every guest can open the link, copy it instead of retyping it, leave a space on each side, and put your name in the first line of your message. Then check what it looks like when it arrives.

What guests see before they tap

Many messaging apps turn a link into a small preview, often the page’s title and web address, sometimes with a picture or a line of description. The site that hosts the invitation decides what goes in it.

Some apps show it right away, some only after a tap, and some not at all. So make sure your message makes sense on its own, and look at the preview in the text you sent yourself.

If a guest says the link won’t open

First, open it yourself. If it works for you, the invitation is fine, and the problem is somewhere between your message and their phone.

• Ask them to save your number. On an iPhone, a link texted from a number they haven’t saved may stay switched off until they add you to their contacts or reply to you.
• Send it again, untouched. Copy it instead of typing it out: one wrong letter leads to a page that doesn’t exist.
• Give it room. Leave a space on each side of the link, with no word or punctuation stuck to it.
• Try another channel. If a text didn’t work, send an email, or the other way around.
• Type it in. The address works in any web browser, so a guest can type it straight into the address bar.

06 How to track baby shower RSVPs

To keep track of baby shower RSVPs, keep your own list of everyone you invited and check off the replies each time you look. An RSVP page behind a shared link only knows who answered; your list knows who didn’t.

There’s no need to check every day. Look a week before the RSVP date, to send your nudges, and again the day after it, for the final count.

On an InviteByLink baby shower website, guests RSVP with no app or account: their name, yes or no, how many people (up to 12) and, if they like, a note. Your dashboard counts the replies and the people attending, whichever way you sent the link, and lists every reply, newest first; a newer reply under the same name replaces the earlier one in the totals. Only you can open it, by signing in with the email you published with, so pass the count on to your co-hosts.

Your website’s Copy link button is on the screen that confirms it’s live, and in your dashboard; the email that confirms it has the link and a message ready to paste, and we send nothing to your guests. Check every detail in the preview first: once it’s live, you can’t edit it yourself, though we’ll correct your details for free. The RSVP on a live example shows the guest side, and saves nothing you type.

Before the RSVP date, send a friendly nudge to anyone still missing: our baby shower reminder messages are ready to copy, from the first nudge to the day-before text.

07 Questions