PLAN AN
EVENT!

The invite, the RSVP, the sign on the door, the slideshow on the telly and the reel the morning after. Your party, made in one place, with the headcount in a table instead of forty text threads.

TRY IT FREE →

Publish the invitation, then RSVP like a guest0:11

The animated invitation with a working RSVP template, signed in. Publish in the top bar opens the Publish dialog; the address mina-and-theo is typed and Publish puts Version 1 live. The published site is opened as a guest sees it: the card arrives and the lights pop, the name Jo Bell is typed into Your name, and Send my reply swaps the form for the thank-you message.

PARTY!

THE BRIEF

Mina and Theo finally have a kitchen

Our example comes straight out of a template. Mina and Theo have moved into the top floor of 27 Lark Lane, the door with the yellow bell, and they want everyone round on Saturday 14 November, from six. Supper is on them. Bring someone, or a dish, or just yourself.

The awkward part of any party is not the party. It is the forty separate replies across text, email, two group chats and a voice note from an aunt. Who is coming? With whom? Who cannot eat nuts? Who said they would bring the lasagne, and is it the same person who said they would bring a lasagne? This page is the version where those answers land in one table, and the invitations, signs and slides all match.

fields on the RSVP: name to dish

printed invitation sizes

18×24

inches, the event poster

table with every reply

THE RUN SHEET

Three weeks, one party

013 weeks out
Invitations
A 5×7 printed card for the neighbours and the grandparents, and the invitation site for everyone else.
023 weeks out
RSVP goes live
Publish the site, attach a database, send the link. Replies start landing in Submissions.
031 week out
Count heads
Read who is coming, how many, what they cannot eat and who is bringing a dish.
04The day before
Signs
A poster for the street door, because “the door with the yellow bell” is not a map.
05On the night
The TV
A photo slideshow of the flat before you moved in. Everyone loves a before.
06The morning after
The recap
A reel of the night for the group chat, and a thank-you card for the people who brought dishes.

STEP 1

An invitation you can hold

Grandparents and neighbours get paper. The Invitation template is a 5×7 card with a centred stack: the names, a line, then date, time, place and RSVP as rows. Every line is a brand field, so you fill in the blanks in the Design panel instead of wrestling text boxes. The Invitation (A7) is the small European card for who, what, when and where.

Press ⌘P, leave Full bleed on, turn on crop marks, and print on card. Or export a PDF for a print shop. The print and PDF page explains bleed without the jargon.

Print with crop marks0:04

An event poster. Command-P opens Print: what to print (every page), how the pages sit on the paper (single pages), and Full bleed, already on for a print page. Crop marks is turned on; the dialog says what each sheet will be.

Two sides on a 5×7 card0:06

The 5×7 postcard template in Design: a front and a back side by side. Command-P opens Print, listing both pages and how they sit on the paper, with Full bleed on; Crop marks is turned on for a printer that trims.

STEP 2

An invitation that arrives

Everyone else gets a link. Animated invitation with a working RSVP is a web page where the card drops in, the date and place rise line by line and a string of lights pops along the top. Next to it, the form: Your name, Coming?, How many of you?, Anything you cannot eat? and a tick box for bringing a dish. It is laid out for desktop, tablet and phone, motion and all.

Click Publish, type an address, and it is online. In the clip we publish it, open it as a guest, type Jo Bell and click Send my reply: the form makes way for “Thank you. We have your reply.” The publishing page covers addresses and versions.

Publish the invitation, then RSVP like a guest0:11

STEP 3

Where the replies go

This is the part to read twice. A published form only keeps replies when the site has a database. In the Publish dialog, under Database, click New Neon database (or Supabase). PopCraft makes a project named after the site in your account and attaches it. From then on, every reply is a row. A site that is already online starts saving at once, no republishing.

Without a database nothing is saved: the Publish dialog warns you first, and a guest who sends the form is told it did not go through. So attach it before you send the link. Then click Submissions for the table, newest first. The integrations page has the Neon and Supabase details.

SUBMISSIONS · RSVP FORM · NEWEST FIRST

Sent	name	coming	guests	dietary	dish
Thu 21:14	Jo Bell	Yes, I will be there	Two	Nuts	✓
Thu 19:02	Priya	Yes, I will be there	Just me	—	✓
Wed 08:47	Uncle Dev	Sorry, I cannot make it	Just me	—	—
Tue 22:30	The Okafors	Yes, I will be there	Four	One vegetarian	—

An illustration of the Submissions table, with made-up guests. The columns are the form's field names.

Attach a Neon database, read Submissions0:08

The coming-soon page, published, with its email sign-up marked as a form and a Neon account connected. In the Publish dialog, under Database, New Neon database is clicked: a project named after the site is made in the Neon account and its database attached, and it is listed. Three visitors then sign up on the site (sent by the recording, as the site sends them). Submissions is clicked and a table shows the three, newest first, with when each was sent and its email.

Every publish is a version0:15

A website that is already published as Version 1. The headline is changed on the canvas, the Publish dialog is opened from the ⋯ menu and Publish again makes Version 2, which goes live. Make live on Version 1 puts the earlier version back; Take offline stops the site; Make live on Version 2 puts the new one online again. The site is then opened on its own and shows the new headline.

STEP 4

A sign for the door

“Top floor, the door with the yellow bell” works until it is dark and raining. The Event poster is 18×24 inches: a headline block, detail rows as components and an accent footer band. Its sample is a night market; ours says Housewarming · Top floor · Ring the yellow bell.

Give it the same look as the invite with a brand kit: ⋯ › Brand kit…, Apply to document, and the colours, fonts and website line follow. In the clip the Nonprofit & community example kit turns it green and gold. Bigger venue? The Large-format poster comes at A2, A1 and A0.

One brand kit on the event poster0:09

The 18×24 event poster template in Design. From ⋯, Brand kit… opens and the Nonprofit & community example kit is applied: the poster takes its green and gold, its fonts and its website line at once.

STEP 5

Something on the telly

Every party has a TV doing nothing. Put a slideshow on it. The photo slideshow templates (wedding, travel, birthday, baby's first year and more) are music-cut sequences with slow Ken Burns moves; drop your own photos on the frames. Ours was the flat before the move: the avocado bathroom deserved an audience.

Or make it a deck and present it on a loop. Give a short toast with slides if you must; builds and presenter view are in the slides page.

Find a photo slideshow and play it0:08

The new file gallery, searched for “slideshow”: the photo slideshows are listed (wedding, travel, birthday, baby’s first year and more). Baby’s first year slideshow is picked and opened, and Space plays its first scene with the music.

Present a deck, build by build0:06

A pitch deck. Present fullscreen fills the screen with the title slide. The right arrow moves on through the builds and slides, B blacks the screen out and brings it back, and Esc ends the show.

STEP 6

The reel the morning after

The Event promo template is an eleven-second vertical invite: a glow fades up, the event name rises, when, where and cost rise in turn and the RSVP button pops. Before the party it is a story post. After it, swap the words for “Thank you for coming”, drop in the best three photos, and export an MP4 for the group chat.

Making a whole run of posts for a bigger event? The social media page follows one class across every network, and the greeting cards page has thank-you cards that loop.

The event promo, played0:08

The Event promo template in Animate. Space plays it from the start: the event's title, date and details animate in, ready to post as a video.

THE KIT

Everything Mina and Theo made

THE INVITE

A 5×7 printed card, every line a brand field, printed with crop marks on card stock.

THE RSVP

An animated page with a working form, published at its own address, replies saved to their own database.

THE HEADCOUNT

Submissions: who, how many, dietary notes and dishes, in one table instead of forty chats.

THE SIGN

An 18×24 poster for the street door, in the same colours as the invite.

THE TV

A photo slideshow on a loop, cut to music, with the before photos everyone asked about.

THE RECAP

An eleven-second reel for the group chat, and thank-you cards for the lasagne people.

WHAT YOU SKIP

The party admin, before and after

THE USUAL WAY	IN POPCRAFT
An invitation website with someone else’s logo on it	Your own animated page, published at your own address
Replies scattered over texts, email and chats	One Submissions table, in a database you own
A form builder, a site builder and a print shop editor	One app, with the invite, form and signs matching
A sign written in marker at 5 p.m.	An 18×24 poster, printed with crop marks
A slideshow app for the TV	Photo slideshow templates, cut to music

FROM ZERO

Your event in six moves

Print the invite
Print › Invitation (5×7) or Invitation (A7). Every line is a brand field.
Open the RSVP site
Animated invitation with a working RSVP. Change the words, keep the form.
Publish it
Publish in the top bar, pick an address, and it is online.
Attach a database
Publish › Database › New Neon (or Supabase) database. Now replies are kept.
Make the signs
Event poster 18×24, a brand kit, ⌘P with crop marks.
Make the reel
A photo slideshow template with your own pictures, exported as an MP4.

BEING HONEST

No database, no headcount.

Replies are kept only on a site published with PopCraft that has a Neon or Supabase database attached, which means an account with one of them. PopCraft does not email you when a reply arrives, send reminders, or sell tickets. A published site lives at a PopCraft address unless you send it to Vercel for your own domain. The Neon docs say exactly what PopCraft writes to your database.

ASKED & ANSWERED

Questions, answered

Does the RSVP form really work?

Yes, on a site published with PopCraft. Guests fill in their name, whether they are coming, how many, what they cannot eat and whether they will bring a dish, and the form makes way for a thank-you message. To keep the replies, attach a Neon or Supabase database in the Publish dialog; then every reply is a row you read in Submissions.

What happens if I do not attach a database?

Nothing is saved, and the page says so: the guest sees a message that their reply did not go through, and the Publish dialog warns you first that the form has no database. Attach the database before you send the link. It takes one click once a Neon or Supabase account is connected, and a site that is already online starts saving at once, without republishing.

Will I get an email when someone replies?

No. Replies are kept in your database and listed in Submissions, newest first. Check it, or query the table in Neon or Supabase.

Can I sell tickets?

No. PopCraft does not take payments or sell tickets. The RSVP form collects replies; for a paid event, link the booking button to your ticketing service.

Can I use my own domain?

A site published on PopCraft lives at an address on PopCraft. For your own domain, send the site to a Vercel project and add the domain there.

Can guests spam the form?

The site only accepts a form it actually has, from its own pages, within size limits, and at most 20 submissions in ten minutes from one address. What guests type is stored as data, never run.

THE MANUAL, FOR THE DETAILS

KEEP EXPLORING