Fix the font size on the first card and all 84 are fixed. You never edit a page that Bulk create made by hand.
THE WEDDING,
SORTED!
Save the dates, invitations, an RSVP site that keeps every reply, place cards, the order of service and a pile of thank-yous. One wedding's worth of paper, from one file of colours, without a single spreadsheet of replies kept by hand.
The Wedding website with RSVP template in Design. All four widths are in view, then the camera moves down the desktop page: the orchard hero with the couple's names, the date and the place, the weekend as a ruled schedule, and the RSVP form asking for names, email, coming or not, guests, dinner, diets and a song.
I DO!
MEET THE COUPLE
Priya and Sam are getting married in June
Priya and Sam are an example couple, made up for this page, with a very real problem. They have a date, a barn in Somerset, 84 people on a list and a budget that does not stretch to a stationer. Sam's aunt has offered to “do the invitations in Word”. Nobody wants that.
A wedding is not one design. It is about a dozen, spread over a year, and they all have to look like they came from the same couple. The save the date in January has to match the programme in June. The RSVP replies have to end up somewhere better than 84 text threads. And the thank-yous have to go out before the honeymoon tan fades.
Here is how they do the lot in PopCraft, with templates that ship in the app today. Each step links to the feature page that goes deeper, so this page can stay about the wedding.
10
wedding GIF cards, plus an engagement one
5×7
the printed invitation, in inches
4
widths the RSVP site fits: desktop to phone
1
CSV of guests, one place card each
THE PAPER TRAIL
Everything a wedding sends, in order
From the first announcement to the last thank-you. Each stub names the template they start from.
- 9 months out
- 4 months outThe invitationInvitation (5×7) or Invitation (A7), printed
- 4 months outThe RSVP siteWedding website with RSVP
- 3 weeks outPlace cardsBulk create from the guest list
- 1 week outOrder of serviceBi-fold programme
- The day“Just married!”Just married! (confetti GIF)
- 1 month afterThe filmWedding album slideshow
- 6 weeks afterThank-you cardsPostcard 5×7, plus a thank-you GIF
JANUARY
Step one: the save the date
Some guests need a card on the fridge; most read it once in a group chat and put the date in their phone. So Priya and Sam do both from one design. The Save the date card is a 5×7 for the printer: a crown of olive and bay over the names, set large with a gold italic ampersand, then the date, the place and “formal invitation to follow” inside a fine double rule. It has an eighth of an inch of bleed, and an A6 copy for European envelopes.
Its twin, the Save the date post, is the same card animated: the leaves breathe, the blossoms nod and three petals drift down the margins in a 4.8-second loop, with every word already on the first frame, so a chat that shows only that frame still has the date. It comes at 4:5, square and 9:16. They type “14 June, Somerset”, export a GIF from Animate, and send it. Prefer something louder? The GIF cards page has ten wedding cards, from Just married! to Mrs & Mrs.
The “Happily ever after starts now” wedding card in its Watercolour theme, open in Animate and zoomed on the 480 by 480 card. Space plays its four-second loop, and it runs on into a second pass without a jump.
FEBRUARY
Step two: an invitation worth keeping
The invitation is the one people stick on the fridge, so this one goes on paper. The Invitation template is a classic 5×7 card: names in Cormorant Garamond, a line underneath (“invite you to celebrate their wedding”), then the date, the time, the place and the RSVP line. Every one of those lines is a brand field, so they type their own once and it fills in. For a smaller card there is Invitation (A7), sized for the European A7.
Before it goes anywhere, the Preflight tab checks it: text too close to the trim, art that stops short of the bleed, a hairline that will vanish on press, a font that is not loaded. Then they have two ways to print. ⌘P sends it to the printer at home, rendered as a PDF so you get the artwork and not a screenshot of the app. Or they export a PDF with bleed and crop marks for a print shop, which is what they do, because 84 cards on good card stock beats 84 cards that jammed the inkjet. The print and PDF page covers every switch.
FEBRUARY, SAME WEEKEND
Step three: a wedding site that does the counting
This is where weddings usually go wrong: replies by text, by email, by a cousin telling a cousin. Priya and Sam put a link on the invitation instead. The template is the Wedding website with RSVP, and it is everything a guest needs on one page. The hero is an orchard at golden hour, string lights twinkling and petals drifting, beside the names, the date and the two things guests come for: the RSVP and the travel.
Below that: their story beside a photo frame, the weekend as a ruled schedule, the airports, the drive and two room blocks that link out to the hotels, the registry as links out, and the questions guests always ask. The RSVP is a real form: names, email, coming or not, how many, which dinner, any diets, a song that gets them dancing, and the shuttle. Once it is sent, a thank-you takes its place. They swap Iris & Tomás for their own names, recolour it with their kit, and it fits a desktop, a laptop, a tablet and a phone, which is where most guests will open it.
The Wedding website with RSVP template in Design. All four widths are in view, then the camera moves down the desktop page: the orchard hero with the couple's names, the date and the place, the weekend as a ruled schedule, and the RSVP form asking for names, email, coming or not, guests, dinner, diets and a song.
WHERE THE REPLIES GO
Publish, attach a database, read the replies
Click Publish, type an address, and the site is online. Then, in the same dialog, under Database, click New Neon database. With a Neon account connected, that makes a database for the site in your own Neon account, and from then on every RSVP is saved as a row: when it came in and what the guest typed. You read them under Submissions. If you know a little SQL, the data is yours to count however you like: how many vegetarians, how many plus-ones, who has not answered.
Two honest notes. You need to be signed in, and a Neon account is a separate account of yours. And the address is a PopCraft site address unless you also send the site to your own GitHub or Vercel. The publishing page explains both.
The website template in the editor, signed in. The Publish button in the top bar opens the Publish dialog. An address is typed, Publish is clicked, the files upload, and the dialog shows the site's link with Version 1 marked Live. The published site is then opened on its own: the landing page shows, and clicking Pricing in its navigation goes to the pricing page.
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.
MAY
Step four: 84 place cards, one design
Writing 84 names by hand is a lovely idea until about name eleven. Instead they design one place card, put {{name}} where the name goes and {{table}} under it, and open Bulk create. They paste the guest list as a CSV with a header row, and PopCraft makes one page per guest. Print, cut, done.
ANY FIELD
NAME!Name, table, meal choice, a little note. Any column with a matching token fills in. An image layer named {{photo}} takes a picture.
ON PAPER
SNIP!Print them with crop marks on, so the cuts land in the right place.
JUNE, THE WEEK BEFORE
Step five: the order of service
The Bi-fold programme is a folded sheet: the back and the front on the outside, the running order on the inside in two columns. It ships as a spring concert programme, with sections, pieces and composers, which turns out to be exactly the shape of a ceremony. Sections become “The ceremony” and “The reception”. Pieces become the readings, the vows and the first dance. Composers become the readers. The thank-you line on the back stays, because someone did lend them a car.
⌘P, crop marks on, two pages, two sheets. Print it double-sided and fold it in half.
The bi-fold programme template: the outside (back and front) and the inside (the running order) as two landscape pages. ⌘P opens Print; the dialog counts the pages and sheets, and Crop marks is ticked for a printer that trims.
THE DAY AND AFTER
Step six: the film and the thank-yous
On the day, someone posts Just married! in confetti to the family chat. A month later, the photos are back and Sam makes the film: the Wedding album slideshow is a one-minute film with an opening title with their names, three chapter cards (the morning, the vows, the celebration), fifteen scenes cut on the beats of a gentle piano piece made by PopCraft, slow Ken Burns moves and an end card with the date. They drop their photos on the frames and export an MP4 with the music. The motion studio page shows how the timeline works.
Then the thank-yous. A thank-you GIF (there are eight, from Thank you so much in elegant to Thx! in pixel, for the friend who will appreciate it) for everyone who sent a message. A printed Postcard 5×7 for everyone who sent a gift, front and back, with a few lines in their own words.
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.
The Love you more card in its Doodle theme, in Animate. The export button in the transport bar opens Export animation; GIF is picked as the format, showing its shared palette, dither and loop forever settings and the summary of the size, frame count and estimated file size.
HOW IT GOES
The whole wedding in seven moves
- 1
Pick your colours once
Make a brand kit for the two of you: two colours, a heading font, a body font, and text fields callednames,dateandplace. Every template below fills itsbrand/variables from it. - 2
Send the save the date
Print the 5×7 save the date card for the fridge, and export its animated twin as a GIF for the group chat. Same names, same date, same olive crown. - 3
Print the invitation
The 5×7 Invitation has your names, the date, the time, the place and the RSVP line as fields. Fill them, run Preflight, print or send a PDF to a print shop. - 4
Publish the wedding site
Put your names, the weekend and the hotels into the wedding website, publish it at an address of your choosing, attach a database, and every RSVP lands in a table you can read. - 5
Make the place cards
Design one card with a {{name}} token, paste the guest list, and Bulk create makes a page per guest. - 6
Fold the programme
The Bi-fold programme has a cover, a back and the running order inside. Swap the concert pieces for the readings and the songs. - 7
Say thank you
A thank-you GIF for the people who texted, a printed postcard for the people who gave you a toaster.
THE OLD WAY
A stationer, a form builder and a spreadsheet
| THE OLD WAY | IN POPCRAFT |
|---|---|
| A stationer for the invitations, a second for the programme | One kit of colours and names across every piece |
| A form builder for the RSVP, its replies in yet another app | The RSVP is your own site, its replies in your own database |
| 84 place cards written by hand, or in a mail merge that fights you | One design, a pasted guest list, Bulk create |
| A slideshow app for the film | The slideshow template, cut to music, exported as an MP4 |
| A different look on every piece | Change the kit once, every file you apply it to follows |
FAIR WARNING
What PopCraft does not do for your wedding
NO POST
STAMP!PopCraft makes the files. It does not print, address or post invitations. That is your printer, your print shop and the post office.
NO SEATING PLANNER
EDIT!The wedding site takes the RSVPs; it does not seat anyone. Counting the vegetarians and drawing the tables is still on you.
BRING YOUR OWN DB
SAVE!Saving replies needs a database attached on publish, in a Neon account of yours. No database, no saved replies.
START TONIGHT
Do the save the date before bed
Click New file, search for save the date, and open the post. Change the names and the date, export the GIF, and send it. Planning a party that is not a wedding? Plan an event takes the same tools somewhere louder, and greeting cards has every card in the box.
ASKED & ANSWERED
Questions, answered
Is there a wedding website template?
Yes: the Wedding website with RSVP. One page with the story, the weekend as a schedule, travel and room blocks that link out to the hotels, an RSVP form (names, email, coming or not, guests, dinner, diets, a song request), the registry as links out, and the questions guests ask. Publish it, attach a database, and every reply is saved.
Is there a save the date template?
Two that match. The Save the date card is 5×7 inches with bleed, plus an A6 copy. The Save the date post is the same design animated: leaves breathe, blossoms nod and petals drift in a 4.8-second loop, at 4:5, square and 9:16, and it exports as a GIF or a video.
Where do the RSVP replies go?
Into a database of your own. With a Neon account connected, the Publish dialog makes one for the site in a click. Each submission is a row with when it came in and the fields as sent, and you read them under Submissions in the Publish dialog.
Can I print the invitations at home?
Yes. Press ⌘P (Ctrl+P): the pages are rendered to a PDF and sent to your printer. For a print shop, export a PDF with bleed and crop marks, in RGB or CMYK.
What sizes are the invitations?
The Invitation template is 5×7 inches, and Invitation (A7) is the small European card. You can also type your own page size.
Can PopCraft make one place card per guest?
Yes. Put {{name}} (or any field) in the card’s text, paste a CSV with a header row, and Bulk create makes one page per row, ready to print.
Do the GIF cards work in WhatsApp and iMessage?
They are 480 × 480, four-second GIFs that loop forever, made to be small enough for messaging apps. Export them from Animate with GIF as the format.
Does PopCraft print or post anything for me?
No. PopCraft makes the files and the website. Printing is your printer or your print shop, and posting is the Royal Mail, USPS or whoever brings your letters.
THE MANUAL, FOR THE DETAILS
KEEP EXPLORING
Goes great with
I DO! YOUR TURN.
Save the dates, an RSVP site, the programme and the thank-yous. Free to start, in your browser or on your Mac.