Wedding invitations with a QR code

Why a QR code solves the paper argument

The usual objection to digital invitations is real: there is something about a card arriving in the post that a link does not replicate. And the usual objection to paper is also real: there is no room on it for the map, the timings, the coach schedule and the RSVP.

A QR code ends the argument. The card keeps the part that matters as an object — your names, the date, the feel of the thing — and the code carries everything that would have needed four more pages.

Where couples actually put the code

On the invitation itself is the obvious one, usually on the back so it does not fight with the design. But it works just as well on a sign at the entrance, on the order of service, on the table plan, or on a small card in each place setting.

A sign at the reception is the one most people underestimate: it is where guests ask about the coach back, and a code saves someone having to answer the same question forty times.

Printing it so it actually scans

About 2 cm across is enough for something held in the hand. For a sign people scan from a few steps back, bigger is better — a code too small for the distance is a code nobody uses.

Keep decent contrast and some white space around it. A code printed over a photo, or in a pale colour on a pale background, often fails on older phones even when it looks fine to the eye.

What the guest finds on the other side

The complete invitation: ceremony and reception with a map, the running order, coach times and stops, the RSVP form, the gift list and the photo gallery.

And because it is the same link as everything else, a guest who scans the code in April and opens it again in September sees the current version both times, including the photos added after the day.