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Draft, published, completed: an invitation's life cycle
By Nimanto 2 min read
In short
A new invitation is a draft: nothing is sent and plan limits do not apply. Publish makes it live at its own link and starts sending. It stays live through the event and is Completed a day after the date; a week later its date, title and design lock.
Every invitation moves through the same stages. Knowing them tells you what guests can see and what you can still change.
1. Draft
Creating an invitation makes a draft. Its Overview says Draft.
- Nobody is contacted. Guests you add are not e-mailed until you publish.
- The link does not open for anyone yet.
- Drafts are unlimited; plan limits apply only at publish.
- Preview it, add guests, set RSVP rules and change anything, as often as you like.
2. Published (Live)
Publish on the Overview makes the invitation live at its own link and says Live.
- Guests with an e-mail address get their invitation straight away. The two automatic reminders are scheduled.
- The invitation needs a date before it can be published.
- A premium design, intro or effect is paid at this moment unless your plan includes it. See Paying to publish.
- Your plan must have room for another active invitation, unless the invitation holds a paid premium design, which gets its own place. See What counts as an active invitation?.
Each publish saves a version. Guests always see the latest published version, never your working draft. Changes to the words, pages or look reach guests only when you publish again; guest-list, RSVP-rule and album changes reach them at once. Republishing is free and never e-mails a guest twice. See Editing after publishing.
3. Unpublished
Unpublish under More takes the invitation offline and back to a draft. Guests see "This invitation isn't available". Guests, replies and payments are kept, reminders pause, and publishing again restores the same link.
4. Completed
A full day after the event date the invitation reads Completed. It stays online for guests, but it no longer counts as one of your active invitations. The morning-after summary arrives by e-mail. See The event summary and thank-you.
5. Locked
A week after the event date, a published invitation's date, title and design lock. A past invitation cannot be moved to a new date or renamed, so a paid design cannot be recycled. For a new occasion choose Duplicate under More: the copy keeps the design and your words, with no date, guests or replies. See Unpublish, duplicate or delete.
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