Invitations
Pro & Expert
When it matters who is asked — collectors, VIPs, press, artists — you send an invitation: a personal invite to a named guest, with its own link and its own tracked response. For a route anyone can use, share a booking link instead; both can run on the same event, and inviting your priority guests personally before the public link opens gives the people who matter most first choice of places. Guests who confirm count against your monthly free-guest allowance, then credits — see Billing and credits.
Sending invitations
- Open the event’s Guestlist and choose Invite Guests.
- Add recipients: type them in (a Name is required; Email and Mobile are optional), import a CSV, or pick from your contacts and lists. A mobile number needs a country code, for example +44 7700 900123. You can add or change the number later from the guest’s invitation: open it and choose Edit. When you import a CSV, include a phone column and map it; a number without a country code is skipped and does not fail the import.
- Choose how to deliver:
- Send your invites — compose the invite email (subject, body, personalisation variables, banner), send a test, then send. Sending has a short hold so you can cancel a slip.
- Copy your invite link or Download your invite links — take each guest’s personal invite link and send it through your own channels: a personal email, WhatsApp.
- Save & send later — the invites sit at Pending until you send them.
Each invitation carries a unique link where the guest confirms or declines, and replies update the guest list immediately: Invited becomes Confirmed or Declined. The link is personal and single-use — once it has been used to book, reopening it shows your invite-used message rather than a fresh booking form.
If your organisation has an invitation-text automation, sending the email (or logging a contact) also texts the invite over WhatsApp, with SMS as a fallback. That needs the Mobile number on the invitation. The wording is ARTSVP’s invitation template, not the email you composed, and each invitation is texted once. See Automations.
Golden invites
Some guests you cannot say no to. A director arrives with a collector in tow, a lender asks for two more places on the morning of the opening, an artist wants their gallerist beside them. A Golden invitation books past a full event: capacity no longer applies to it, so the guest is admitted even when every slot has gone and the public page is showing your sold-out message.
Open a guest’s invitation from the event’s guest list and set Golden to “Yes”. It applies to that one invitation, not to the event, so a full house stays full for everyone else.
Golden also books the guest in the ordinary way on an event that would normally hold them back: on a register-interest or waitlist event, a golden invitation confirms a place rather than joining the queue.
One thing to be aware of: an invitation’s settings lock once it has been used to book, so mark it Golden before you send it, not after the guest has tried.
Golden and Skip payment are separate
The two settings sit next to each other and answer different questions.
| Setting | What it changes | Leaves alone |
|---|---|---|
| Golden | Capacity. The guest books into a full event. | Payment: they still pay for a paid ticket. |
| Skip payment | Price. The guest sees no prices and no payment step. | Capacity: a full event still turns them away. |
Use either, both, or neither. A complimentary place at a sold-out opening needs both: Golden to get them in, Skip payment so they are not charged.
Tip: Keep a couple of Golden invitations in reserve rather than raising capacity for one guest. Capacity is a promise to everyone; a Golden invitation is an exception to it.
Chasing replies
Resend an invitation from the guest’s panel, or bulk-send to everyone still Pending from the guest list. Each invitation can be emailed up to 5 times in total. The invite email template lives in the event’s Settings → Emails tab and can be customised again before each send — see Event emails.
Guests without email addresses
A guest invited with no email still exists on the list at Pending. Use their invite link to reach them another way, add the email later and send, or add a Mobile number if you send invitation texts.
Keep reading: Guest List · Booking links · Event emails · Automations