Confirmation and Reminder Messages

RSVPMaker can be configured to send an email confirmation message whenever someone registers. You can also specify reminder messages that can be sent to nudge people who have registered to actually show up at your event.

Confirmation Messages

The confirmation message echoes back the registration details the user provided, but it also includes a customizable message. The default message is simply “Thank you!” but you could also provide driving directions or other details the person should know prior to the event.

Confirmation messages are edited as special documents loaded into the WordPress editor, so you can format them with all the same tools.

A link to edit the default confirmation message appears on the RSVMaker Settings screen.

When you are working with an individual event, you will see Confirmation / Reminder Messages as an option on the black admin bar menu that appears at the top of the screen.

Clicking on that menu item will take you to a screen that presents your options for editing or customizing the confirmation message.

The admin bar menu also shows links to the current confirmation and reminder messages associated with the document you are working on.

If the current message is the default from settings, or it’s inherited from an event template, you’ll see an option to customize it.

When you customize a message, you create a copy which you can alter independently of the default message or the version associated with the template. The same is true for customizing reminder messages or the RSVP form.

You can tell you’re editing the default message, if you see Confirmation:Default as the title. The title for the message associated with a specific event or event template will have a title like Confirmation:123 where 123 is the post ID of the related post.

To help with navigation, the default confirmation message shows an admin bar link to RSVPMaker Settings, whereas one for an individual event will show a link back to the Parent Post.

New events you post will use the default confirmation message with the exception of events based on a template. If the event template had a custom confirmation message set, events based on the template will be created with that same confirmation message. In that case, you can still click Customize rather than Edit to create an alternate message for a specific event.

se default documents unless you create custom ones for your event.

You can also create templates for specific types of events, with a Confirmation Message and RSVP Form that may be different from your overall default but will be copied to all events based on the template. (More about event templates below).

Reminder Messages

Visit the Confirmation / Reminders Message screen associated with an event to set up a message that should be sent a specified number of hours before an event.

You can navigate to this screen from the links on the RSVP / Event Options screen or on the black admin bar menu. This is also the page you will return to if you need to edit or cancel reminder messages.

RSVPMaker will create the reminder message as a document loaded into the WordPress editor. A reminder message incorporates content from the confirmation message currently used by that post (default or custom). So if you provided driving directions in your confirmation message, that content will be copied into the initial draft of your reminder message. Edit it into a message appropriate for a reminder, perhaps adding additional details.

The title of the post will become the subject line of the reminder email. By default, it’s in the format “Reminder: Event Title Here [datetime]” — datetime placeholder will be replaced by the event date when the message is sent. Edit the title to say whatever you want to say in the subject line of your reminder message.

Timing of Reminder Messages

At the bottom of the Confirmation / Reminder Messages page, you will see a note on improving the reliability of message scheduling to make sure reminders go out on time. If you find that reminder messages are delayed, there is some technical configuration you can do using Unix cron jobs to make sure RSVPMaker “wakes up” at the appropriate times to send your reminders.

Related Content

See the blog post Navigating RSVPMaker: Event Posts, Options, Messages and Forms