QR code on a wedding invitation: size, placement, and the traps to avoid

QR codes have become standard on invitations for a simple reason: a 15-centimetre card can’t say everything. The ceremony address, the reception venue, the timings, the shuttles, the hotels, the gift list, the RSVP deadline. The QR code bridges the card, which ends up on the fridge, and everything that doesn’t fit on it.

It still has to work. A code that’s too small, low-contrast, or pointing at an address that will change means a hundred invitations printed for nothing. Before sending the file to the printer, check the following.

Where the QR code should point

To a page whose address won’t change, and whose content can. That’s the whole point: the shuttle time moves, the list of hotels grows, the directions get clearer, and the invitation printed four months ago stays right.

• A wedding website: timings, addresses and RSVP, all in one place
• Not a PDF: it doesn’t update, and it’s hard to read on a phone
• Not a form on its own: guests want the address and the time as well, not just to reply
• Not a link shortened by a third-party service: if it closes, your invitations lead to an error

The trap of “dynamic” QR codes

It’s the most common problem, and the least visible. Many online QR code generators, including ones that call themselves free, create a code that holds their address instead of yours, which then redirects to yours. Handy for them: they count the scans and can switch the redirect off.

And sometimes they do: at the end of a trial, when a subscription isn’t renewed, or when the service closes. Your guests then scan an invitation that leads to an advert or an error page. A “static” QR code, which contains your address directly, doesn’t have that problem: it works for as long as your page exists.

The right size and the right contrast

1. At least 2.5 cm square2 cm is an absolute minimum; 2.5 to 3 cm reads easily, even with an older phone or dim lighting.
2. A white margin around itThe “quiet zone”: the width of four of the code’s small squares, with no text or pattern. Without it, the phone can’t find where the code starts.
3. Dark on light, never the reverseA burgundy code on cream works. A cream code on burgundy, much less well. Avoid gold foil, which shines under lights and becomes unreadable.
4. A vector or high-resolution fileSVG or a large PNG: a code enlarged from a small image goes blurry at the edges, and phones hesitate.

Where to put it on the card

On the back, or at the bottom of the front, where it doesn’t compete with your names. Always with a caption saying what people will find: “All the details and your RSVP”. One line is enough. A code without a caption looks like a barcode, and nobody scans a barcode out of curiosity.

Add the address in plain text, small, under the code. Some guests don’t scan, out of habit or because their phone doesn’t do it natively. A short, readable address lets them type it, and proves the code really leads to you.

The test before printing

Print a proof at full size, on the chosen card if possible, and scan it with three different phones: a recent one, an old one, an Android and an iPhone. Under evening room lighting, not just in daylight. If one of the three hesitates, make it bigger.