---
title: 'QR codes on wedding stationery, and where they help'
description: 'Where a code earns its place, where it is clutter, and how to make one that does not look like a parcel label on a table setting.'
source: 'https://envelope.love/blog/qr-code-invitations'
category: 'Sending'
published: '2026-08-13'
updated: '2026-08-13'
---

# QR codes on wedding stationery, and where they help

Where a code earns its place, where it is clutter, and how to make one that does not look like a parcel label on a table setting.

This is the plain markdown copy of https://envelope.love/blog/qr-code-invitations, published by Love Envelope for machine readers. The page itself carries the same words.

A QR code is a link somebody can reach without typing. That is all it is, and it decides everything about where it belongs.

If a guest is already holding a phone, a code is worse than a link, because they have to open a camera. If a guest is standing in front of a printed thing, a code is the only way to get them to a page at all.

## Where a code genuinely helps

- **On a save the date card.** The card holds the date, the code holds everything that has not been decided yet.
- **On a sign at the door.** Order of the day, seating, the taxi number, all without a printed programme per guest.
- **On an order of service.** For the readings, the translations, and the words to the hymns.
- **On a table.** A photo album everybody adds to during the evening.
- **On a thank you card.** Pointing at the photographs.

## Where it is clutter

- **In an email or a message.** The link is right there. A code makes it harder.
- **On the invitation card itself, if the card already carries the address.** Pick one. Two ways to reach the same page reads as indecision.
- **Anywhere without a caption.** A bare square is a thing people do not scan. One line underneath doubles the number who do.

## Making one that suits the stationery

The default black square is a parcel label, and on a place setting it looks like one. A code has more room for design than people assume, because the format carries enough error correction to survive a good deal of interference.

- **Colour.** Use your own ink and your own paper rather than black on white. Contrast is what matters, not the specific colours.
- **Shape.** The modules can be dots or rounded squares, and the three corner markers can be softened separately, which is often the whole job.
- **A mark in the middle.** Small. A quarter of the width at most. A logo eating the centre of a code is why logo codes have the reputation they have.
- **Quiet space.** Leave a clear margin all the way round. Codes fail far more often from being crowded than from being small.

## The rules that stop it failing

1. **Test it printed, not on a screen.** Ink spread and paper texture both change the result.
2. **Test it in the light it will live in.** A candlelit table is a real problem for a low contrast code.
3. **Mind the size.** About two centimetres square is the practical floor for a card in the hand, and a sign across a room needs to be far larger than people guess.
4. **Keep the contrast honest.** A pale code on a dark ground scans on most phones and fails on some older ones. If the code matters, dark on light is the safe way round.
5. **Never point it at a link that could change.** Once it is printed, that address has to keep working permanently.

## The caption

One line, saying what is on the other side. Not *scan me*, which says nothing.

> The order of the day, and where the taxis go.

> Everything about the fourteenth.

A code with a caption gets scanned. A code on its own gets photographed by nobody.

---

Make yours. Six designs, your own words, and one link to send. Free to build, free for a day once it is live. Start an invitation: https://envelope.love/create