Text 01 · Day of, ASAP
VENUE CHANGE: now The Cedar Room, 218 King St, Camden - NOT the Grange Hall. Ceremony still 4pm today. Map: {Link:new-venue}
Day-of, address first1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Wedding guest texts
How to tell wedding guests the venue changed
Send one mass text with the new address in the first line - 'VENUE CHANGE: now Harbor House, 400 Harbor Rd' - keep it to a single SMS segment so it can't arrive split, and phone anyone who's already driving before you hit send. Everything below is built around those three moves.
Guests may be moving
🚨 The day-of re-route
The address is the message. Every text here leads with the new venue, names the old one once so nobody drives there on autopilot, and fits a single segment so it arrives as one message, in order, on every phone.
Text 02 · Day of, ASAP
Hi {GuestFirstName} - venue change today: we're now at Harbor House, 400 Harbor Rd. Doors 3:30, ceremony 4pm as planned. Map: {Link:new-venue}
Day-of, with map link1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 03 · Day of, ASAP
Dear {GuestFirstName}, please note a venue change for today: the ceremony will now be held at Harbor House, 400 Harbor Rd, at 4pm as planned.
Day-of, formal1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 04 · Day of, guests en route
URGENT from Priya & Dev: NEW venue is The Boathouse, 12 Lake Rd - not Willow Farm. 4pm as planned. Reply OK so we know you've seen this.
Guests mid-drive1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 05 · Day of
Ceremony is still at St Mark's at 2pm - only the reception has moved. New address: The Fig Tree, 88 Vine St, from 6pm. Map: {Link:reception-map}
Reception-only move1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 06 · Day of, after the re-route · Hotel-block guests
Parking for the new venue: city lot on 3rd St, free after 2pm. The hotel shuttle now leaves at 3:15 instead of 3:30. Map: {Link:shuttle-map}
Shuttle & parking update1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
One text, one segment, everyone re-routed
The free planner has an urgent mode for exactly this: type the new address, watch the live segment counter, and copy the text the moment it fits in one - so it can't arrive split into parts on anyone's phone.
Days to months out
🗓️ Week-of and advance changes
With days in hand you can afford a warmer text - but the shape holds: new venue early, what hasn't changed spelled out, website link last. Update the website before the text goes, not after.
Text 07 · 5 days out
Hi {GuestFirstName} - venue update for Saturday! We've moved to the Linden House, 45 Orchard Lane, Beacon. Same date, same times. Map and details: {Link:wedding-website}
Week-of change1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 08 · 6 days out
Venue update from Maya & Sam: Saturday is now at the Linden House, 45 Orchard Lane, Beacon. Times unchanged. Details: {Link:wedding-website}
Week-of, brief1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 09 · 2 months out
Dear {GuestFirstName}, we are writing with a change to our wedding on June 14: the celebration will now be held at Elm Court, Salem. All times are unchanged, and our website has the updated details: {Link:wedding-website}
Months out, formal2 segments · GSM-7Personalize
Text 10 · 2 months out
Plot twist, {GuestFirstName}: same wedding, better venue! June 14 has moved to Elm Court in Salem, times unchanged. Take the tour: {Link:wedding-website}
Months out, upbeat1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Forecast calls
⛈️ Weather moves and backup plans
A weather move is the easy venue change: usually the same address, just a different room. Say where indoors is, keep the times, and if the call isn't made yet, tell guests exactly when it will be.
Text 11 · Day before
Weather update for tomorrow: the forecast won, so the ceremony moves inside to the Fairview Ballroom. Same address - enter via the main lobby. Times unchanged.
Indoor move, day before1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 12 · Wedding morning
Plan B is ON! Rain moves the ceremony under the pavilion - same address, follow the signs from the parking lot. Still kicking off at 4pm sharp.
Backup plan activated1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 13 · 2 days out
Eyes on the sky: if the storm holds off we're outdoors as planned; if not, everything moves into the barn at the same times. Final call by text at 9am tomorrow.
Forecast heads-up1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Same place, new time
⏰ Ceremony start-time changes
Same rules as an address change: the new time is the first fact, and you say what hasn't moved. Name both times - 'now 3pm, not 4pm' - so nobody has to remember what the invitation said.
Text 14 · Day of, ASAP
Time change for today: the ceremony now starts at 4:30pm, not 4pm. Same venue, doors still open 3:30 - the bar is open while you wait.
Day-of delay1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 15 · 5 days out
Hi {GuestFirstName} - one change for Saturday: the ceremony now starts at 3pm, an hour earlier, to catch the light. Doors open 2:30. All else is the same!
Moved earlier, week-of1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
Text 16 · 4 days out
Dear {GuestFirstName}, please note that Saturday's ceremony will now begin at half past four rather than four o'clock. The venue and reception schedule are unchanged.
Start time, formal1 segment · GSM-7Personalize
First, the triage
Text everyone now, or call first?
Thirty seconds of triage before any wording: the right move depends entirely on where your guests are right now.
If: Guests are already travelling to the old venue
Call your closest people first, then send the one-segment text to everyone.
Split the job: one of you (or the best man or maid of honor) phones parents, the wedding party and anyone you know is mid-drive, while the other sends the mass text. Then post a person - or at minimum a sign - at the old venue to redirect anyone who never looks at their phone.
If: Nobody has left yet
Send one mass text now, new address in the first line.
Don't wait for perfect wording - the address IS the message and everything else is optional. Send it, update the wedding website in the same five minutes, and follow up with parking or shuttle details in a second text once the re-route has landed.
If: The change is weeks or months out
Text everyone, update the website, and fix any unmailed paper.
A text plus a website update reaches every guest the same day. If invitations haven't mailed yet, correct them before they go; if they're already out, a printed insert or follow-up card is a nice touch but the text and website carry the correction - nobody reprints a mailed invitation for a venue change.
The rules
What a venue-change text must do
Every example above follows the same five habits. Keep them when you rewrite the wording in your own voice - especially the first two, which are the difference between a re-route and a pile-up.
1
New address in the first line
A lock screen shows roughly one line of a text. If that line is 'So sorry for the late notice...' the one fact guests need is hidden behind a tap. Lead with 'VENUE CHANGE:' and the full street address; feelings go at the end or not at all.
2
One segment when guests are moving
A day-of text must fit a single SMS segment - 160 GSM-7 characters - because a long message splits into parts that can arrive out of order, and 'part two' of an address is useless. That's what the live counter under every example is for.
3
Name the old venue once
'NOT the Grange Hall' snaps guests out of autopilot. Plenty of people will glance at a text, register 'venue', and still drive to the address they memorized - naming the old place is what stops them.
4
Say what hasn't changed
'Same time - 4pm' or 'times unchanged' kills the follow-up questions before they start. A venue change with no mention of time reads as 'everything is up in the air' and your phone will spend the afternoon proving it.
5
Cover the phones you can't reach
A text is the fastest channel, not a guaranteed one. Pair the mass text with a short call list - grandparents, anyone on a landline, anyone mid-flight - and a redirect person or sign at the old venue. The text does 95% of the work; the call list does the 5% that matters most.
Easy to get wrong
Mistakes that strand guests at the old venue
Every one of these comes from a real re-route that went sideways. None are wording problems - they're delivery problems, which is why they're so easy to make under pressure.
✕
Burying the address mid-message
The classic panic text opens with the story - weather, the venue's plumbing, how sorry you are - and puts the new address in sentence four. Guests skim, catch 'change', and text back 'wait, where?' 40 times. Address first, story never.
✕
One emoji that splits the text
A single emoji flips the whole message from GSM-7 to UCS-2 encoding, dropping the single-segment limit from 160 characters to 70. Your 150-character re-route suddenly sends as three parts that can arrive out of order. Day-of texts are a no-emoji zone.
✕
Forgetting the wedding website
Half your guests will double-check the website before they leave - and if it still shows the old venue, your text now looks like the mistake. Update the site in the same five minutes as the send, and make the text's link point at the corrected page.
✕
Three sentences of apology before the facts
Apologizing is lovely; apologizing before the address is dangerous. 'We're so sorry, we know this is stressful, we can't believe this either' is 100 characters spent before any guest learns where to drive. Save it for a hug at the reception.
Try it
Get your re-route text to one segment
Drop in the new address and details, and the counter shows the moment your text fits a single SMS segment - so it lands as one message, in order, on every guest's phone. Nothing you enter leaves your browser.
Venue-change textOne send, one segment — readable from the car
82 of 160 GSM-7 characters · sends as 1 segment · measured with tokens resolved
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Keep exploring
More on texting your guests
Wedding guest text plannerYour dated send plan, free, with live segment counts→Postponed or cancelledWho gets a call, a text, or a card — then the wording→Personalizing guest textsMerge tokens that resolve per guest, not [Name] blanks→Text length & segmentsWhy 161 characters sends as two messages→Texting-guests etiquetteWhat's fine by text, and what still needs paper→Delivery, opt-in & opt-outWill it land, will it cost them, can they leave→
Good to know
Venue-change questions couples actually ask
Do I text everyone, or just out-of-town guests?
Everyone, in one send. Local guests are just as capable of driving to the old venue as travelling ones - more, because they'll go from memory instead of a maps link. The only split worth making is who ALSO gets a phone call: parents, the wedding party, anyone already en route, and anyone you know won't see a text.
What if someone doesn't see the text in time?
Plan for it instead of hoping: keep a short call list of must-not-miss guests and phone them after the text goes out, ask a couple of guests to confirm in their own group chats, and station a person or a clearly worded sign at the old venue with the new address and a phone number. A 'Reply OK' line in the text also shows you exactly who hasn't seen it yet.
Should we call instead of texting?
Call first, text always. A call is faster for the ten people who matter most, but a text is the record - it's the version of the address guests can re-read in the car and tap to open in maps. The working pattern is both at once: one of you starts the call list while the other sends the mass text.
Do we need to explain why the venue changed?
One clause, at most - 'due to flooding at the Grange Hall' - and only if it helps guests take the change seriously. Anything longer costs characters your address needs and invites a hundred sympathetic replies while you're trying to run a re-route. The full story is a great reception anecdote.
How do we reach guests without smartphones?
A plain-text address works on every phone that can receive SMS, which is why these examples spell out the street address instead of relying only on a maps link. For guests on landlines or no phone at all, that's exactly what the call list is for - and they're usually the same guests a family member can bring along.
You have the plan.
Now let it send itself.
Text My Wedding schedules every send on its date, resolves the merge tokens per guest, and collects the replies — so seven or eight dated texts never have to leave your notes app by hand.