Overview
Quick Events
Create a simpler event in minutes and send a premium mobile-first invitation. Capacity, waitlists, RSVP deadlines, and follow-ups, on the same guest profiles as your largest events.
Free for existing Gatsby customers
The dinner for twelve never felt worth the full event builder.
So it went to a consumer invite tool, and the guest list went with it. Six months later nobody can tell you who came, and the RSVP never made it onto the contact record. Quick Events gives those events a flow of their own without moving them out of Gatsby.
A separate, narrower flow
Create Quick Event opens a four-step surface instead of the full event builder. Curated choices, no landing-page editor, no campaign setup.
A real event underneath
Same guest profiles, same RSVP statuses, same permissions, same events list. Quick Events changes the interface, not the data.
Don’t see Create Quick Event? Quick Events is in limited release and enabled per organization. Email us and we’ll turn it on for your team. Until then, nothing about your existing events changes.
Step 1: Details
Section titled “Step 1: Details”The essentials, and nothing else. Event name, Starts, Time zone, and Location are required. The end time defaults to two hours after the start, and a short note is optional.
The timezone is shown on the guest page, so someone reading the invitation in another region sees the time correctly.
Filling in the Details Step
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Enter the Event name. The header updates to the name as you type.
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Set Starts, and adjust Ends if two hours isn’t right.
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Pick the Time zone. This is what guests see on the invitation.
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Choose In person or Online:
In person requires a selection from the address suggestions, which is what produces the precise View map link on the guest page. Typing an address without picking a suggestion isn’t accepted. Editing the address after you’ve picked one clears it and asks you to pick again.
Online takes a Zoom, Google Meet, phone, or plain link. The guest page shows a labelled join link instead of a map.
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Add A short note if you want one. Around 200 characters, with a counter.
An event is either in person or online. Quick Events doesn’t do both at once.
RSVP Settings
Four controls, grouped together on the Details step. All default off except Maybe.
| Setting | Default | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Capacity limit | Off | Caps how many guests can accept. Turning it on reveals a Max guests field. Off means unlimited. |
| Waitlist | Off | When capacity is reached, new acceptances go to the waitlist instead of being turned away. |
| RSVP deadline | Off | Closes RSVPs at a date and time. Shown on the guest page while RSVPs are still open. |
| Offer Maybe | On | Gives guests a third answer. Turning it off hides the Maybe button and disables its label field in Design. |
Only guests with an Accepted status count against capacity.
Step 2: Design
Section titled “Step 2: Design”Pick a template and make it yours. There are six, each with its own typeface set, color palette, and arrival animation: Dinner, Garden, Gala, Soirée, Happy Hour, and Celebration.
You get the typefaces and colors that belong to the template you picked, not a free font list and a hex picker. Every palette is pre-tuned, so no combination comes out unreadable.
Choosing a Template
Browse with the ‹ and › arrows beside the preview. The name, its occasion tag, and a row of dots show where you are in the set. The preview updates as you browse.
Once invitations have gone out, Design keeps a marker of which template is actually live. On the published one it reads Published, live now. Browse to a different one and it reads Published: [name], Save to switch, so you always know what your guests are seeing.
Adding Your Logo
Upload a PNG or JPG. Transparency is preserved and the image is resized for you.
The logo sits in a wide slot at the top of the invitation and is scaled to fit rather than cropped. On a dark template where a dark logo would disappear, Gatsby puts a subtle backing plate behind it so it stays legible. Remove returns to the no-logo layout.
Typeface, Color, and Button Labels
Typeface is the shortlist belonging to the current template. The title and the RSVP prompt follow your choice.
Color theme is the template’s palette. Picking one sets the accent used on the RSVP button and the dividing rules.
Button labels rewrite the Accept, Decline, and Maybe copy. “Count me in” and “Can’t make it” read better than Yes and No for some events. Leave a field empty to fall back to the template’s wording.
If Offer Maybe is off, the Maybe label field stays visible but dimmed, with a link back to Details to turn it on.
Step 3: Guests
Section titled “Step 3: Guests”Build the list the way you always do. Type names, pull from your contacts, use a saved group, paste a block of addresses, or import a CSV. It’s the same guest-adding tools as the rest of Gatsby.
Every guest gets a personal RSVP link that belongs to them and isn’t transferable. Statuses update live as answers come in, using Gatsby’s normal RSVP vocabulary and colors.
RSVP Statuses
| Status | Color | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Accepted | Green | Coming. Counts against capacity. |
| Declined | Red | Not coming. |
| Maybe | Orange | Tentative, if you left Maybe on. |
| Invited | Blue | Invitation sent, no answer yet. |
| Waitlist | Purple | Accepted after capacity was reached. |
| No Response | Grey | On the list, not yet invited. |
The Public RSVP Link
Off by default. Turn it on and you get a shareable link anyone can register through, useful when you want a partner to forward the invitation.
Public sign-ups count toward the same invite total as everyone else. Turn the toggle off and the link stops resolving.
Accepting Someone Off the Waitlist
Waitlisted rows have an Accept off waitlist action that moves the guest to Accepted and offers to send the standard confirmation email.
This is manual in this release. Gatsby doesn’t promote people automatically when a spot opens. You can accept someone off the waitlist even when capacity is already met; it’s treated as a deliberate override.
Step 4: Invite
Section titled “Step 4: Invite”One premium invitation that mirrors the guest page you designed, with the logo, accent, and typeface carried across so the email and the page look like the same object.
You write the subject and a short message. The date, location, and RSVP button are added for you, and a live preview sits beside the form as you type.
Sending, Scheduling, and Testing
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Set Send from. This is your linked Google, Outlook, or SendGrid address. The number of guests who’ll be invited shows underneath it.
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Write the Subject.
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Write the Message. There’s a 300-character limit with a counter, and you can personalize it with merge tags like
{firstName}. Bold, italic, underline, lists, and links are available. There’s no full email editor and no marketing mode. -
Choose Send now, or Schedule and pick a date and time.
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Optionally Send test to me. A test creates no invitation records and doesn’t touch your guests.
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Send. Gatsby creates one invitation per guest in a single operation.
You can’t send with an empty guest list. Sending only targets guests who haven’t been invited yet, so nobody gets the same invitation twice.
The Confirmation Email
When a guest accepts, they get the Quick Events confirmation email, which matches the invitation.
If your organization has set org-wide default emails under Team Settings, those don’t apply to quick events. The quick-event templates win on purpose, so the confirmation matches the design you picked. The per-event switch for whether to send a confirmation at all still works normally, and waitlist joins get the waitlist confirmation.
The invitation and the RSVP
Section titled “The invitation and the RSVP”The page opens with a short arrival animation, then the invitation: your logo, the event name, the date and time with its timezone, the location, and your note. In-person events get a View map link. Online events get a labelled join link instead.
Answering takes one tap. Afterwards the page hands the guest their own link so they can change their answer later without going through you.
Every RSVP State
Open
Accept, Decline, and Maybe, using your labels. If you set a deadline, an “RSVPs close [date]” line appears.
Nearly full
A restrained note that spots are limited. Buttons stay active. Gatsby never shows an exact remaining count or a countdown.
Full, with a waitlist
Accept is replaced by Join the waitlist. Decline stays available and Maybe is hidden. Joining sets the guest to Waitlist and sends the waitlist email.
Full, without a waitlist
An “Event full” message and a single disabled button. No RSVP actions.
Closed
Past the deadline, or closed manually. An “RSVP closed” message and no actions.
Personal and Public Links
Personal links are unique to one guest and aren’t transferable. Forwarding one doesn’t give someone else a seat under their own name.
The public link is a separate, optional link for open registration. It only works while the toggle is on.
Both are short and work on your custom domain as well as on gatsby.events. Existing RSVP links for your other events are unaffected.
Accessibility and Motion
The arrival animation can be tapped to skip and plays once per guest. If a guest’s device is set to reduce motion, the page skips straight to its final state.
Delivery, resends, and follow-ups
Section titled “Delivery, resends, and follow-ups”The Invitations step becomes Invitations & Follow-Ups. Delivery statistics sit on one side and a follow-up composer takes the main pane.
Gatsby distinguishes a mailbox that was temporarily unavailable from an address that doesn’t exist, and only offers a resend where a resend can actually work.
Reading Delivery Stats
Four numbers: Delivered, Opened, Accepted, and Failed. When nothing failed, the Failed count isn’t emphasised and no failure list appears.
Failed recipients are listed with a reason:
Temporary failure
A full mailbox or a server that was briefly unavailable. These get a Resend action, and a bulk Resend failed covers the group.
Undeliverable
The address doesn’t exist. These show “Undeliverable, check the address” with an Edit address action and no resend, so you fix the typo instead of sending into a void.
Following Up by Answer
Pick a group and Gatsby writes to exactly those people. Each shows a live count, and a group with nobody in it is disabled rather than hidden.
| Group | Who’s in it |
|---|---|
| Accepted | Everyone coming |
| Declined | Everyone who said no |
| Maybe | Tentative answers |
| No RSVP | Never invited, plus invited without an answer |
Each group has a suggested note you can load in one click, edit, and send. There’s a fifth template for a post-event thank-you to the people who came.
Every follow-up carries a calendar invite automatically. Following up never changes anyone’s RSVP status.
Personal or Branded Style
A Personal / Branded toggle under the message.
Personal sends a plain email from your linked address, the way you’d write it yourself.
Branded wraps the same text in the event’s design, using the typeface and colors from your quick event.
Switching between them keeps your text. Nothing is lost either way.
Inviting People You Added Later
Adding guests after the first send gives you a Send to new guests action covering only the people who haven’t been invited. It’s deliberately separate from follow-ups and from resending failures, so there’s no way to accidentally re-invite the whole list.
Editing after you’ve sent
Section titled “Editing after you’ve sent”Details and Design stay editable, with an amber reminder that invitations are already out. Changes commit when you press Save Changes, not as you type.
Because the guest page reads live data, a saved edit is visible to anyone who opens their link. Emails already delivered keep the details they were sent with.
Changing the Date, Time, or Location
These are the changes guests need to know about, so Gatsby asks.
Saving a new date, time, or location shows a prompt with the old and new details side by side. You can Send change notice to everyone already invited, whatever their answer, or Skip.
Skipping is a real choice, not a trap. The guest page still updates either way. Use it when you’ve already told people directly.
Switching templates only warns you. It never sends a notice.
Setting Defaults for Your Team
Admins can set a house style once under Team Settings › Event Defaults, in Default Quick Event Design: template, logo, typeface, palette, and button labels. New quick events start from it, and anyone can still change any of it per event.
Changing the default doesn’t alter quick events that already exist. If no default is set, new events start from Gatsby’s.
The same page holds your organization’s Default Emails, which apply to standard events but not to quick events.
Common Questions
Section titled “Common Questions” How do I get Quick Events turned on?
It’s in limited release and enabled per organization. Email us and we’ll switch it on for your team. While it’s off you won’t see a Create Quick Event button, and nothing about your existing events changes.
Can a quick event do seating, check-in, or ticketing?
No. Quick Events covers invitations, RSVPs, capacity, waitlists, and follow-ups. Seating charts, name badges, door check-in, paid ticketing, documents, tasks, and post-event surveys are full-event features. For an event that needs those, create a standard event.
Can I convert a quick event into a full event?
Not in this release. If an event grows past what the quick flow covers, create a standard event for it. Your contacts and their history are shared across both, so nothing about the guests has to be rebuilt.
Do plus-ones work on quick events?
No. Capacity counts one seat per accepted guest. If you need plus-ones, guest-of-guest registration, or a registration form with custom questions, use a standard event.
Do RSVPs from a quick event reach the contact record and our CRM?
Yes. A quick event is a real Gatsby event on your real contacts, so attendance and RSVP history land on the profile and flow to your CRM through the same integrations as everything else.
Can I remove the Powered by Gatsby mark from the guest page?
No. It appears on every quick-event page and always in Gatsby’s own green, never your accent color. For a fully unbranded page, use a standard event with a custom landing page on your own domain.
Why don't my organization's default emails apply?
Quick events use their own confirmation and waitlist emails so they match the design you picked. This is intentional and only affects quick events. Your defaults still apply to every standard event.
Does someone get promoted automatically when a spot opens?
Not in this release. Waitlisted guests stay put until you use Accept off waitlist on their row. Automatic promotion is planned.
What happens if someone forwards their RSVP link?
A personal link is tied to one guest and isn’t transferable, so forwarding it doesn’t create a seat for someone else under their own name. If you want people to be able to pass the invitation along, turn on the public RSVP link.
Can I duplicate a quick event?
Yes, and the copy is a quick event too, keeping its design and its capacity, waitlist, and deadline settings. Check In Guests doesn’t appear in a quick event’s menu, since check-in isn’t part of Quick Events.