Event lifecycle
Follow your event from Draft to Live to Past. Learn how publishing and visibility work, how guest access changes after the event, and how long your page stays live.
Follow your event from Draft to Live to Past. Learn how publishing and visibility work, how guest access changes after the event, and how long your page stays live.
Every Rendezvous event moves through a natural lifecycle. You create it, refine it, publish it, run it, and eventually let it settle into the past. Knowing what happens at each stage helps you understand exactly what your guests see — and what you can do — at any moment.
The good news: nothing you build ever disappears. Your guest list, photos, RSVPs, and analytics stay with you for good, even long after the event is over.
Your event can be Draft, Live, Past, or Archived. You can see the current stage on the pill at the top of your event's manage sidebar (Draft, Live, or Past).
Choose Save draft for later during setup to start in Draft. Think of this as your private workspace — nothing is visible to guests yet, so you can experiment freely.
In Draft, you can:
What guests see:
When you make your event visible, it becomes Live. This is the active stage — your page is accessible and your guests can RSVP, post, vote, and read your updates.
While your event is Live, you can:
What guests see depends on your visibility setting (more on that below).
Once your event date has passed, the stage automatically becomes Past (the manage pill flips on its own — it reads the event's end time, or its start time if you didn't set an end). Your page stays live for guests to revisit, and a few things settle into place:
From the editor under Event page, press Publish to make a saved draft live. It stays private to invited guests by default. Saving edits later keeps the current live edition unchanged until you publish again. You can restore a saved version from Versions, review it, and publish it when ready.
Your event has a name and date. Add a location and welcome message if you know them — you can fill these in later.
Your page design is complete. Preview it and check that every block looks right on both desktop and mobile.
Your plus-one limits and the Maybe response are set the way you want them. See RSVP settings.
For a private event, your guests are added with the correct email or phone. See Managing guests.
Choose who can see the page (see below).
When you're ready, press Publish in the page builder. Use Event page → Details & access to change who can see your event.
Visibility controls who can reach your event page. Guests who sign in and match your guest list always see the full details. You'll find the Visibility picker under Event page → Details & access in your manage sidebar, with three choices:
| Setting | Who can view the page |
|---|---|
| Public | Anyone with the link can view it, signed in or not. Best for open events, meetups, and pages you want to share widely. Public events work on every plan, Free included. |
| Private | Only your invited guests can view the full page. Visitors sign in first, and Rendezvous confirms they're on your list before showing details. This is the default. |
| Draft | The page is hidden from everyone except you and your co-planners — the same as before you went live. Switch back here any time to take your event offline temporarily without losing a thing. |
For a deeper look at how guests get in — their personal link, or the email or phone you have for them confirmed with a one-time code — see How guests get in and RSVP settings.
Need a break, or want to make changes out of sight? Set your visibility back to Draft in Event page → Details & access. Your page goes dark, but nothing is lost — your design, guests, and responses all stay exactly as they were. Switch back to Public or Private whenever you're ready.
After your event, your page keeps doing its job — gathering photos, holding the feed, showing the memories — free for 3 months. We measure that window from your event's end time (or its start time, if you didn't set an end).
When the free window closes, your event automatically moves to archived. Here's what that means:
You don't have to wait for the automatic window to close. Once your event has wrapped and you no longer need it front and center, you can archive it yourself. Archiving:
Open Event page → Details & access and choose Archive event. To bring it back, find it under Archived in your event list, open Event page → Details & access, and choose Restore event. It returns as a draft; review it and publish again when ready. Only the owner can archive or restore an event.
Co-planners follow the same lifecycle stage as you. They can preview Draft events, watch Live analytics, and open Past event data — all within the limits of their role. Only the owner can keep an event live past the free window, delete it, or transfer ownership. See Co-planners & team access for the full breakdown.