How to Create an Event Registration Form in WordPress

Looking for a WordPress event registration plugin? Here it is! We'll show you how to create an event registration form in WordPress for free!

Approximate read-time: 5 mins

If you want to create an event, you'll need to create an event registration form. Luckily, with the right WordPress event registration plugin, this couldn't be easier!

Today we are going to show you how to build an event registration form for free with an awesome plugin that does much more than just events. We're talking about our plugin: Formidable Forms.

Formidable is a WordPress form builder plugin on steroids. It will definitely help you to create your event registration form with ease. After we show you how to create your form, we'll show you a few ways Formidable can make your WordPress site handle the entire event administration process!

Formidable Forms is the best WordPress Form Builder plugin. Get it for free!

First, let's get started building your event registration form.

Making your event registration form

In today's step by step tutorial, we are going to show you how to create a free event registration form. on your WordPress website.

Here are the steps involved:

Install and activate Formidable Forms
Create your event registration form
Build your new form
Set up an email notification
Publish your new form

1. Install and activate Formidable Forms

The first thing we need to do is install the free version of Formidable Forms. To find us, search the WordPress.org plugin directory from your WordPress admin area.

Install and activate the plugin and let's move to step 2!

2. Create your event registration form

Now we'll create a form to use for your event.

In the WordPress admin, go to Formidable → Forms and click Add New at the top of the page.

Then, click Create Form under 'Blank Form'. Name your form and click Create. Now it's time to start building the form.

3. Build your new form

Here's the fun part: building your event registration form. We'll need to add all the right form fields to make sure you collect the required info from your attendees.

Adding form fields in Formidable is easy, just drag the fields from the left column

Here are the form fields we suggest for an event registration form:

Text fields: Use these fields to collect names, addresses, and organization/company information.
Phone number field: Use this to collect... phone numbers of course!
Email field: Use the email field to collect email addresses in the correct format.
Dropdown field: Use this field to let attendees select the number of tickets they want to reserve.
Radio buttons: With this field, you can ask a question like "How did you hear about our event?" to collect some basic marketing info.

Add those fields and click the Update button once you are happy with what you've created. You can also preview your form by clicking the Preview button. For reference, here is what our premium event registration template looks like:

4. Set up an email notification

The next thing we want to do is create an email notification. This will trigger when an attendee successfully completes your event registration form.

The confirmation email you send will vary depending on your event, but you might want to include the following:

Confirmation: Of course, you'll want to confirm that the attendees are confirmed and will be able to attend the event.
Event info: The event location, dates, times, and schedules would be handy to reference easily from an email.
Ticket info: If you have a system to automatically generate ticket info, you can place that in the email too.
RSVP info: If you require guests to RSVP, include that in your email.

No matter how you set up your email notifications, your Form Settings page on the Actions & Notifications tab.

5. Publish your new form

Now all that's left to do is to publish your event registration form. Typically this is done on an event registration page. Although, if you want, you can publish the form in any post, page, or even widget area using your form's shortcode.

From your Form Settings page, just copy the shortcode and paste it where you want to appear. You can paste the shortcode into any text editor on your site. This includes any WordPress page builder that you are using.

Formidable Premium version: event registration features

While you will be able to use the free version of Formidable to create your event registration forms, the premium versions are well worth a look. This is especially true for those of you who run a lot of events (online events or offline events).

Event registration form templates

Formidable's premium versions come with dozens of form templates to make building your forms even easier. Included amongst them is the event registration form template.

Payments for selling tickets

If you want to run an event with paid tickets, you'll need to activate some payment gateways on your forms. With Formidable, you can accept payments with Stripe, Paypal, Authorize.net, or integrate with your WooCommerce setup. Ticket sales will never be better!

User registration system

Formidable Forms includes an advanced user registration system in its premium versions. It may not seem like much, but a user registration add-on can take your pre-event experience to a whole new level.

You'd be able to create a front-end area on your site where users could connect with each other before the event, for example. Having a user registration system would also make managing your event attendees a much simpler process overall.

Events calendar (Views)

The Formidable Views feature had a wide variety of uses. In a nutshell, Views allow you to take your form data and display it anywhere on your site. One application for this? An events calendar.

Advanced integrations

If you already use an email platform like MailChimp or ActiveCampaign, you're in luck Formidable Forms can integrate into those systems seamlessly. It also integrates with CRM platforms like Hubspot and Salesforce.

Wrapping up

That's all there is to it! Using Formidable as an event plugin, you can create a free registration form to use however you want. Upgrade to Formidable premium and take your event managing to a whole new level. If you are running recurring events, this is an awesome solution.

Not to mention the fact that you could use Formidable to create contact forms and everything else you site needs! We hope you've enjoyed today's article. For more WordPress tutorials, check out the Formidable Forms blog. Have a great day!