diff --git a/src/date_time_handling.c b/src/date_time_handling.c
index b4178f2..e122540 100644
--- a/src/date_time_handling.c
+++ b/src/date_time_handling.c
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 #include "date_time_handling.h"
+#include "string_handling.h"
 #include <stdio.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include <string.h>
@@ -38,6 +39,26 @@ void pretty_print_date_time(char date_time[]) {
 	}
 }
 
+void marshall_date_time(char date_time[]) {
+	char transformed_string[strlen(date_time)];
+	int j = 0;
+	remove_nl_and_cr(date_time);
+	for (int i = 0; i<=strlen(date_time); i++) {
+		if (date_time[i] != ':' && date_time[i] != '-') {
+			if (date_time[i] == ' ') {
+				transformed_string[j] = 'T';
+			} else {
+				transformed_string[j] = date_time[i];
+			}
+			
+			j++;
+		}
+	
+	}
+	memset(date_time, '\0', strlen(date_time));
+	strcpy(date_time, transformed_string);
+}
+
 void print_end_date(char end_date[]) {
 	// end_date is all day event
 	if (strlen(end_date) == 8)
diff --git a/src/date_time_handling.h b/src/date_time_handling.h
index cb92e19..d76cda1 100644
--- a/src/date_time_handling.h
+++ b/src/date_time_handling.h
@@ -4,4 +4,5 @@
 void get_date(char buffer[]);
 char *get_tz();
 void pretty_print_date_time(char date_time[]);
+void marshall_date_time(char date_time[]);
 void print_end_date(char end_date[]);
diff --git a/src/insert_event.c b/src/insert_event.c
index e1e24f9..f7d2965 100644
--- a/src/insert_event.c
+++ b/src/insert_event.c
@@ -17,6 +17,8 @@ void insert_event(char *file_name) {
 	char uuid_str[37] = "";
 	char dtstamp[] = "YYYYmmddTHHMMSSZ";
 	char *time_zone = get_tz();
+	char *dtstart_buffer = malloc(128);
+
 	remove_until_delim(time_zone, '/', 4);
 
 	printf ("tz is: %s\n", time_zone);
@@ -49,6 +51,10 @@ void insert_event(char *file_name) {
 
 	get_date(dtstamp);
 
+	get_dtstart(dtstart_buffer, all_day_event);
+	marshall_date_time(dtstart_buffer);
+	form_dtstart_string(dtstart_buffer, time_zone);
+
 	seek_cal_end(myfd);
 	write(myfd, "BEGIN:VEVENT\r\n", strlen("BEGIN:VEVENT\r\n"));
 	write(myfd, "UID:", strlen("UID:"));
@@ -57,11 +63,13 @@ void insert_event(char *file_name) {
 	write(myfd, "DTSTAMP:", strlen("DTSTAMP:"));
 	write(myfd, dtstamp, strlen(dtstamp));
 	write(myfd, "\r\n", strlen("\r\n"));
+	write(myfd, dtstart_buffer, strlen(dtstart_buffer));
 	write(myfd, summary_buf, strlen(summary_buf));
 	write(myfd, "END:VCALENDAR\r\n", strlen("END:VCALENDAR\r\n"));
 
 	close(myfd);
 	free(time_zone);
+	free(dtstart_buffer);
 
 	exit(0);
 }
@@ -106,3 +114,45 @@ int binary_user_choice() {
 		exit(1);
 	}
 }
+
+void get_dtstart(char input_buffer[], int all_day_event) {
+	if (all_day_event) {
+		printf("Enter the start date in YYYY-mm-dd format!\n");
+		if (fgets(input_buffer, 128, stdin) == NULL) {
+			perror ("fgets");
+			exit(1);
+		}
+		if (strlen(input_buffer) != 11) {
+			printf ("Wrong format!\n");
+			exit(1);
+		}
+	} else {
+		printf("Enter the start date in YYYY-mm-dd HH:MM:SS format!\n");
+		if (fgets(input_buffer, 128, stdin) == NULL) {
+			perror ("fgets");
+			exit(1);
+		}
+		if (strlen(input_buffer) != 20) {
+			printf ("Wrong format!\n");
+			exit(1);
+		}
+	}
+}
+
+void form_dtstart_string(char dtstart_buffer[], char time_zone[]) {
+	char dtstart_copy[strlen(dtstart_buffer)];
+	strcpy(dtstart_copy, dtstart_buffer);
+
+	// not all day event
+	if (strlen(dtstart_buffer) == 15) {
+		strcpy(dtstart_buffer, "DTSTART;TZID=/freeassociation.sourceforge.net");
+		strcat(dtstart_buffer, time_zone);
+		strcat(dtstart_buffer, ":\r\n ");
+		strcat(dtstart_buffer, dtstart_copy);
+	} else {
+		// all day event
+		strcpy(dtstart_buffer, "DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:");
+		strcat(dtstart_buffer, dtstart_copy);
+	}
+	strcat(dtstart_buffer, "\r\n");
+}
diff --git a/src/insert_event.h b/src/insert_event.h
index d9ce902..316ae60 100644
--- a/src/insert_event.h
+++ b/src/insert_event.h
@@ -3,3 +3,5 @@
 void insert_event(char *file_name);
 void seek_cal_end(int fd);
 int binary_user_choice();
+void get_dtstart(char input_buffer[], int all_day_event);
+void form_dtstart_string(char dtstart_buffer[], char time_zone[]);