30th Birthday Invitations: A Set Menu With Allergies

On Monday you agree the set menu with the restaurant: three courses, one price, wine included. On Friday a message lands — I can't eat dairy. The kitchen has already ordered for thirty. Now that guest gets plain vegetables while the table works through risotto. It is the most common mistake with 30th birthday invitations and a set menu: nobody asked about allergies.

Nobody asked because the question was never on the invitation. An 'anything you cannot eat?' dropped in the group chat is not the same as naming allergies, and by Thursday it is buried under stickers. Ask in writing, in the same place guests confirm, before you close the menu.

30th birthday invitations: ask about allergies before you close the set menu

On a table of ten you will often find one vegetarian, one person who is not drinking, and someone who cannot eat nuts. Learn that on Tuesday and the restaurant adjusts without a fuss. Learn it on Saturday and someone eats a side salad you already paid for. The deadline is not the party. It is the day you email the kitchen.

• Write the note on the invitation: 'Set menu — tell us about allergies or intolerances when you confirm.'
• Use the word allergy, not just anything you cannot eat. Someone coeliac needs to know whether the sauce has flour, not only to skip the bread.
• Give a date, not a vibe: 'Please confirm by the 10th so we can adjust the menu.'
• Check the replies 48 hours before you lock the order, and go through them one by one.

Write the set menu out dish by dish

'Meat or fish' tells a guest with a shellfish allergy nothing. 'Pork loin with chestnut sauce' tells them whether they need to ask. Real names do the work. If everyone eats the same thing, say so, and mention the gluten-free version or the children's plate even if nobody has asked for one yet.

Add the catering time and the cut-off: 'Dinner at 8.30, menu locked on the 10th.' That single line saves a week of messages. Being specific is not a spoiler. It is what stops twenty people asking the same question in private.

Ask about allergies before you sign off the menu, not after the plates are ordered.

Change the menu without reprinting anything

The restaurant swaps the dessert on the 5th, or you add a line about a nut-free option. On paper that means sixty reprints or a group-chat explanation nobody reads. With a digital invitation the link stays the same and the page changes. Guests open the same URL and see the current version. No app, no download, just a browser.

Keep every reply in one place

A digital invitation lets you set the questions on the confirmation form: name, whether they are coming, and whatever else you need to ask before the day. Guests answer from their phone, on the same page where they read the time and the address. The replies arrive as one ordered list instead of forty scattered messages you have to chase.

Sort the allergies before you lock the menu and you skip the last-minute call to the restaurant. You can build a digital invitation from €29.99, set your own confirmation questions, and share one link that updates whenever something changes.