Birthday Paella Invitations: 60 Guests, One Price

There are 60 people in the group chat, the cook wants a number by Thursday, and your brother says he thinks you're about 50. That is where birthday paella invitations stop being a design decision and turn into arithmetic.

Get it wrong and you're either buying rice for people who never replied, or serving 58 from a pan built for 45. Settle the count first. Starters, dessert, seating, the second batch of rice: every one of those follows from that one figure.

The number first, then the rice

Divide before you phone the cook. If the budget is 1,200 EUR and 48 people confirm, that's 25 EUR a head. If 60 confirm, it's 20 EUR. Same pan of rice, two different prices per guest. That one division is also what tells you whether a dessert course fits or the drinks list needs trimming.

• Count the people who reply yes, not the people you invited. The difference between 44 and 58 guests is the difference between one batch of rice and two.
• Put in writing what the per-head price covers: rice, drinks, bread, dessert, table and chairs. A birthday in a Valencia patio doesn't cost the same as a country house where every table is rented.
• Set a cut-off date and answer late replies yourself. Every yes that lands after it moves the number the cook is working from.
• Send the cook the exact figure and the exceptions separately. 'Some guests can't eat everything' tells a kitchen nothing.

What a birthday paella invitation has to ask

A group chat of 60 people doesn't produce a number. Some reply with an emoji, some say 'probably', some never see the message. A form that asks for a straight yes or no, plus how many adults and children are coming, does produce one, and it all lands in a single list you can read out over the phone.

Set your RSVP questions around what you actually need to know: how many are coming, whether children are included, whether anyone will arrive late. Answers appear inside the invitation, in order. If it clouds over at 11 and the paella moves to the porch, you edit the invitation and the link stays the same, so nobody is left with the old address. Guests open it in a browser on their phone, with nothing to install. And if part of the family reads another language, the invitation text can be set per language.

Rice for 45 or rice for 58 is the same recipe and a different bill. Everything else follows from how many people answer.

Allergies get asked one at a time

An invitation collects confirmations, not medical histories. For intolerances and allergies, message or call the six or seven people you already know about, on one chosen afternoon, and write it on a separate note: no shellfish, no gluten, no nuts. That note goes into the cook's hand, not into the invitation.

What it costs, and what it saves

The invitation costs 29.99 EUR, paid once. No subscription. Compare that against printing 60 cards, buying envelopes and posting them, plus the ones that never arrive, and the fact that a printed card can't be updated when the time changes.

If someone in the family wants paper, the sensible route is mixed: the link for everyone, two or three printed copies for the people who'll keep one in a drawer. Before paying, you can try a design for free and edit the cover, so you choose with the colours of the set table in front of you instead of a catalogue thumbnail.

With the confirmed count in front of you, the price per guest and the amount of rice stop being a surprise. Build your birthday paella invitation, try the design for free, and send the link with the exact time you light the fire.