Digital invitation for a 40th birthday: what it costs

The list lives in your notes app: 60 names, four of them with a question mark next to them, and the restaurant wants a number by Friday. Your 40th is in October and you still haven't asked anyone for a postal address, because chasing 60 addresses for one dinner sounds worse than the dinner itself. This is where a digital invitation does the job: one page you send as a link, €29.99, paid once. You can pick a design, put your name and your date on it and send it today from the catalogue.

Below is what that €29.99 actually covers, what happens when the plan changes three weeks later, and the one situation where paper still makes sense at 40.

What a €29.99 digital invitation for a 40th birthday includes

The price is per invitation, paid once. No subscription, no renewal fee, and it doesn't move with the size of the list: 30 guests and 90 guests cost the same, because the price doesn't depend on how many people you invite.

• One payment per invitation. No monthly fee, no charge to keep it live, same amount whether the table seats 30 or 90.
• The event page itself: the wording, names, date, phrase and venue, plus music and a confirmation form you configure yourself.
• Up to six of your own photos, cover and decorative, that frame themselves. You choose which one is the cover and you can swap any of them later.
• A free trial before you pay: in test mode you edit the cover without buying, so you see your name and your date in place first. The full set of scenes unlocks when you purchase.

Digital invitations for a 40th birthday: one link instead of 60 envelopes

You don't collect addresses. You send a link by WhatsApp, or drop a QR code in the cousins' group. It opens in the browser, nobody installs an app, nobody saves a PDF into Downloads and forgets it. The friend in Leeds and the aunt in Cádiz see the same thing at the same second.

When someone asks what time it was again, you forward the same link: the time, the map and the dress code are all in there. And you can still edit after sending — change the hour, the venue or the phrase and the link stays exactly the same. If the restaurant moves your table to 9:30pm, you correct it in the editor and nobody turns up an hour early. No reprint, no new envelopes, no awkward 'sorry, wrong address' message. Confirmations arrive inside the invitation in one ordered list, with the questions you set, so closing the menu doesn't mean scrolling back through a chat.

One payment, one link: change the time or the venue after sending and nobody has to be told twice.

Paper or digital invitations for a 40th birthday: five checks before you pay

Paper keeps a small role at 40, just not for the whole list. If you want something to hold, the sensible mix is a link for everyone and a few printed copies for the people who'll actually keep them. Be straight about the rest: a digital invitation needs a phone, tablet or laptop with a connection. If the party is in a farmhouse with no signal, ring the four people who never check their email and leave the link for everybody else.

• Check whether it's one payment or a subscription. A low price with a monthly fee gets expensive by month three.
• Ask if you can edit after sending and whether the link stays the same, or you'll be resending the whole thing.
• Make sure confirmations land inside the invitation, not in a separate inbox nobody remembers to open.
• Count the photos included and whether you can replace them when a better one turns up.
• See if you can try it free before paying. Editing the cover without buying beats designing blind.

If the date is fixed and the list is people you actually want in the room, the next step is to build the invitation and send a single link. Start now: choose a design, set the names, date and photos in the browser, preview it at no cost and publish for €29.99 when it looks right. By Friday you'll have a number for the restaurant.