Digital Invitation: Birthday at a Restaurant, Set Menu

You've booked the long table. Twenty-eight adults, six kids, and the manager quoted you a set menu per head. Before you send anything you need two numbers: what the menu costs, and who has to know about the nut allergy. A digital invitation takes care of the second one — you write the allergy line once and everyone reads it. You can build one today from the Send The Joy catalogue and send the link the same afternoon.

The maths isn't the hard part. The chasing is: twenty WhatsApp replies, someone who forgets to say they're bringing a partner, and a cousin who mentions on the day that she can't eat gluten.

Birthday at a restaurant with a set menu: start with the numbers

Call the restaurant before you design anything. Ask for the price per person and exactly what it includes: bread, drinks, dessert, and whether there's a supplement for allergy-friendly plates or a children's menu. Multiply the adult price by the adults, add the children, and that total is your base. The invitation doesn't change any of it — the menu price is the menu price.

• Get the price per person, the menu options and any supplement for allergies or a children's menu in writing, so you can check it later.
• Multiply the adult price by the adults, add the kids, and write the total down somewhere you'll find it again.
• Decide the exact allergy wording now: 'Allergies and intolerances: tell Marta before 10 May.'
• Confirm time, address and map link before you publish, so nobody knocks on the wrong door.

Allergies don't belong in the RSVP form

An RSVP is a yes or a no with a name attached. Turning it into a medical questionnaire makes people uncomfortable and doesn't help the kitchen either. Put one visible line in the invitation itself, with who to contact and by when. If the restaurant needs the detail in a particular format, leave their number or the organiser's contact on the same screen.

If the deadline moves or the contact changes, edit the invitation. The link stays the same and shows the updated version — no sending the message again one person at a time.

A set menu is paid per person. An invitation is paid once. Keep those two numbers apart and the budget stops being a guess.

One digital invitation, €29.99, however many guests

The menu goes up when the restaurant raises its prices. Your invitation doesn't: it's €29.99 per invitation, one-off payment, no subscription, and it isn't multiplied by guests or by confirmations. You can try the cover free in Joy Studio before paying; buying unlocks every scene.

Guests install nothing. They open the link in a browser and reply from their phone. Confirmations land inside the invitation, in one ordered list, instead of scattered across chats. You set the RSVP questions yourself — keep them to names and numbers, and leave menus and allergies on the channel the restaurant asks for.

Before you ring twenty-eight people one by one, close the menu and work out the extra. A Send The Joy invitation is €29.99 per invitation, one-off payment. Try it free, write your allergy line, check the map link, publish, and if the menu changes later you edit it without reprinting a thing.