Christening Invitation Etiquette: A Digital Invitation Guide

You've booked the church, chosen the date, and now you sit with the invitation open, wondering whether the godparents' names go above or below yours. Your phone buzzes: what time is it, what should we wear, is there lunch after. Christening invitation etiquette isn't a mystery. It's three things in the right order. A digital invitation from the Send The Joy catalogue lets you build the whole thing today, name by name, and send it as one link.

The parents invite. The godparents are named. The details are specific enough that nobody has to ask. Get those three right and you can get back to choosing the cake.

Who signs a christening invitation, and in what order

The parents issue the invitation, so their names come first. The godparents follow, with first name and surname spelled out, so there's no confusion between two Marías in the same family. It reads like this: 'Christening of Lucía. Ana and Javier Ruiz, her parents. Godparents: Marta Sáez and Luis Ortega.' If the label makes the line too long, shorten the label, never the name. Each detail has its own field in the editor: label, names, date, line and place, with a character counter that warns you before you publish, not after.

• A clear, complete label: 'Christening of Lucía', not a first name floating on its own
• Parents first, godparents after, everyone with first name and surname written out in full
• Date, time and place on one line, with no abbreviations like 'approx.'
• One place for replies: the link, with the deadline shown on the invitation itself

Dress code, time and place: how to write them so nobody asks twice

'Ceremony at 12:00 at St Andrew's, lunch afterwards in the same place' answers three questions at once. Say the dress code in positive terms: 'light suit, soft colours' lands better than 'no jeans', and much better than 'elegant', which every guest reads differently. Siblings, grandparents and the rest of the family only make the cover if they change something. Eight names turn an invitation into the minutes of a meeting.

If the time, the place, the map or the line changes after you send it, you edit it and the link stays the same. Nobody gets a correction or a second invitation. That goes for a moved lunch as much as for a misspelled surname.

A christening invitation has one job: say who's inviting, and say exactly what happens next.

Why a digital invitation sorts out christening invitation etiquette

Replies land inside the invitation itself, in one ordered list, so you know how many chairs to set without chasing anyone. You choose which questions the confirmation form asks, so you ask what you need for that day and nothing more. It's 100% digital: nothing is printed or posted, so there are no envelopes, no stamps and nothing to reprint when something changes.

Guests open it through a link or a QR code, in the browser on their phone. Nothing to install. If someone doesn't have a phone, a tablet or a computer with a connection, give them the time over the phone and write their reply down yourself.

Three photos and one line beat a long paragraph

You can use up to six of your own photos. Mark one as the cover and swap any of them later; they frame themselves, so you're not fighting with cropping. Keep the line short, and the character counter will tell you when you're drifting. The invitation is built from linked scenes, each with its own words and photos, so you go from 'the parents and the godparents' to 'see you in the garden' without repeating the same block.

With the etiquette sorted, the godparents know what's expected of them and you stop answering the same questions on WhatsApp. A digital invitation from Send The Joy is shared as a link, edited without resending anything, and collects the confirmations in the same place as the information. Try the cover for free and publish once the names are right.