Digital Invitation for a Christening Lunch at a Restaurant

Twelve days before the christening, the restaurant's maître calls: how many children, what ages, and can anyone at the table not eat what's on the set menu. You have six yeses in your head, three unread threads and no straight answer. A digital invitation for a christening lunch won't choose the menu for you, but it stops the same question arriving five different ways. You pick a design from the catalogue, fill in the fields, publish it and send the link the same afternoon.

From there it's a short list of jobs in a fixed order: the children's menu first, the allergies second, and every confirmation collected in one list you can actually read.

Close the children's menu before you send anything

The children's menu is what moves the bill, so settle it with the restaurant before the invitation goes out. Count children by age band, not by head: six three-year-olds eat differently from three twelve-year-olds. Ask two questions straight out — is there a maximum age for the children's menu, and from what age do you charge an adult cover?

• Ask for the age bands: some places charge the children's menu up to 8, others up to 12, and some switch to an adult cover around 10.
• Find out what the children's menu includes and whether they do half portions. Croquettes and ice cream may be fine for a five-year-old and thin for a twelve-year-old.
• Agree one channel for menu changes. If every family rings the restaurant on its own, the maître ends up with three versions of the same table.
• Set a date with the restaurant for final numbers and for the child-to-adult split, and write it down before you send anything.

Allergies: a name, a dish, one person in charge

'Various allergies' is not information. Write it as a line you could hand straight to the kitchen: Marta, coeliac, needs gluten-free bread and separate preparation. Ask each family for the name, how serious it is and what that person can eat.

Then call the restaurant and ask how they handle it. Shared frying oil, traces in a sauce, a dessert that arrives already plated: ask before you promise anything. Put the summary in writing 72 hours before the lunch — one sheet with table, name, allergy and alternative dish. That sheet is what stops 'I thought it was lactose-free' halfway through dessert.

A digital invitation for a christening keeps the RSVPs in one list

The invitation is its own web page, not a PDF. You share a link or a QR code, guests open it in the browser on their phone — nothing to install — and confirm from there. The answers arrive inside the invitation in an ordered list, so you're not copying names out of four WhatsApp chats. And if the restaurant moves lunch from 14:00 to 14:30, you edit the time and the link stays the same: nobody gets a second message, everyone sees the updated version.

Close the menu with the restaurant first, then send the invitation. The other way round costs you a second round of phone calls.

The order that keeps menus and allergies from mixing

Run it in that order: menu and price per cover with the restaurant, then the digital invitation with the RSVP switched on, then a call to the families who said yes. Keep allergies on their own sheet, hand the maître one document with table, name, allergy and chosen dish, and don't forward screenshots of conversations. If you want every confirmation in one place instead of scattered across chats, create your invitation from the catalogue, publish it for 29,99 EUR and edit it later without resending anything — the link never changes.