Digital invitation: what to put on a gala dinner menu

It's Tuesday morning and the chef calls: the beef fillet is off, there's sea bass instead. Your gala dinner is in eleven days. The invitations went out a fortnight ago, one guest has already asked whether the sauce contains nuts, and another wants to know if there's anything besides the main course. None of that is a crisis, because the menu doesn't have to live on a printed card. Pick a design, try it for free, and send a digital invitation for a gala dinner today.

Here's what goes on the menu, what to leave out, and where to send the questions you'd rather not read in a form.

What goes on a gala dinner menu in a digital invitation

Four lines are enough: aperitif, starter, main course, dessert, each with a name a guest recognises. No recipes, no photo of every plate, no list of the six herbs in the sauce. If the kitchen swaps the fillet for sea bass, you open Joy Studio, change the wording, and everyone clicking the same link reads the updated menu. Keep the detail in one short note underneath: 'No nuts in any course' or 'Vegetarian option available'.

• Aperitif, starter, main course and dessert, each with a clear name.
• One note for allergens: 'No nuts in any course.'
• 'Vegetarian option available', not a second menu nobody can picture.
• A date and a channel: 'Allergies or intolerances, message us before 10 May.'

Allergies and options: what you write down and what you ask separately

A confirmation form is not a medical record. Keep allergies out of it and use the channel you already use with these fifty people: one message, one reply, one line on your own list. Nobody's medical details end up in something everyone can open.

Wording matters as much as the question. 'Vegetarian option available' tells a guest they'll be fed. 'Vegetarian menu' makes them expect a parallel five-course dinner, and then they message you to confirm the details. Say the first, keep the second for the kitchen.

A clear menu answers four questions before your guests ask them: what we're eating, when we sit down, what if I don't eat meat, and who do I tell about the nuts.

How to create digital invitations for a gala dinner, step by step

Choose a design from the collection, open Joy Studio in your browser — nothing to install — and build a scene, something like 'Long table', to hold the menu. One field per item: heading, names, date, phrase, place. The character counter stops a long dish name from breaking the layout, and the preview updates while you type.

Leave RSVP to attendance and the questions you genuinely need answered; confirmations arrive in an ordered list inside the invitation instead of scattered across three chats. Publish with one button. The link never changes, so a later edit to the time, the venue or the dress code reaches everyone without a resend.

Dress code and the pace of the evening

'Black tie', 'Lounge suit' or 'Dark suit' — pick one and write it on a line a guest can't miss. If the evening has parts, say the order: after dessert, a toast, then dancing. People choose their shoes and book their babysitter from those two lines.

When the menu is clear, dinner starts before anyone sits down. A digital invitation from Send The Joy costs 29.99 EUR as a one-off payment, no subscription: you publish the menu, change it whenever the kitchen changes its mind, and collect replies in the same place. Create yours and show the menu the way it deserves.