Digital invitation for a gala dinner with menu choice

Someone texts you on Wednesday: “Sorry — was it the fish or the beef?” You did send the menu. It went out three weeks ago as a PDF called gala-menu-v3, and now you're scrolling back through the chat to find it. A digital invitation for a gala dinner with menu choice puts the two dishes, the deadline and the reply channel on one page. You can build and send one today from the collection: €29.99, paid once, no subscription.

The menu was never the hard part. The hard part is that the dishes sat in one message, the deadline in another, and the answers in a chat that keeps scrolling. Put all three in the same place and the “what menu was it?” texts stop.

The menu belongs on the digital invitation, not in a PDF

Write the dishes the way you'd say them out loud. “Starter: burrata with confit tomatoes.” “Main: sea bass or sirloin.” If a dish needs explaining, do it in six words instead of calling it a chef's creation. Then put the deadline beside the dishes, not in a separate message, so nobody has to go looking.

• Name both mains plainly: “Sea bass” and “Sirloin”, not “the chef's surprise”.
• Put the deadline in the same scene: “Choose before Friday 14, 6pm”.
• Say where to answer: “Reply to this WhatsApp with A or B.” The invitation holds the information; the reply closes it.
• Add one line for allergies: “Check with the host before Friday.”

How to create a digital invitation for a gala dinner with a menu

Open the collection, filter by style, and pick a design with a dinner scene already built — Cena larga, for instance, or Umbral de cal. Edit the cover in test mode before you pay anything; buying unlocks the remaining scenes.

Then fill in the fields in Joy Studio, in the browser, with nothing to install. Each piece of text has its own field — label, names, date, line, place — plus a character counter, so a long dish name doesn't break on a phone. Add up to six of your own photos; they frame themselves, the cover can be swapped later, and the preview updates as you type. Guests install nothing either: they open the link in a browser and reply from their phone. If your table is mixed-language, the invitation content can be set per language too.

Digital invitations vs a PDF: the difference is the menu and the day after

A PDF freezes the moment you send it. Change a dish, move the time, add a map, and you're sending version four with a note asking people to ignore version three. A digital invitation is a page you keep editing, on the same link — everyone sees the current version and you resend nothing. The second difference shows up the day after: confirmations arrive in an ordered list inside the invitation instead of scattered across chats. If one guest wants paper, combine: link for all, a few printed copies for whoever will keep them.

A menu in a PDF is a file. A menu on the invitation is an answer you can count.

Friday deadline: closing the menu choice without chasing anyone

Set the deadline when you publish and repeat it in the message that carries the link. If someone goes quiet, the invitation stays live — add a line such as “Last days to choose your menu” and it shows up on the same link, with no reprint and no new envelope. Check the confirmation list, message the two or three who haven't answered by hand, and you're done: there are no automatic reminders, so a short personal text is what moves people. Pick a design, write the two mains, set the date, publish — your only job on Friday is counting chairs.