Digital invitation: vampire dinner party etiquette

It's 7:40 pm, the pumpkins are lit on the step and the group chat is doing what it always does: 'so is it 8 or 9?', 'fancy dress or not?', 'do I bring anything?'. One friend is already outside the restaurant, reading the reservation board through the glass. The digital invitation is still sitting in someone's drafts, and the evening hasn't started yet.

None of that is a guest problem. It's a wording problem. A digital invitation puts the date, the time, the address and the three things you actually need from people on one page, and you can choose a design from the catalogue, edit the cover for free and send the link today. Before you pay, the cover is yours to play with. After you buy, every scene in the invitation opens up.

A digital invitation writes the time for a vampire dinner once

The time field is where most invitations fall apart. 'Around nine' means 8:45 to one friend and 9:20 to another, and the host spends the first hour of the night answering the same question in three different chats. Write the exact time, the meeting point and the name on the booking, then leave it alone.

• In the time field, write '9 pm, not a minute earlier' rather than 'around nine', which every guest translates differently.
• Eating out? Put the meeting point on the same line: 'we're at the door at 8:55, the table is at 9'.
• Use the reservation name exactly as it is on the booking — 'table for eight, under Marta Ruiz' — not 'the vampire dinner'.
• Settle the bill in one line before the night: 'we split it' or 'this one's on me'.

How to word 'bring your own glass' without a rulebook

One line, one action. 'Bring your own glass.' 'Bring ice.' 'Bring a candle.' Three rules in a row and nobody remembers any of them; one rule and everyone does. A line that works: 'The house does the table, you do the glass. Black glass if you have one.' Concrete, a bit funny, and no orders in sight.

The dress code goes the same way, and it belongs on the cover line next to the event name, not in small print at the bottom. 'Black or nothing' tells a guest exactly what to look for in the wardrobe. 'Elegant with a dark touch' tells them nothing. Then say what's optional: 'capes and plastic fangs welcome, not required'. Nobody turns up in full costume at a restaurant table, and nobody feels underdressed either.

If it matters enough to say at the door, it belongs in the invitation — in one line.

What digital invitations cost, and what you can change later

One invitation costs 29.99 EUR, paid once, no subscription. That covers the whole page: your own text, up to six of your own photos (the pumpkins on the step, the table with candles), music if you want it, and a reply list with the questions you wrote yourself — 'are you bringing someone?', 'in for the glass?'. Guests open the link in their phone browser, install nothing, and their answers land inside the invitation instead of in the chat. Pick a design, try the cover for free and send it before somebody asks the time again.