Digital invitation: wedding dress code in plain words

Picture it. A message lands at 11pm: 'What's the dress code for Saturday?' You sent a digital invitation three weeks ago with the date, the map and the menu. The wedding dress code is in there somewhere, buried in a paragraph between the RSVP button and a note about parking. Your friend read it on a bus, skipped that bit, and has already bought a green dress for a wedding with earth tones. That's a wording problem, not a design problem, and you can fix it today: pick a design from the catalogue, write the dress code on its own line and send the link before dinner.

The answer isn't a longer paragraph. It's fewer words, in the right place, on a page you can still edit after you hit send. Below are lines you can copy, and the three details that decide what people actually wear: the hour, the ground under their feet and what happens if it rains.

The hour and the setting already are the dress code

A wedding at 18:00 on a lawn in golden light asks for earth tones, linen and shoes that don't sink. A 13:00 lunch in a hall with blue carpet forgives a lot more. Look at your venue before you write a single word of dress code: the place tells your guests more than the label does.

• 18:00 garden, golden light: earth tones, linen, block heels.
• 13:00 lunch indoors: light suit, no tie, sandals are fine.
• Grass, sand or cobbles: add 'comfortable shoes, thin heels will sink'.
• Black tie in an August heatwave: keep it, but say where the shade and the fans are.

How to write the wedding dress code in a digital invitation

Short beats complete. 'Light suit, no tie' gets read; a three-line explanation of smart casual gets skipped. Write it once, say it out loud, cut the second sentence. Then look at it on your own phone at arm's length — that's how your guests will see it.

And if the venue changes or the forecast turns? Edit the invitation. The link stays the same, so nobody re-sends an envelope or scrolls back through a chat to find the old version. Digital invitations keep one address for the whole event: time, map, dress code and replies in the same place.

Say what to wear, where they'll be standing and what happens if it rains. Three facts, no orders.

Three lines that work, one that annoys your aunt

'Outdoor ceremony, comfortable shoes, light suit' says what, where and how in eight words. 'Black tie — the garden decides the dress length' keeps the label and warns about the ground. 'Earth tones, we're on grass' gives a reference without giving an order. What not to write is 'come as you are': your aunt turns up in a navy skirt suit, someone else in shorts, and the group chat spends the week asking questions. Set the dress code in the invitation while the venue is confirmed, check it on your phone, then publish. It's €29.99, one payment, and the replies arrive in a list inside the same invitation.