Birthday invitation

Flash On, Camera High

A clothespin wire runs the length of the room, and it fills before anyone sits down.

Black silk card with gold rope trim and a swag of fairy lights. An instant photo in a white frame hangs from two wooden clothespins with a handwritten date. Pink script reads Flash On; gold capitals read ZOE'S 20TH BIRTHDAY, with the venue below.

Part of the TinselLux™ collection: invitations in stitched leather, tufted velvet, linen and satin.

The material is the card: linen with a visible weave, velvet with a nap, leather with its grain. It costs the same as every other invitation.

See the collection

A birthday invitation to a night run entirely on film. The overheads stay off. One lamp is pointed at a pale wall, a wire is strung from one corner to the other, and every guest is handed a camera on the way in with a fixed number of shots and no way to check them.

The prints come out grey and then arrive. Someone pegs the first one up, and after that the wire is where the party stands. The last hour is people reading white borders, arguing about who took what, and quietly taking one down to keep.

What goes on it

Every line replaceable

The wording on this card

Please join us for
ZOE'S 20TH BIRTHDAY
Saturday, February 6, 2027 · 7 PM
THE DARKROOM LOUNGE · 27 Shutter Lane, Focal Bend, MN
Cameras provided. Phones welcome.

Every line of the wording is an example, and yours to replace. The title is painted into the artwork. Type your own and it is drawn again with your words.

What to actually tell people

Ration the film Two or three shots per guest, handed out at the door rather than left in a bowl. A bowl is empty in nine minutes.
String the wire before anyone arrives Eye height, along a wall, with the clothespins already on it. Keep it away from the drinks table so nobody reaches across a print.
Light one wall and leave it alone A single warm lamp aimed at a pale surface gives you a place where faces read. Everywhere else can stay dark, which is the point.
Put out a marker The white border under each photograph is for a name, a time, or one line of testimony. It is also how guests know which one is theirs at the end of the night.

Start from this one

The artwork
Keep this one, or describe your own party and get artwork drawn for it.
The wording
Every line on this card is an example, the painted title included. Change all of it; the design holds.
Sending
By text, from your own number. Guests open a link. Nothing to download.
The price
One credit for the invitation. Six guests or sixty, the number does not move.