Home by Nine
The dishwasher is running before the last guest finds her coat.
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 collectionA dinner party invitation with a finish line on it. Everyone arrives while it is still light, which means the roast is already resting and the table is already set. There is one bottle on the table and a second one that stays in the cupboard. Conversation starts at the table instead of in the doorway, because nobody is waiting for the room to fill.
Dessert goes out with coffee, the coffee is decaf, and the plates get stacked at the table while people are still talking. Coats come off the bed. The driveway empties in one go, not in three waves. Guests say it was the best thing they did all month, and most of them mean the part where they got to sleep.
What goes on it
Every line replaceableThe wording on this card
The Whitfields invite you to an early evening.
NO EXCEPTIONS
Dishes by eight. Lights out soon after.
Friday, December 4, 2026 · 8:30 PM
THE WHITFIELD HOUSE · 26 Cardinal Lane, Durham, NC
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
- Cook backward from the end, not forward from the door Pick the hour the evening closes and work the menu back from it. Anything that needs forty minutes of attention after guests arrive belongs on a different night.
- Put the finish time on the invitation and mean it A stated end is a kindness: people book the sitter, plan the drive, and arrive on time because the evening is not open-ended. Honor it yourself and nobody has to be the first to leave.
- One bottle on the table Decant something good and keep the backup out of sight. A second bottle is a request for another hour, and the hour is not available.
- Clear in a single pass Stack plates at the table as people finish and carry everything out at once. A quiet kitchen at the end of the night is the entire point of starting early.
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.
Start with this invitation when TinselVite launches on iPhone and Android. How it works · Pricing
If you liked this one
More adult party invitations
Designed in the TinselVite studio. Never clip art. The artwork and layout come with the invitation; the wording is yours to replace.