Birthday invitation

Official Summons

A roll is called at the door, and latecomers are entered into the record.

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

This birthday invitation treats an eighteenth as a matter of public record, and the party follows suit. Guests arrive in red, give their names at the door, and sign a single sheet that will be read out later. The room is set as one long table rather than scattered seating, because everything that happens tonight is meant to be heard from both ends of it. The wax seal gets peeled off the envelope by half the guests and stuck to the back of a phone case.

Three friends have been asked to give testimony, two minutes each, on the subject of the guest of honour. There are exhibits: a school photograph, a receipt, a screenshot nobody has seen since. The wooden spoon comes down on the table when someone runs long. The verdict arrives with the cake, and it is the same verdict every time.

What goes on it

Every line replaceable

The wording on this card

You are invited to celebrate
Maya's eighteenth birthday
Saturday, March 27, 2027 · 2 PM
THE DOCKET HALL · 18 Docket Street, Writ Falls, OH
Failure to appear will be noted.

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

Keep the roll Put one sheet of paper and a decent pen at the door and have every guest sign in. Read the names out before cake, including the ones who arrived after the testimony started.
State the colour Cherry red, any amount, worn anywhere. Say it once in plain words so nobody turns up in a full costume, and keep three red items by the door for the people who forget.
Book the testimony in advance Ask three people a week out, two minutes each, one exhibit apiece. Unprepared speeches run eight minutes and are always about the speaker.
Appoint a bailiff One person handles the door, the music and the wooden spoon so the host is not doing it between courses. Give them the sign-in sheet and the running order on paper.

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.