Just because invitation

The Annual Excuse

The blaze orange gets worn to the kitchen table and no further.

Just because invitation: Forest-green suede card: a mounted moose on a leather plaque, pine trees, a thermos and duck call. Cream type reads THE ANNUAL EXCUSE above an orange STANDS OPTIONAL tag, with date and 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 just because invitation for the weekend at camp that happens every year whether or not a single animal is involved. Trucks come up the gravel road in the dark, bunks get claimed in the order people arrive, and the woodstove takes most of the first hour. There is a moose on the wall that nobody present shot and a brass duck call on a leather loop that gets blown exactly once, indoors, to general complaint.

The alarm is set for five and honored by three people. Two of them make it as far as the porch with a thermos and stay there until the light comes up over the ridge. By nine the stands are still empty, the cards are out on the folding table, and a pot of something has been put on for one o'clock. Everyone goes home sunburned on one side of the face and completely satisfied with the trip.

What goes on it

Every line replaceable

The wording on this card

Official business of
TEAM HOLLIS
Saturday, November 6, 2027 · 6 AM
PINE RIDGE CAMP · 9 Timber Creek Rd, Antler, WI
Coffee at dawn. Nap by nine.

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

Set the coffee the night before. Two pots and the thermoses filled and capped before anyone turns in. A five o'clock alarm is survivable when the only thing it asks of you is the porch.
Post the stand roster, and leave half of it blank. Pin a sheet by the door with times and names on it. Anyone planning to sleep until nine should be able to not sign up without explaining themselves twice.
Send the gate code with the directions. Signal drops past the turnoff, so the code, the mile marker and the name on the mailbox need to be in hand before anyone leaves town. Ask for the headcount the same way, early.
Assign the bunks in advance. The cabin sleeps fewer than people remember, and the one who drives up at midnight should not be deciding anything at midnight. Put the snorers in the back room and say so out loud.

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.