Birthday invitations
Make a birthday invitation
A birthday invitation is mostly practical. People need to know whose birthday it is, where to turn up, and — if there are children involved — when to come back.
What changes between a first birthday, a ten-year-old's party and a fiftieth is the tone, not the information. Below is what to include, when to send it, and the templates to start from.
What goes on a birthday invitation
- Whose birthday, and which one
- The age is usually the most striking thing on the card — a big “1” or “50” does more design work than any ornament.
- A start time and an end time
- For a children's party the end time is the single most useful thing on the card. Parents plan their afternoon around it.
- Where, with parking or the gate number
- A flat number, a society gate, or the name of the restaurant's floor. Anything that stops a guest calling you while you are hosting.
- RSVP, and a date to reply by
- Caterers and cake sizes need a number. Ask for the reply a week before you actually need it.
- Anything guests should bring or not bring
- “No gifts please” only works if you write it. So does swimwear, a costume theme, or a note about nut allergies.
When to send it
Six to eight weeks ahead
Milestone birthdays where people may travel or take a day off.
Three to four weeks ahead
A normal adult birthday — dinner, drinks, a house party.
Two to three weeks ahead
A children's party. Any earlier and it is forgotten; any later and the weekend is already taken.
The morning of
A short reminder in the group with the location pin. Attendance goes up.
Wording for different ages
Our little one turns ONE
Aarav
Sunday, 4 October · 11 am to 2 pm
Lunch, cake and a lot of mess
Diya is turning 7!
Saturday, 4 October · 4 pm to 6.30 pm
12 Orchard Road · Games, pizza and cake
RSVP to Meera on 98xxxxxxxx
Fifty years of Rakesh
Please join us for dinner
Saturday, 4 October · 8 pm onwards
No gifts — just come hungry
Design notes
Let the number carry the card. An age set large, in a face with some personality, needs almost nothing else around it — a couple of balloons or a confetti scatter at the edges is plenty.
Children's parties can take bright, saturated colour that would look loud anywhere else. Milestone birthdays usually read better restrained: one deep colour, one metallic, and generous space.
A photograph works beautifully on first birthdays and reunions. Add it, put a circle crop on it, and keep the text well clear of the face.
Which size to make it
- Square invitation1080 × 1080 · 1:1Reads well in a chat thread and needs no cropping wherever it is posted.
- Instagram story1080 × 1920 · 9:16Full-screen for a status, and the easiest thing for guests to re-share.
- Portrait invitation1080 × 1350 · 4:5If you are printing a few for a classroom or handing them out at school.
Birthday templates you can edit now
Common questions
Is the birthday invitation maker free?
Yes. Every template and every download is free, there is no watermark, no trial and no account to create. The editor runs in your browser, so there are no servers rendering your design and nothing that has to be paid for per invitation.
Can I put a photo on the invitation?
Yes. Photos are read on your device and stay in the browser tab — nothing is uploaded to a server. On a phone you can take the picture straight from the editor.
What size should a birthday invitation be for WhatsApp?
A square or a 3:4 image is the safest. Both show fully in a chat preview without being cropped, and both stay legible after WhatsApp compresses them.
How do I print it?
Download the PDF rather than the image. The page is set to the invitation's real size, so a print shop gets exact dimensions instead of having to guess from a screenshot. Choose a portrait or landscape format before you export, not a social one — a story is the wrong shape for a card.
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Ready when you are
No account, no watermark, and nothing to install. Open the editor and change the words.