Big Top Template — Complete Guide

Big Top turns your invitation into a day at the circus. A striped tent stands at the top of the page under a string of pennant bunting, and the velvet curtains of its entrance part to show your cover photo. Beside it (under it on a phone), your event name glows on a marquee sign framed with light bulbs, with a ribbon across the top that calls "Roll up, roll up!", and the date, time and place are printed on a ticket from the booth.

Big Top is one of Fotify's simpler designs: its look comes from one tent colour you choose — classic red by default, or any colour at all — striped with cream, and one of three styles.

This guide covers how Big Top looks, the options unique to it, how to apply it to your event, and how it lays out each section of your invitation.

Big Top is available on every plan, Free included.

For an overview of the template gallery and the picker, see How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation.

What makes Big Top different

Standard templates change colours and fonts over the same shared layout. Big Top replaces the layout itself: its own cover and closing, its own section heads, and its own treatment of the message, countdown, gallery, story, programme and reply.

Signature design elements

• The big top — a striped canopy with a scalloped valance and a pennant on its pole, over a striped wall with an arched entrance. Its velvet curtains open once when the page loads and are tied back with a gold cord, showing your cover photo. Without a cover photo, the entrance shows the circus ring under a spotlight with a gold star
• The marquee — your event name in a Victorian circus-poster face on a sign framed in gold and lit with a ring of bulbs, which chase around it when Twinkling lights is on
• Pennant bunting — strung across the top of the cover, over the gallery, at the end of the page and in miniature under every section title
• Tickets — the date, time and place on a ticket with punched notches, and the reply form on an admit-one ticket handed out of the box office
• One tent colour, three styles — vintage poster paper and gold, a bright carnival, or soft pastels for a baby's first birthday
• Circus typography — Rye, a Victorian circus-poster face, for the names, titles and numbers; Nunito, a friendly rounded sans, for the reading text
• Always readable — whatever colour you pick, even a pale yellow or a near-black, the text and the buttons are adjusted until they read clearly

When to choose Big Top

Big Top suits a party with a sense of fun:

• Kids' birthdays — a circus or carnival party, with the age in the gold star on the marquee
• First birthdays — the Pastel baby style softens the tent and lights a white marquee, and the star holds a "1"
• Carnival parties and school fairs — the Bright carnival style with a primary-colour bunting
• Family celebrations — a summer fête, a grandparent's birthday with the grandchildren in charge, a christening party with a circus theme

Whatever the occasion, the photos your guests take matter as much as the invitation. Guests can scan the event QR code and add their photos to the shared gallery. See how Fotify works for birthdays and parties.

For a hardback picture book, try Storybook. For a sticker party, try Confetti. For a retro ice-cream parlour, try Sprinkle.

Applying Big Top to your event

1. Open your event, click Invitation in the sidebar, then the Invitation tab
2. In Design Template, click Change template if the gallery is collapsed, and find Big Top under Designs (it is listed under the Birthday filter, and under Party too)
3. Optional: press Try it on to see Big Top with your own invitation details in the live preview — nothing is saved until you press Use this design
4. Or click the Big Top card to apply it straight away
5. Open Big Top options below the gallery to pick your tent colour and the other options described below. Changes save automatically

Big Top works on every plan. On free events a small "Made with Fotify" badge appears in the bottom corner of the invitation; any paid plan or an active subscription removes it.

Switching to another template later is non-destructive: your event content stays exactly as you entered it, and your Big Top options are kept in case you switch back.

Big Top options

Big Top has six options of its own. They take the place of the standard colour and font controls, which Big Top doesn't use.

1. Tent colour

The colour striped with cream on the big top. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Classic red (default), Teal, Sunny yellow, Candy pink or Navy
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can match a party colour exactly. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Big Top uses it for the stripes of the tent, the merry-go-round and the box office, the curtains, the marquee board, the buttons, the ticket stub and the coloured text. Any colour works: where it carries text or a label it is deepened in its own shade until it reads clearly, and a grey stays grey.

2. Style

• Vintage circus (default) — aged poster paper with a faint print grain, the tent colour dusted toward brown, gold trim and a deep marquee
• Bright carnival — crisp white, the tent colour as you picked it and a bunting in teal, blue, pink and yellow
• Pastel baby — soft pastels for a first birthday: the tent colour softened for the stripes, pastel bunting and a white marquee with the lettering in your colour

3. Twinkling lights

On by default: the marquee bulbs chase around the sign, the merry-go-round's seats ride up and down and the pennant on the tent flutters. Off, the bulbs stay lit and everything stays still.

4. Number in the star

A gold star on the corner of the marquee with a number in it — "1" for a first birthday, "5" or "40" (up to 3 characters). Leave it blank and there is no star: Big Top never works out an age by itself.

5. Cover banner

The ribbon across the top of the marquee (up to 60 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Roll up, roll up!").

6. Closing line

The line on the marquee at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("See you under the big top").

Every piece of text Big Top prints on the invitation — the cover banner, the ticket labels ("Show day", "Showtime", "Where"), the Get your ticket buttons, the section labels and titles, the countdown units, the word "Act" in the story, the box office sign and "Admit one" on the reply ticket, the closing line — can also be rewritten directly on the page: switch the live preview into edit mode and double-click the text. Section titles you have already set in their own settings (story, countdown, gifts, where to stay, getting there, FAQs) are edited in place the same way.

How each section is treated

Cover

Big Top's cover replaces the standard header:

• Pennant bunting across the top of the page
• The big top with your cover photo in its entrance. The curtains part once the page has loaded; guests whose device asks for reduced motion see them tied back from the start. The crop you set for your cover photo is kept
• The marquee with the cover banner (option 5) on its ribbon, your event name, and the gold star with your number (option 4) when you set one. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word
• The ticket with the date, the time and the place. The time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover, the date and the place follow Show date and Show location, and every guest sees the date you picked, whatever their time zone
• Get your ticket — a button that scrolls to the RSVP form. It only appears when your RSVP section is visible, and never on a save-the-date page

Section heads

Each section opens like a line on a circus bill: its label in small capitals between two stars, its title in Rye, a short string of three pennants under it, and your subtitle under the story's title.

Message — the ringmaster's handbill

Your message on a paper handbill with a double frame and a star in each corner, the label printed at its top, the text centred.

Countdown — the merry-go-round

A striped merry-go-round canopy over a rounding board lit with bulbs, and under it a gilded pole for each unit — days, hours and minutes (and seconds, if you show them) — carrying a round seat with the number. With Twinkling lights on, the seats ride gently up and down out of step. It counts down to your event's date and time in the venue's time zone, and shows your completed message on the merry-go-round once the moment arrives.

Gallery (Carousel) — the sideshow

Your photos in gilt frames, tipped a little left and right and pinned with a peg, in a row under a string of bunting. Guests swipe through them, or use the two arrow buttons beside the title.

Story — acts in the ring

Every milestone is an act: its photo in a round ring with a striped curb (a gold star on the sawdust when it has no photo), an Act 1, Act 2… ribbon in the order of your milestones, the date, the title and the text. On a wide screen the acts alternate sides; on a phone they stack.

Itinerary — the show programme

Each day is a programme card with a striped band across its top and the day's date (or label) in Rye. Every entry is a programme line: a star, the name of the moment, a dotted leader and the time, with the place and any note underneath. On a wide screen the days sit two to a row. Entry icons are not shown.

RSVP — the box office

"Will you be there?" with your RSVP deadline under it, and the reply form on an admit-one ticket handed out under the striped awning of the box office. A perforated tear line with a punched notch at each end separates the form from the stub in your tent colour, which prints "Admit one", a star, the date and the place. The stub sits beside the form on a wide screen and above it on a phone. The ticket never shows a seat, a row or a number. On a save-the-date page the ticket holds the save-the-date note instead of the form.

Location, Gifts, Event Details and Save the Date

These four sections share their structure with Fotify's other picker-coloured designs (Meridian, Thread, Prism and Duotone), dressed for the show: paper cards with a dark rim and a flat shadow in your tent colour, titles in Rye and round buttons in your colour.

• Location — a map card beside an address card with your address, your directions and an Open in Maps button. When a map can't be shown, the map card draws a pin with the venue's coordinates; without coordinates the address card spans the row
• Gifts — the prize stall — every registry, payment option, charity and wishlist item is its own card with a striped stall canopy across its top and its icon in a ring-toss ring, grouped under small labels (with a count) when you offer more than one kind. Payment details sit in an inset box with a Copy button. Pay links, scan-to-pay QR codes and wishlist reservations appear as buttons on each card
• Event Details — a card per topic: dress code with your suggested and avoided colours as swatches, where to stay with each hotel as a mini-card, getting there with an icon for each kind of transport, and an FAQ card where each question opens on tap
• Save the Date (Calendar) — one card with Google, Apple (downloads the calendar file) and Outlook buttons

Closing

The bunting once more, a second marquee with a star and your closing line (option 6), the date and the place in small capitals, and a Get your ticket button.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Big Top's style:

• Photo upload, QR code, Table assignment, Playlist, Sub-events, Special treatments and custom sections

Each sits in the same column as the rest of the page on a paper card, with titles in Rye and buttons in your tent colour. Photos in custom sections are capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Where does the number in the gold star come from? A: Only from the Number in the star option, exactly as you type it. Leave it blank and there is no star; Big Top never works out an age from a date.

Q: Is it only for children? A: No. The default copy says nothing about age, so it works for a carnival party, a school fair or a grown-up's circus-themed birthday. Pick Vintage circus for a more grown-up poster look.

Q: Are there clowns or animals? A: No. The circus is told with the tent, the bunting, the marquee, the merry-go-round and the tickets.

Q: What if I have no cover photo? A: The tent's entrance shows the circus ring under a spotlight with a gold star, so the cover still looks finished. Add a cover photo any time and the curtains part on it.

Q: Does the page move? A: Gently: the curtains open once, and with Twinkling lights on the marquee bulbs chase, the merry-go-round's seats ride and the tent's pennant flutters. Turn the option off for a still page. Guests whose device asks for reduced motion always see a still page with the curtains already open.

Q: Does Big Top work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the marquee moves to the other side of the tent, the story's acts and the programme lines follow the reading direction, and the gallery arrows point the other way. The tent, the curtains and your cover photo's crop stay as they are.

Next steps

• See How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation for the template gallery and how to try a design on before applying it
• Compare the other birthday designs: Storybook, a hardback picture book, Confetti, a sticker party, or Sprinkle, a retro ice-cream parlour
• Let guests share their photos with a QR code: read about Fotify for birthdays and digital invitations with RSVP

Need help? Get in touch through the in-dashboard help widget.