Christening Template — Complete Guide

Christening is a quiet, luminous invitation for a baptism, a christening, a first communion, a dedication or a secular naming day. It is made of two papers: soft cotton card and translucent vellum. Your cover photo sits behind a sheet of frosted vellum — softly visible through it, and clear inside an arched window cut in the vellum — on a card with a deckled, hand-torn edge and a pressed sprig of baby's breath in the margin.

Christening is one of Fotify's simpler designs: its look comes from one soft colour you choose — any colour at all — and a small line-drawn motif.

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

Christening 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 Christening different

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

Signature design elements

• Vellum over cotton — the page is a soft cotton white; the vellum (over the cover photo, under your message, on the countdown tags and behind the gallery photos) is a pale, translucent wash of your colour
• An arched window — your cover photo is frosted by the vellum and seen clearly inside an arch with a fine double rim
• A deckled card — the cover, the letter and the order of the day are printed on cards with a soft, hand-torn edge
• A pressed sprig — a sprig of baby's breath lies in the margin of the cover and on the corner of the order of the day
• Satin ribbons — a ribbon tied in a bow across your message, and a ribbon hanging like a bookmark from the reply card
• A small motif — a dove, an olive sprig, a lily or a cross, drawn in a fine line above every section title
• Quiet type — Cormorant Infant, a gentle serif, for the name, the titles and your message, and the light Alegreya Sans for the small labels and the buttons
• Always readable — whatever colour you pick, even a very pale or a very bright one, the paper stays soft and the text, lines and buttons are deepened until they read clearly

When to choose Christening

Christening suits the gentle family occasions that welcome a child, whatever the tradition:

• Baptisms and christenings — choose the dove or the cross, and write "is baptised" as the line under the name
• First communions — the lily or the cross, with "makes her First Holy Communion" under the name, and the order of the day for the service and the lunch
• Dedications and blessings — the dove or the olive sprig, with your own words under the name
• Secular naming days and welcome parties — the dove (the default) or the olive sprig, with no religious wording anywhere unless you add it

The cross only appears when you choose it, so a naming day never shows one by accident.

At a christening, the photos everyone takes 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 parties.

For a baby shower or a first birthday with a pastel sky, try Lullaby. For a quiet memorial gathering, see Keepsake.

Applying Christening 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 Christening under Designs (it is listed under the Baby shower filter, and under Elegant and Minimal too)
3. Optional: press Try it on to see Christening with your own invitation details in the live preview — nothing is saved until you press Use this design
4. Or click the Christening card to apply it straight away
5. Open Christening options below the gallery to pick your colour and the other options described below. Changes save automatically

Christening 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 Christening options are kept in case you switch back.

Christening options

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

1. Tint

The one soft colour of the page. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Ivory gold (default), Blush, Powder blue, Sage or Lavender
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can match the flowers, the gown or the decorations exactly. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. Christening never paints your pick as it is where it would hurt legibility: the paper stays a soft cotton white, the vellum gets a pale wash of your colour, and the buttons, the line drawings, the ribbons and the coloured text use a deeper shade of your colour that reads clearly.

2. Motif

The small line drawing above every section title, between the date and the name on the cover, inside the arch when there is no cover photo, and at the end of the page:

• Dove (default) — a dove carrying a sprig
• Olive sprig — a branch of olive leaves
• Lily — a lily on its stem
• Cross — a slender cross with small leaves budding up its foot

3. Line under the name

The line in italics under the name on the cover (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("is welcomed with love"). Try "is baptised", "makes her First Holy Communion" or "is welcomed into the family".

4. Reading or blessing

An optional short reading, blessing or line of a poem (up to 160 characters), shown once as a quiet quotation after your message, exactly as you type it — add its source if you like. Leave it blank and nothing is shown: Christening never chooses a verse for you.

5. Cover line

The small line above the name on the cover (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Please join us to celebrate"). Try "With joy we invite you to the baptism of" or "Please join us to welcome".

6. Closing line

The line at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("We would love to share this day with you").

Every piece of text Christening prints on the invitation — the cover line, the line under the name, the Kindly reply buttons, the section labels and titles, the countdown units, 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

A centred cover replaces the standard header, all on one deckled cotton card:

• Your cover photo behind vellum — softly visible through the frosted vellum and clear inside an arched window with a fine double rim, keeping the horizontal crop you set. Without a cover photo the arch holds a pale wash of your colour and your motif, so the cover never looks empty
• A pressed sprig of baby's breath lying over the corner of the vellum
• Cover line (option 5) in small spaced capitals
• Your event name in the serif. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word
• The line under the name (option 3) in italics
• Your motif between two hairlines, then the date, the time and the place — the time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover, and every guest sees the date you picked, whatever their time zone
• Kindly reply — 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 centred: your motif in small between two hairlines, the section's label in small spaced capitals in your colour, then its title in the serif and, for the story and gifts, your subtitle or gift message.

Message — a letter on vellum

Your message is written on a sheet of vellum laid over a deckled cotton card, with a satin ribbon in your colour running across the top and tied in a bow. A long letter steps down a size and aligns to the start of the line, which is easier to read over many lines. Your reading or blessing (option 4), when you wrote one, follows the letter as a quiet quotation between two short lines.

Countdown

Small vellum gift tags hanging from one fine thread — one tag per unit, each with a punched hole and its own string, the number in the serif and the unit name underneath. The tags sway very gently. It counts down to your event's date and time in the venue's time zone, and shows your completed message once the moment arrives.

Gallery (Carousel)

Arched prints: every photo is cut to the same arch as the cover's window and mounted on a vellum mat with a fine rim — two in a row on a phone and three on wider screens (two in a row for two or four photos, and a single centred print for one). Photos left over at the end of the last row are centred under the others. Every photo is framed the same way.

Story — a growing sprig

A timeline of your story so far. One fine stem runs down the page and every milestone sprouts the same pair of leaves on it, with its date in small capitals, its title in the serif, its text and its photo on a vellum mat; the stem ends in a small flower. On wider screens the date moves into its own column before the stem, and in browsers that support it the leaves unfold as you scroll. Every milestone is laid out the same way.

Itinerary — the order of the day

The schedule printed on one deckled cotton card, like an order of service, with the pressed sprig on its top corner: under each day's date, every entry shows its time in your colour, the moment in the serif, the place in italics and any note, with a hairline rule between two entries. The moments are exactly the entries you write — the service, the blessing, the lunch — in your own words. Entry icons are not shown.

Location, Gifts, Event Details, Save the Date and RSVP

These five sections share their structure with Fotify's other picker-coloured designs (Meridian, Thread, Prism and Duotone), dressed in Christening's colours: soft cotton cards with a fine edge, rounded buttons in your colour, and Cormorant Infant titles.

• 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 — every registry, payment option, charity and wishlist item is its own card in a grid, 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, and long account numbers wrap inside the card. 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 (distance, price range, promo code, notes and a Book button), getting there with an icon for each kind of transport, and a full-width FAQ card where each question opens on tap
• Save the Date (Calendar) — one card with the title and the event date on one side, and Google, Apple (downloads the calendar file) and Outlook buttons on the other
• RSVP — "Will you join us?" with your RSVP deadline under it, and the reply form on a cotton card with a satin ribbon hanging from its top edge like a bookmark: the attend / decline choices as two selectable boxes and a rounded send button. On a save-the-date page, the card holds the save-the-date note instead of the form

Closing

Your motif between two hairlines, your closing line (option 6) in the italic serif, the date and place, and the same Kindly reply button as on the cover.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Christening'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 soft card, with titles in Cormorant Infant and rounded buttons in your colour. Photos in custom sections are capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Christening has no section of its own for the godparents or sponsors. To introduce them, add a custom section with their names, and place it wherever you like among the other sections.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Is Christening only for religious ceremonies? A: No. With the dove (the default) or the olive sprig, and your own line under the name, it suits a secular naming day or a welcome party just as well. Religious wording only appears if you write it, and the cross only if you choose it.

Q: Where does the reading or blessing come from? A: Only from the Reading or blessing option. Leave it blank and no quotation is shown; Christening never picks a verse or a quote for you.

Q: Can I show the child's age or date of birth? A: Christening never works out an age or a year from your dates. Write it yourself where you want it — in the line under the name, in your message, or as a milestone of your story.

Q: How do I introduce the godparents? A: Add a custom section — for example "Godparents" — with their names, and place it wherever you like.

Q: How do I show the service, the blessing or the lunch? A: Add them as entries of your itinerary. Christening lays out the entries you write, in your own words, as the order of the day.

Q: I picked a pale colour. Why are the buttons darker than my colour? A: Christening keeps every label readable: the vellum gets a pale wash of your colour, and the buttons, the line drawings and the coloured text use a deeper shade of the same hue so they read clearly on the paper.

Q: I don't have a cover photo. Will the cover look empty? A: No. Without a photo, the arched window holds a pale wash of your colour with your motif drawn inside it, followed by your cover line and the name.

Q: Does Christening work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the pressed sprig moves to the other corner, the story's stem runs down the right side and the ribbon on the reply card hangs on the left. The cover photo's crop stays as you set it.

Q: Does the page move? A: Only gently: the cover settles in and the vellum frosts over the photo, the countdown tags sway a little and the story's leaves unfold as you scroll. Guests whose device asks for reduced motion see a still page.

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 gentle family designs: Lullaby for a baby shower or a first birthday, or Keepsake for a quiet memorial
• Let guests share their photos of the day with a QR code: read about Fotify for parties and digital invitations with RSVP

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