Evergreen Template — Complete Guide

Evergreen is a quiet invitation in forest light, for a celebration of life, a memorial gathering, a scattering or tree-planting ceremony, or the anniversary of a loss. The cover is a soft sky over layered pine ridges that fade into the distance, with a morning mist lying between them that lifts very slowly as the page opens. Your cover photo sits in an arched window, like a view into the woods, with a faint candle glow behind it, and a single pine sprig is drawn at the close. There is no countdown and no party wording, only space for the people who come to remember and for the photos and memories they bring.

Evergreen is one of Fotify's simpler designs: its look comes from one forest colour you choose — any colour at all — and a choice of light, dawn or dusk.

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

Evergreen 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 Evergreen different

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

Signature design elements

• The colour of the forest — pick it from the suggested swatches or from the colour picker. Evergreen softens your pick into a forest shade of the same hue for the treeline, the window frame, the sprig, the small labels and the buttons, and deepens it only as far as each of them needs to stay readable
• Dawn or dusk — a warm dawn sky, or the cooler light of an evening
• Layered pine ridges — three ridges of pines, paler the farther away they are, with mist lying in the valleys between them, on the cover and again at the foot of the page
• A window to the woods — your cover photo in an arched frame with a fine hairline mount and a soft candle glow behind it
• A single drawn pine sprig — at the top of your message, on the reply card and at the close, beside one small candle
• A light, quiet serif — Spectral for the name, the titles, the message and the times, and Nunito Sans for everything guests read
• Gentle wording — the default lines are calm and faith-neutral ("In loving memory", "Share a memory", "Join us as we remember and celebrate a life"), and every one of them can be changed
• Always readable — whatever colour you pick, even a bright red or a pale yellow, the text and buttons are deepened until they read clearly on the page and the sky

When to choose Evergreen

Evergreen suits gatherings held in someone's memory, especially outdoors:

• Celebrations of life — their photo on the cover, their story told along a forest path, and a wall of the photos the family treasures
• Memorial services and remembrance gatherings — the schedule becomes the order of the day, and the RSVP tells you how many people to expect
• Scattering and tree-planting ceremonies — the location section gives guests the address, your directions and a map, so everyone finds the woodland or the meadow
• Remembrance anniversaries — a quieter page in the Dusk light with the Slate blue or Birch grey forest

At a memorial, the photos and memories guests bring matter most. Evergreen gives the Share a memory button a place on the cover and at the end of the page, so everyone can add their pictures of the person you remember. See how Fotify works for memorials.

For a page of soft cotton paper with a portrait in an oval, try Keepsake. If you already designed a memorial card or a printed programme, Your design shows it exactly as it is.

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

Evergreen 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 Evergreen options are kept in case you switch back.

Evergreen options

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

1. Forest colour

The colour of the forest. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Pine (default), Moss, Slate blue, Dusk plum or Birch grey
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can match a favourite colour, the flowers or a printed programme exactly. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. Evergreen keeps the page calm: a very bright pick is softened into a forest shade of the same hue (a pure red becomes a muted brick, a lemon yellow an olive), and a grey stays grey. The labels, the dates and the buttons are then deepened just enough to read clearly on the page and the sky.

2. Light

• Dawn (default) — a warm, early-morning sky
• Dusk — a cooler evening light, a little quieter

3. Name of the person you remember

Up to 60 characters. When you fill it in, this name is the large name on the cover instead of your event name, and screen readers read it out as the description of the cover photo. Leave it blank and the cover shows your event name. Evergreen never takes the name from anywhere else.

4. Years

A short line under the name on the cover, shown exactly as you type it (up to 24 characters) — for example "1948 – 2026" or "Spring 1948 – 2026". Leave it blank to show nothing. Evergreen never works out dates or ages for this line.

5. Cover line

The small line above the name on the cover (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("In loving memory"). Try "Celebrating the life of", "A gathering in memory of" or "Planting a tree for".

6. Closing line

The line at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Join us as we remember and celebrate a life"). Try "Thank you for remembering with us" or "Forever among the trees she loved".

Every piece of text Evergreen prints on the invitation — the cover line, the Share a memory and Kindly reply buttons, the section labels and titles, 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, gifts, where to stay, getting there, FAQs) are edited in place the same way.

How each section is treated

Cover

A cover in forest light replaces the standard header:

• The sky — warm at dawn, cooler at dusk, fading down to the treeline
• Your cover photo in an arched window with a fine hairline mount, keeping the horizontal crop you set, with a faint candle glow behind its top. Without a cover photo the window shows the woods: a small view of the pine ridges, so the cover never looks empty
• Cover line (option 5) in small, spaced capitals
• The name — the name of the person you remember (option 3) when you gave one, otherwise your event name — large in a light serif. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word
• Years (option 4), when you wrote them
• The date, the time and the place under a short hairline — the time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover, and every guest sees the date you picked, whatever their time zone
• Share a memory — a button that scrolls to the photo upload section, shown when that section is on your invitation
• 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
• The treeline — three ridges of pines with mist in the valleys between them. The mist lifts very slowly as the page opens

Section heads

Each section opens centred in the quiet of the page: a small fir between two short hairlines, the section's label in spaced small capitals, then its title in the light serif and, for the story and gifts, your subtitle or gift message.

Message — a remembrance letter

Your message — a notice, a few words from the family or a eulogy — is set as a letter: one sheet with a fine inner frame, the pine sprig at its top, and your words in the serif, aligned to the start of each line as a letter is. A long text steps down to the reading face, which is easier to read over many lines.

Countdown

Evergreen leaves the countdown out: a countdown to a memorial reads wrong. If your countdown is switched on, it simply isn't shown on Evergreen, and it comes back if you switch to another design.

Gallery (Carousel) — a calm photo wall

At a memorial the photos matter most, so Evergreen shows every one whole, at its own shape, never cropped to a square: a calm wall of prints on thin paper mats, two columns on a phone and three on wider screens (two for two photos, and a single centred print for one). The photos follow your order down each column.

Story — a life along a forest path

A dotted trail winds gently down the page, and every milestone stands beside it at a small fir marker: its date (a calendar date in your invitation's date format, anything else exactly as you wrote it, like "Summer 1970"), its title in the serif, its text and its photo in a small arched frame. On a phone the trail runs down one side; on wider screens it runs down the middle and the milestones step from one side of it to the other. Every milestone is laid out the same way.

Itinerary — the order of the day

The schedule as a quiet programme: under each day's date (with a small fir), every entry is a row with its time in light serif figures, the moment, the place in italics and any note, rows divided by a fine hairline. On a phone the time sits above the moment. A day heading only appears when the day has a date or a label. Entry icons are not shown.

RSVP — the reply card

"Will you join us?" with your RSVP deadline under it, and the reply form on a card dressed simply: a fine inner frame and the pine sprig resting at its top, the attend / decline choices as two selectable boxes and a rounded send button in your forest colour. On a save-the-date page, the card 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 in Evergreen's light and colour: soft cards with gently rounded corners and a light shadow, rounded buttons in the deepened forest colour, and Spectral 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 — titled "In lieu of flowers" by default, for the charities and causes the family suggests. 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: what to wear 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

Closing

A single candle with the pine sprig laid at its foot in a little warm light, your closing line (option 6), the date and place, the same Share a memory and Kindly reply buttons as on the cover, and the forest again at the foot of the page.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Evergreen'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 Spectral and rounded buttons in the deepened forest colour. The photo upload section, where guests add their memories, gets a fine inner frame in your forest colour, the camera in a hairline ring, your prompt in italics and the photos guests have shared on thin mats. Photos in custom sections are capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Whose name is on the cover? A: The name you give in the Name of the person you remember option. Leave it blank and the cover shows your event name instead; Evergreen never guesses a name.

Q: Can I change the wording to suit our family or faith? A: Yes. The defaults are deliberately gentle and faith-neutral, and every line can be changed — with the Cover line and Closing line options, or by double-clicking any text in the live preview.

Q: Why isn't there a countdown? A: Counting down to a memorial reads wrong, so Evergreen leaves it out. Your countdown settings are kept: they show again if you switch to another design.

Q: I picked a bright colour. Why does the forest look softer than my colour? A: Evergreen keeps the page calm: your pick becomes a forest shade of the same hue, and the labels and buttons use a deeper shade of it so they read clearly on the page and the sky.

Q: I don't have a cover photo. Will the cover look empty? A: No. Without a photo, the arched window shows a small view of the woods, followed by your cover line and the name.

Q: Will my photos be cropped in the gallery? A: No. The photo wall shows every photo whole, at its own shape. Only the cover window and the story photos use an arched frame.

Q: Does Evergreen work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the story trail runs down the right side on a phone, and the milestones step from right to left. The years line keeps its numbers in order, and the cover photo's crop stays as you set it.

Q: Does the page move? A: Only gently: the cover fades in, the mist lifts slowly as the page opens and the candle flame flickers softly. Guests whose device asks for reduced motion see a still page.

Q: Can I use custom RSVP fields with Evergreen? A: Yes. Custom fields (dropdowns, dates, checkboxes, file uploads and so on) pick up Evergreen's fields and labels automatically.

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 quiet designs: Keepsake for soft cotton paper and a portrait in an oval, or Your design to use a memorial card you already designed
• Let guests share their photos and memories with a QR code: read about Fotify for memorials and digital invitations with RSVP

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