Herbarium Template — Complete Guide

Herbarium is a botanical invitation template for garden and spring weddings. Think of a botanist's album: heavy cotton-rag paper with soft deckled edges, a sheet of translucent vellum over a page of pressed flowers, hand-lettered specimen labels, photographs held by archival photo corners and strips of linen tape. It is delicate and airy, but every name, date, place and the reply form stay clear and easy to read.

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

Herbarium 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 Herbarium different

Standard templates change colours and fonts over the same shared layout. Herbarium replaces the layout itself: its own cover, its own closing, and a hand-made treatment for each section.

Signature design elements

• The vellum reveal — the cover is a mounted specimen sheet: pressed flowers framing your names, under a sheet of vellum taped along the top. When the invitation opens, the vellum lifts from its bottom edge, its shadow sliding up the page, and your names and the flowers come into focus. It then rests folded back at the top of the sheet
• Four pressed-flower sets — wildflowers, peonies and garden roses, olive and eucalyptus, or lavender and thistle. Each is its own illustration and arrangement, used on the cover and as small accents through the whole invitation
• A specimen label — under the flowers, a label hand-lettered like a herbarium sheet: your names as the specimen, a Latin-style line such as "Amor perennis", and "Collected" and "Locality" with your date and place
• An album of photographs — your cover photo and your gallery are mounted on the page with archival photo corners, and the story photos with strips of linen tape
• Garden stationery — gifts as seed packets, event details as index cards from a specimen cabinet, the countdown as cabinet drawer labels, and the calendar links as plant-tag stakes pushed into the soil
• Three typefaces, three jobs — a fine italic serif (Cormorant Infant) for names, titles and the hand-lettered labels, a warm book face (Alegreya) for everything guests read, and true small capitals (Alegreya SC) for field names and buttons

When to choose Herbarium

Herbarium suits celebrations with a garden in them:

• Garden, meadow and greenhouse weddings — botanical gardens, orangeries, walled gardens, orchards and farms
• Spring and early-summer weddings — wildflowers, peonies and blossom season
• Countryside and Provence weddings — pick lavender and thistle, or olive and eucalyptus for a Mediterranean table
• Vow renewals, engagement parties and anniversaries that want something tender and hand-made

If you want sun-drenched colour, try Amalfi. For soft, romantic florals with an arched photo, try Vesper. For a warm 1970s wedding-magazine feel, try Marigold.

Applying Herbarium 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 Herbarium
3. Optional: press Try it on to see Herbarium with your own invitation details in the live preview — nothing is saved until you press Use this design
4. Or click the Herbarium card to apply it straight away
5. Open Herbarium options to adjust the template-specific settings described below. Changes save automatically

Herbarium 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 Herbarium options are kept in case you switch back.

Herbarium options

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

1. Pressed flowers

The pressed flowers framing your names on the cover, and the small sprigs over every section title, on the seed packets, the itinerary and the closing.

• Wildflowers (default) — poppies, cornflowers and chamomile with meadow grasses
• Peony & garden rose — two lush corner clusters in blush and rose
• Olive & eucalyptus — a wreath of an olive branch and a eucalyptus branch, tied with twine
• Lavender & thistle — two tied lavender bundles with thistles

2. Paper

The album paper. Every paper is tuned so text stays easy to read.

• Cotton (default) — warm white
• Parchment — cream
• Sage — pale green
• Nightfall — deep ink-green paper with light ink, for evening weddings

3. Ink

The ink of every title, label, line and button: Sepia (default), Forest green or Plum. On Nightfall paper the same inks turn light.

4. Vellum reveal

On by default: the vellum lifts off the pressed flowers when the invitation opens. Turn it off and the vellum is already folded back at the top of the sheet. Guests who have reduced motion turned on always see it folded back.

5. Specimen line

The Latin-style line on the cover's specimen label, under your names — for example "Amor perennis", "Rosa aeterna" or "Floreat amor". Leave it blank to use the default ("Amor perennis").

6. Cover line

The small line above the pressed flowers on the cover — for example "Together with their families" or "Please join us in the garden". Leave it blank to use the default ("Together with their families").

7. Closing title

The line under the last pressed sprig at the end of the invitation. Leave it blank to use the default ("See you among the flowers"). Try "Until June, in the garden" or "With love, pressed and kept".

Every piece of text Herbarium prints on the invitation — section titles, the specimen label's field names, "Plate" and "Fig.", the button labels and the closing title — 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

The cover replaces the standard header:

• Cover line (option 6) in small capitals
• The plate — your event name in a fine italic, framed by the pressed flowers of your set (option 1), under the vellum (option 4)
• The specimen label — your event name, the specimen line (option 5), Collected with the weekday, date and time, and Locality with your event location
• Reply — a specimen-tag Kindly reply button that jumps to the RSVP section, and "Reply by" with your RSVP deadline
• Your cover photo, when you have one, mounted with photo corners and a strip of linen tape. On a computer it faces the plate like the two pages of an open album; on a phone it follows the reply button

The time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover.

Message

Your invitation message becomes a page from a journal, with a ruled margin and a leaf from your flower set pressed into it. A long enough first paragraph opens with a large italic initial.

Countdown

A specimen cabinet: each unit — days, hours, minutes and (optionally) seconds — is a drawer with a framed label holder showing the number, and a little cup pull. When the countdown ends, your completion message is shown in a label holder instead.

Gallery (Carousel)

Your photos mounted on the album page with archival photo corners, each set at a slight angle and captioned "Plate I, II, III…". Swipe or scroll sideways and the prints snap into place; arrow buttons appear when there are more photos than fit.

Story

A field journal: a pressed stem runs down the margin with a tiny flower at every entry. Each milestone is written up the same way: the date in the margin, the title in the hand-lettered italic, the description, and the photo taped into the journal when there is one. Your story subtitle appears under the section title.

Location

The map mounted like a specimen, with photo corners and a small inked compass rose, then a specimen label with the Locality (your address), your directions as field notes on ruled paper, and an Open the map button. If the location has no map, the label and notes stand on their own.

Itinerary

Numbered botanical plates: each day opens with its date, and each entry is a plate — "Fig. 1, 2, 3…", the time, a small pressed sprig, the event, the place and any note.

Gifts

Every registry, monetary option, charity and wishlist item is a paper seed packet with a folded flap and a little window showing a pressed sprig (or the wishlist item's own picture). Payment details sit in a chip that wraps cleanly, even for long IBANs or wallet addresses, with a Copy button beside them. Group labels only appear when you offer more than one kind of gift.

Event Details

Index cards from a specimen cabinet, each with a ruled heading and a punched hole:

• Dress code on a wide card: your dress code title, your description, suggested and avoided colour swatches, and notes
• Where to stay — hotel name, address, distance from the venue, price range, promo code, notes, a Book button and a tap-to-call phone number
• Getting there — an icon for the kind of transport, the details, the cost and a Details button
• FAQs — one card per question

Save the Date (Calendar)

A specimen card with the weekday, date, time, event, place and your calendar note, and under it three plant-tag stakes pushed into a line of soil: Google, Apple (downloads the calendar file) and Outlook.

RSVP

A heavy specimen card held to the page with photo corners and linen tape. Inside: a pressed sprig over the title, your RSVP deadline, ruled fields, the attend / decline choices as cards with a leaf-shaped tick, and an ink send button. On a save-the-date, the card holds the save-the-date note instead of the form.

Closing

A last pressed sprig, your closing title (option 7), the event name, date and place, and a Back to the first page link.

Sections without a bespoke layout

These sections use Fotify's standard layout, restyled to match Herbarium:

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

They get the same pressed-leaf rule above them, italic titles, cards mounted on the paper and buttons in your ink. Photos in custom sections are shown as mounted prints, and seat badges in table assignment use your ink.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I change the flowers? A: Yes. Choose between wildflowers, peonies and garden roses, olive and eucalyptus, or lavender and thistle in Herbarium options. Each set changes the cover and every small accent through the invitation.

Q: What is the Latin line on the specimen label? A: It's the Specimen line option, just for fun, like the botanical name on a real herbarium label. The default is "Amor perennis" (everlasting love); type your own, or anything you like.

Q: Will the vellum animation bother guests who are sensitive to motion? A: No. The vellum only lifts for guests whose device allows animations; with reduced motion turned on, it is already folded back. You can also turn the reveal off for everyone with the Vellum reveal option.

Q: I don't have a cover photo. Will the cover look empty? A: No. Without a photo the cover is a single page: the pressed flowers, your names, the specimen label and the reply button.

Q: Is there a dark version? A: Yes. Choose Nightfall paper for deep ink-green pages with light ink, lovely for evening and autumn weddings.

Q: Does Herbarium work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the journal margin, the story's stem, the drop initial and the reply tag all move to the other side.

Q: Can I use custom RSVP fields with Herbarium? A: Yes. Custom fields (dropdowns, dates, checkboxes, file uploads and so on) pick up Herbarium's ruled fields and small capital 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 wedding designs: Amalfi for a Mediterranean summer, Vesper for soft romance, Marigold for a 1970s garden wedding, Atelier for letterpress formality, or Studio to compose your own design with the AI Design Studio
• Planning a wedding? Read about Fotify's digital invitations with RSVP and the wedding photo sharing app

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