Lantern Template — Complete Guide

Lantern is an invitation for a night of lights. The page is a night sky in the colour you pick, lanterns hang from the top of the cover on cords of different lengths and light up one after another around your cover photo, and the name of your event is set in gold foil. One option chooses the whole set of lights and ornaments: clay diyas and marigolds for Diwali, a crescent moon with brass lanterns for Eid, or red paper lanterns and plum blossom for Lunar New Year.

Lantern is one of Fotify's simpler designs: its look comes from one colour you choose — any colour at all — and the choice of lanterns.

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

Lantern 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 Lantern different

Standard templates change colours and fonts over the same shared layout. Lantern 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 card.

Signature design elements

• A night in your colour — pick it from the suggested colours or from the colour picker. It becomes the night sky of the cover and the ground of the whole page
• Hanging lanterns that glow on — lanterns hang over the cover and the closing and light up one after another when the page opens, then glow softly
• Three sets of lights, never mixed — clay diyas, marigold strings and a rangoli; a crescent moon, stars, pierced brass lanterns and an arabesque border; or round red paper lanterns with gold tassels, plum blossom and cloud scrolls
• A lit window for your photo — a round-topped arch, a pointed arch or a round moon gate, depending on your lanterns, with a gold outline and a warm halo behind it
• Gold foil type — Yeseva One for the name, the titles and the countdown numbers, with the clean Mulish for everything you read
• Always readable — whatever colour you pick, even a pale yellow or a pure red, Lantern turns it into a deep night of the same hue so the gold and the text always stand out

When to choose Lantern

Lantern suits any party built around light:

• Diwali parties — clay diyas, marigold strings and a rangoli behind your photo
• Eid celebrations — a crescent moon and stars with brass lanterns of coloured glass
• Lunar New Year parties — red paper lanterns, plum blossom and cloud scrolls
• Company festival nights — an office Diwali, Eid or Lunar New Year party, in your brand colour if you like

Lantern never writes a greeting for you: its default lines ("Join us for an evening of light", "Come and share the light") suit every festival, and you can type your own greeting as the cover line.

At a festival party, the photos everyone takes are part of the night. Guests can scan the event QR code and add their photos to the shared gallery. See how Fotify works for parties and corporate events.

For a company holiday party in December, try Advent. For a South Asian wedding over several days, try Mehndi.

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

Lantern 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 Lantern options are kept in case you switch back.

Lantern options

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

1. Lanterns

The lights and ornaments of the whole page, one festival at a time:

• Diyas & marigolds (default) — hanging brass diyas with their flames, a string of marigolds with mango leaves across the top of the cover, a rangoli behind your photo in a round-topped arch, and a row of clay diyas at the foot of the cover
• Crescent & lanterns — pierced brass lanterns with coloured glass, a crescent moon and a star in the sky, an eight-point star rosette behind your photo in a pointed arch, and an arabesque border
• Paper lanterns & blossom — round red paper lanterns with gold caps and tassels, a branch of plum blossom reaching in from the corner, cloud scrolls around your photo in a round moon gate, and a border of cloud scrolls

The same lanterns hang over the section titles, the message, the story and the reply card, and hold the numbers of the countdown.

2. Night colour

The night sky behind the lanterns and the ground of the whole page. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Midnight indigo (default), Deep teal, Oxblood, Aubergine or Emerald
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can use your brand colour or the colour of your outfits exactly. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. The suggested colours are used exactly as they are; a lighter colour is deepened into a night of the same hue (a pale yellow becomes a deep olive, a bright red an oxblood), so the gold and the text always glow against it.

3. Glowing lanterns

On by default: the lanterns light up one after another when the page opens, then glow softly, and the lights on the story's string twinkle in turn. Turn it off for lanterns that are lit but still. Guests whose device asks for reduced motion always see them still.

4. Cover line

The small line above the event name on the cover (up to 60 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Join us for an evening of light"). This is the place for your own greeting — for example "Shubh Deepavali", "Eid Mubarak", "Happy Lunar New Year" or "Our festival of lights party".

5. Closing line

The big line at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Come and share the light").

Every piece of text Lantern prints on the invitation — the cover line, the RSVP 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 night-sky cover replaces the standard header:

• Hanging lanterns of your choice (option 1) on cords of different lengths. On a wide screen six of them frame your photo, the longest hanging beside it; on a phone two hang over the top corners
• Your cover photo in the window of your lanterns (a round-topped arch, a pointed arch or a moon gate), keeping the horizontal crop you set, with a gold outline, a warm halo and the rangoli, star rosette or cloud scrolls behind it. Without a cover photo the window shows a lit diya, a crescent and star, or a full moon with plum blossom, so the cover never looks empty
• Cover line (option 4) in gold, spaced capitals
• Your event name in gold foil. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word
• 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
• RSVP — a gold 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 foot of the cover — a row of clay diyas, an arabesque border or a border of cloud scrolls

Section heads

Each section opens centred under a small lantern hanging on its cord: the section's label in gold capitals, then its title in gold foil and, for the story and gifts, your subtitle or gift message.

Message — a card lit from above

Your message sits on a card with a fine gold double rule, two small lanterns hanging over its top corners and a pool of their light at the top. A long message steps down a size and aligns to the start of the line, which is easier to read over many lines.

Countdown — a lantern per unit

Each unit is a small lantern hanging on its cord: a clay diya bowl under its flame, a brass lantern with its dome and cone, or a round red paper lantern with its tassel. The number sits on the lantern in Yeseva One and the unit name is in gold underneath. 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)

Every photo in the same lit window as the cover, with a gold outline and a warm glow under it — two across on a phone and three on wider screens (two for two or four photos, and a single centred window for one). Every photo is framed the same way.

Story — a string of lights

A gold cord runs down the page and every milestone is a small lantern on it, beside a card with its date in gold capitals, its title, its text and its photo. While the glow is on, the lights twinkle along the string. Every milestone is laid out the same way.

Itinerary — a path of small flames

Each day on its own card under its date, and every entry on the same row: its time in gold, a small flame on a gold line, then the moment, the place and any note. The moments are exactly the entries you write — the puja, the iftar, the reunion dinner, the fireworks — in your own words. Entry icons are not shown.

RSVP — a lantern-lit reply card

"Will you join us?" with your RSVP deadline under it, and the reply form on a card with a gold double rule, two lanterns hanging over its top corners and your lanterns' rosette glowing between them. The attend / decline choices are two selectable boxes and the send button is gold. 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 Lantern's colours: cards a little lighter than the night with a fine gold edge, rounded gold buttons, and Yeseva One titles under Lantern's hanging-lantern heads.

• 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

Closing

A deeper band of night with a row of lanterns hanging from its top edge, your closing line (option 5) in gold foil, the date and place, the same RSVP button as on the cover, and the foot of the cover again.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Lantern'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 card a little lighter than the night with a fine gold edge, with titles in Yeseva One and rounded gold buttons. Photos in custom sections are capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I use Lantern for a festival other than Diwali, Eid or Lunar New Year? A: Yes. Pick the lanterns whose look suits your night: the default lines talk about an evening of light, not a particular festival, and you can write your own cover line and closing line.

Q: Does Lantern write a festive greeting on my invitation? A: No. Its default lines are the same for every festival. To greet your guests, type your greeting as the Cover line — for example "Shubh Deepavali" or "Eid Mubarak" — or double-click any line in the live preview to change it.

Q: Can I mix the diyas with the paper lanterns? A: No. Each choice of Lanterns is one festival's own set of lights and ornaments, kept together across the whole page.

Q: I picked a light colour. Why is my page darker than my colour? A: Lantern is always a night: a light colour is deepened into a night of the same hue so the gold and the text stand out. To keep a colour exactly as picked, choose a deep one — the suggested swatches are used as they are.

Q: Can I stop the lanterns from glowing? A: Yes. Turn off Glowing lanterns and the lanterns stay lit but still. Guests whose device asks for reduced motion always see them still.

Q: I don't have a cover photo. Will the cover look empty? A: No. Without a photo, the window shows your lanterns' own light — a lit diya, a crescent and star, or a full moon with plum blossom — with the lanterns still hanging around it.

Q: Can I write the invitation in Hindi, Arabic or Chinese? A: Yes. Your own texts (the event name, the message, the programme, the story) appear exactly as you write them. Lantern's gold display font covers Latin, Latin Extended, Cyrillic and Vietnamese; other scripts use your device's own font.

Q: Does Lantern work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the string of lights runs down the right side, the plum branch reaches in from the right and the crescent faces the other way. The cover photo's crop stays as you set it.

Next steps

• See How to Customize Your RSVP Invitation for the template gallery and how to try a design on before applying it
• Compare other party designs: Advent for a holiday party, Mehndi for a South Asian wedding or a festive party, or Confetti for a bright party
• Let guests share their photos of the night with a QR code: read about Fotify for parties, corporate events and digital invitations with RSVP

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