Meridian Template — Complete Guide

Meridian is a split-screen invitation template. On a computer the screen is divided in two: a poster in your brand colour holds the event name, the date, the time, the place and the reply button, and stays in view while the details — message, schedule, venue, gifts, RSVP — scroll beside it. On a phone the poster is the first screen, and a slim reply bar takes over once guests scroll past it. It reads like a well-made event page: clear, confident and easy to act on.

Meridian is one of Fotify's simpler, modern designs: its look comes from one colour you choose — any colour at all — and a few honest typographic choices, not from ornament.

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

Meridian 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 Meridian different

Standard templates change colours and fonts over the same shared layout. Meridian replaces the layout itself: its own poster, its own section heads and closing, and its own treatment of the countdown, gallery, story and schedule.

Signature design elements

• A poster that never leaves — on screens 1,024 pixels wide and up, the poster is a column that stays put while the page scrolls beside it, so the date, the place and the reply button are always one glance away. You choose which side it sits on
• Your brand colour, any colour — pick one of the suggested swatches or any colour from the colour picker. Meridian fills the poster and the buttons with it, and adjusts the shade only as far as needed for every label to stay readable — a pale yellow or a near-black still gives a clean, legible page
• Three ways to fill the poster — solid colour, your cover photo, or your cover photo printed in your colour (a black-and-white photo washed into your brand colour, like a campaign poster)
• A reply bar on phones — once guests scroll past the poster, a slim bar with the event name, the date and a Reply button slides in at the top, and steps aside while the RSVP form itself is on screen
• Numbered sections — each section opens with a fine rule carrying its running number (01, 02, 03…) and a small label, then the title. Hidden sections never leave a gap in the numbering
• Three typefaces to choose from — a modern sans (Inter Tight), a classic serif (Cormorant Garamond) or a geometric sans (Sora) for the event name and titles, always with Inter for reading text
• A closing that echoes the poster — the page ends on a band of the poster's colour with a final reply button, so it finishes where it began

When to choose Meridian

Meridian suits events where guests should find the essentials, and the reply button, instantly:

• Corporate events — conferences, summits, product launches, company parties, client evenings and offsites; set the poster in your company's brand colour and the label to "Annual summit" or "You're invited". See corporate events and conferences
• Galas, awards nights and fundraisers — Classic serif on a dark page with an oxblood, navy or gold poster gives a formal evening look
• Modern weddings — a city wedding, a civil ceremony or a couple who likes clean graphic design: your names on a poster in your wedding colour, or your engagement photo printed in it
• Engagement parties, rehearsal dinners and welcome drinks — a single, clear page with the time, the place and an RSVP button
• Any event with a lot of practical information — the schedule, the hotels, the transport and the FAQs scroll beside a poster that keeps the basics in view

If you want the same colour freedom with a softer, more romantic feel, try Thread. For light and gradients, try Prism. For a printed, two-colour poster look, try Duotone.

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

Meridian 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 Meridian options are kept in case you switch back.

Meridian options

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

1. Brand colour

The colour of the poster and the buttons, and of the small accents across the page (section numbers, labels, links). Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Navy (default), Emerald, Oxblood, Terracotta, Plum, Gold, Cobalt or Graphite
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can match your company's brand colour or your wedding palette exactly. The colour's code (for example #1F3A5F) is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. Meridian never paints your colour where it would make text hard to read: it darkens or lightens the shade just enough for white or near-black labels to stay clearly legible on the poster and the buttons, and does the same for the accent text on the page. Very light and very dark colours therefore look slightly deeper or lighter in places than the exact code you picked — that is intentional.

2. Poster

What fills the poster:

• Solid colour (default) — your brand colour
• Cover photo — your invitation's cover photo, with white type over a soft dark gradient so the text stays readable on any photo
• Cover photo in your colour — the cover photo in black and white, printed into your brand colour: the shadows go dark and the highlights take your colour. A light brand colour is deepened for this print so the white type stays readable on it

Without a cover photo, the poster stays solid whatever you choose here. The photo keeps the horizontal crop you set for your cover photo.

3. Page

The background behind the details:

• Clean white (default)
• Warm paper — a warm off-white
• Dark — a near-black page with charcoal cards and light text; the poster keeps your brand colour

4. Typeface

The face of the event name and the section titles. Reading text is always set in Inter.

• Modern sans (default) — Inter Tight, bold with tight letter-spacing; suits launches and conferences
• Classic serif — Cormorant Garamond; suits weddings and galas
• Geometric — Sora, a geometric sans

5. Poster side (wide screens)

Which side the poster sits on when there is room for both columns: Start (default — the left side in left-to-right languages, the right side in Hebrew and Arabic) or End. On phones the poster is always the first screen.

6. Section links on the poster

On by default: under the reply button, the poster lists a link to each visible section (under the heading "On this page"), so guests can jump straight to the schedule or the venue. They appear on wide screens only, and only when the page has more than one section to link to. Turn it off for a cleaner poster.

7. Reply bar on phones

On by default: once guests scroll past the poster on a phone, a slim bar at the top keeps the event name, the date and a Reply button one tap away. It steps aside while the RSVP form is on screen, and it never appears on wide screens, where the poster's own button is always visible. Turn it off if you prefer no bar.

8. Poster label

The small line above the event name on the poster (up to 60 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("You're invited"). Try "Annual summit", "Save the evening" or "Together with their families".

9. Closing title

The line on the coloured band at the very end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("See you there."). Try "See you in Lisbon", "Let's celebrate" or "Until June".

Every piece of text Meridian prints on the invitation — the poster labels (Date, Time, Place), the Reply now button, the section labels and titles, the countdown units, the closing — 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

Poster (cover)

The poster replaces the standard header:

• Poster label (option 8) in small capitals, then your event name, set large. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word
• Date, Time and Place — each with a small icon and label. The time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover, and every guest sees the date you picked, whatever their time zone
• Reply now — a button in the poster's own colours that scrolls to the RSVP form. It only appears when your RSVP section is visible, and never on a save-the-date page
• On this page — the section links (option 6), on wide screens

Section heads

Meridian's sections open the same way: a fine rule with the section's running number and its small label, then the title — and, for the story and gifts, your subtitle or gift message under it.

Message

Your invitation message set as a large lead paragraph in the display typeface. A long letter steps down to a comfortable reading size in the body typeface. Links take your colour, and quotes get a bar of your colour beside them.

Countdown

A row of large figures split by fine lines, like the key numbers on a product page — days, hours, minutes and (if you switch them on) seconds, each over its label. When the countdown ends, your completion message replaces the numbers.

Gallery (Carousel)

A quiet masonry of your photos in two or three columns. Every photo keeps its own shape — nothing is cropped — and photos zoom in very slightly under the pointer on a computer.

Story

A numbered timeline: each milestone's number and date sit in the margin, with the title, the description and the photo beside them. Every milestone is laid out the same way; one without a photo simply has no picture.

Itinerary

An agenda: one block per day under the date, and each entry a row with the time in a fixed column, then the event, the place with a pin and any note.

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

These five sections share their structure with Fotify's other picker-coloured designs (Thread, Prism and Duotone), drawn in Meridian's colours, typefaces and white cards with a fine border:

• 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 or wallet addresses 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 — the title with your RSVP deadline under it in a soft pill, and the reply form on a card topped with a band of your brand colour. The attend / decline choices become two large selectable boxes, fields become rounded inputs, and the send button takes your brand colour. On a save-the-date page, the card holds the save-the-date note instead of the form

Closing

A band in your brand colour with your closing title (option 9), the date and place, and a final Reply now button. It is the same colour whichever poster you choose, so a photo poster still ends on your colour.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Meridian'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 Meridian card, with titles in your chosen typeface, pill-shaped buttons and your brand colour on the main actions. The upload button takes your brand colour, table numbers appear as chips in your colour, and photos in custom sections are rounded and capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Can I use my company's exact brand colour? A: Yes. Click the last chip in the Brand colour option (Pick any color) and choose your colour in your device's colour picker. If your colour is very light or very dark, Meridian adjusts its shade slightly where text sits on it, so the labels on the poster and the buttons stay readable.

Q: Why does the poster look slightly different from the colour I picked? A: Because legibility comes first. When white or near-black text would be hard to read on your exact colour, Meridian moves it just far enough towards darker or lighter to fix that, keeping the same hue. Mid-tone colours are usually used exactly as picked.

Q: Is Meridian only for corporate events? A: No. The split-screen layout comes from modern event pages, but it works just as well for a wedding: choose Classic serif, a colour from your wedding palette, and your engagement photo as the poster.

Q: I chose a photo poster, but it shows a solid colour. Why? A: The invitation has no cover photo yet. Add one in your invitation's cover settings, and the poster switches to it.

Q: Why don't I see the section links on the poster? A: They only show on wide screens (from 1,024 pixels), when Section links on the poster is on and your page has more than one visible section besides the RSVP.

Q: Does Meridian work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: Start puts the poster on the right, and the story timeline and the agenda's time column move to the other side. The cover photo keeps the crop you chose.

Q: Can I use custom RSVP fields with Meridian? A: Yes. Custom fields (dropdowns, dates, checkboxes, file uploads and so on) pick up Meridian's rounded 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 picker-coloured designs: Thread for one line in your colour running down the page, Prism for soft gradient light and frosted cards, or Duotone for a page printed in two inks
• For a stage-and-spotlight conference look, try Keynote; for a grid of tiles, Bento
• Planning a company event? Read about Fotify for corporate events and digital invitations with RSVP

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