Peony Template — Complete Guide

Peony is a red-and-gold wedding page. Your cover photo sits in a round moon gate ringed in gold, lush painted peonies rise around it, and a gold papercut medallion — the double happiness character 囍, a peony or your own initials — is set at the foot of the gate. Your names are lettered in gold, the countdown turns in gold medallions, your story is painted down a hanging scroll, the day's programme is a banquet card, gifts are red envelopes and the reply waits on a red-and-gold card.

Peony is one of Fotify's simpler designs: its look comes from one ground colour you choose — imperial red by default, or any colour at all — and a gold finish.

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

Peony 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 Peony different

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

Signature design elements

• A moon gate — your cover photo in a circle with a double gold ring, like the round gateway of a Chinese garden
• Painted peonies — blush and ivory blooms with gold stamens and jade leaves edged in gold, around the cover, over the message, on the scroll, at the reply card and at the close
• A gold papercut medallion — a scalloped gold disc pierced like cut paper, holding the double happiness character 囍, a peony, or your initials. It sits on the cover, at the head of your programme and on the reply card
• Lacquer and gold — the page is one rich colour (imperial red, crimson, deep rose, jade green, ink black, or any colour you pick) with gold fret borders and, if you like, auspicious clouds drawn faintly across it
• Garden windows — your gallery photos framed as moon gates, begonia windows and octagons
• A serif for every script — names and titles in Cormorant Garamond, reading text in Lora, and a Chinese, Japanese or Korean serif (Noto Serif SC, JP or KR) when your invitation is in one of those languages or your names are written in those scripts
• Always readable — whatever colour you pick, the ground is kept rich and deep, and the gold and the text are adjusted until they read clearly

When to choose Peony

Peony suits celebrations that want red, gold and good fortune:

• Chinese and East Asian weddings — the tea ceremony, the banquet and everything in between, with the double happiness medallion on the cover
• Engagements and betrothal celebrations — switch the medallion to a peony or your initials
• Wedding banquets and receptions — the programme reads like a banquet card, and money gifts are presented as red envelopes
• Anniversaries and family parties — pick the peony medallion, rewrite the cover line and the section labels, and choose a jade or ink-black ground

Whatever the occasion, the photos your guests take 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 weddings.

For a night of hanging paper lanterns, try Lantern. For a soft garden wedding with painted roses, try Lilac.

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

Peony 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 Peony options are kept in case you switch back.

Peony options

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

1. Ground colour

The colour the whole page is made of. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Imperial red (default), Crimson, Deep rose, Jade green or Ink black
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. Peony keeps the ground rich: a light colour is deepened into a dark shade of the same colour (a pale yellow becomes a deep olive, a grey becomes a charcoal), so the gold and the text always read on it. The red envelopes of the gifts stay red whatever you pick.

2. Gold finish

Gold (default), Rose gold or Champagne — the metal of the papercut, the rings, the lettering and the buttons.

3. Medallion

What the gold medallion holds, on the cover, at the head of the programme and on the reply card:

• Double happiness (default) — the character 囍, cut from the gold
• Peony medallion — a papercut peony
• Your initials — the initials you type in option 4. While that field is blank the medallion shows the peony; Peony never takes letters from your event name

4. Initials

Up to 7 characters for the medallion when it is set to your initials — for example "A & S", or one character from each of your names. Used only by the medallion.

5. Cloud pattern

On by default: auspicious clouds drawn faintly, in a tone of the ground, across the page. Turn it off for a plain lacquer ground.

6. Cover line

The small line above your names on the cover (up to 60 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("With joy, we invite you"). Try "Together with their families" or a line in your own language.

7. Closing line

The large line at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("We look forward to celebrating with you").

Every piece of text Peony prints on the invitation — the cover line, 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

Peony's cover replaces the standard header. It opens under a gold fret border; on a wide screen the moon gate stands beside your names, on a phone above them:

• Your cover photo in the moon gate, keeping the horizontal crop you set, with peonies rising round it and the medallion (option 3) at its foot. Without a cover photo the medallion fills the gate
• The cover line (option 6) in spaced gold capitals
• Your event name in gold, exactly as you typed it. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word
• The date and time, then the place — the time follows the Show time setting of your invitation's cover, the date and the place follow Show date and Show location, and every guest sees the date you picked, whatever their time zone
• A Kindly reply 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: a small label in spaced gold capitals, the title in gold and a small gold knot of two cloud scrolls, then your subtitle or gift message where you wrote one.

Message — a note from you

Your message set large and centred on the ground, between four gold fret corners, under a low spray of peonies. A long message steps down a size.

Countdown — gold medallions

Each unit — days, hours, minutes and, if you show them, seconds — is a round gold medallion with a scalloped, pierced rim, the number in gold on a deep face and the unit 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) — garden windows

Every photo in a garden window with a double gold outline: a moon gate, a begonia window and an octagon in turn. Two across on a phone; three across on a wide screen, with the middle column set a little lower.

Story — a hanging scroll

Your milestones are painted down a hanging scroll: cream paper in a silk mount between two wooden rollers with gold ends, with a peony in its top corner. Each milestone has its date in a red seal, its title and its text, and its photo on a folding fan. On a wide screen the fan and the text trade sides from one milestone to the next; a milestone without a photo is centred.

Itinerary — the banquet card

Your day on a deep card in a gold frame with fret corners, the medallion at its head. Each day's heading sits between two gold rules, and every moment is centred like a line on a banquet menu: the time in gold, the moment, its place and any note, with a small gold diamond between moments. Only your own entries are shown, and your entry icons are not used.

RSVP — a red-and-gold card

The reply form sits on a deep card in a double gold frame with fret corners, the medallion on its top edge and a few peonies over its corner, under the section's label, title and your RSVP deadline. On a save-the-date page the card holds the save-the-date note instead of the form.

Gifts, Event Details, Location and Save the Date

These share their structure with Fotify's other picker-coloured designs, dressed in Peony's lacquer and gold:

• Gifts — every registry, payment option, charity and wishlist item is a red envelope: a red card with a gold-edged flap across the top and a gold seal on its point. Money gifts are grouped as Red envelopes when you offer more than one kind. Payment details sit in an inset box with a Copy button; pay links, scan-to-pay QR codes and wishlist reservations appear as buttons on each envelope
• Event Details — a gold-framed card per topic: the dress code with your suggested and avoided colours as swatches, where to stay and getting there as small cards (with a Book button where you added a link), and the FAQ as questions that open on tap
• Location — a map card and 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
• Save the Date (Calendar) — a gold-framed card with the title, the event date and Google, Apple (downloads the calendar file) and Outlook buttons

Closing

A deeper band under a gold fret border: a spray of peonies, your closing line in gold (option 7), the date and place and a Kindly reply button.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Peony'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 gold-framed card, with titles in the display serif and gold buttons.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Where do the names on the cover come from? A: From your event name, exactly as you typed it — in any script. Write it the way you want it shown, for example "Mei & Leo" or "王伟 & 李娜".

Q: Does Peony work in Chinese, Japanese and Korean? A: Yes. When your invitation is shown in Chinese, Japanese or Korean, or your names, initials or cover lines are written in those scripts, Peony loads a matching serif (Noto Serif SC, JP or KR) so the characters are set as beautifully as the Latin letters. Other invitations never download it.

Q: Can I remove the double happiness character? A: Yes. Set Medallion to Peony medallion, or to Your initials and type them in Initials.

Q: I picked a light colour. Why is the page darker than the colour I chose? A: Peony keeps the ground rich so the gold and the text stay readable. A light colour is deepened into a dark shade of the same colour.

Q: Why are my gifts red envelopes when my page is jade green? A: A red envelope is red by tradition, so the gift cards stay red whatever ground colour you pick.

Q: Does Peony work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the moon gate moves to the other side on a wide screen, the peonies and the fret corners mirror, and the story's fans trade sides. The cover photo's crop stays as you set it.

Q: Does the page move? A: Only gently: when the page opens, the peonies on the cover bloom in and the medallion settles. 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 other designs: Lantern, a night of hanging lanterns, or Lilac, a soft garden wedding with painted roses
• Let guests share their photos with a QR code: read about Fotify for weddings and digital invitations with RSVP

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