Vernissage Template — Complete Guide

Vernissage is an invitation set like the opening night of a gallery show. Your cover photo fills the screen in black and white, with your names written enormous in a wide grotesk across its lower edge. The rest of the page is white walls, one black band and your photographs hung like prints, each with a block of colour glowing behind it.

Vernissage is one of Fotify's simpler designs: its look comes from one accent colour you choose — any colour at all — set against black, white and grey.

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

Vernissage 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 Vernissage different

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

Signature design elements

• A full-bleed cover — your cover photo across the whole screen, with your event name in a wide, light grotesk sitting on its lower edge, a small cover line at the top and the date with a reply button above the name
• Black-and-white photos — the photos Vernissage hangs (the cover, the gallery, your story and the photos around the page) are printed in black and white by default, so your accent is the only colour on its walls. One switch keeps them in colour
• One electric colour — pick it from the suggested colours or from the colour picker. Vernissage uses it for the reply buttons, the small labels, the dots of the programme and the gradient blocks
• Gradient blocks — behind your gallery photos, your story photos and the reply card, a block of your colour fading into near-black sits offset like a coloured shadow
• A black band — your message on black, beside one of your photos
• A wall label for the venue — the venue on a white card in the middle of your photos, which drift gently as you scroll
• A sticky programme — the itinerary's title stays in place on one side while the day scrolls past on the other, along a thin line with a dot at each moment
• Gallery typography — Encode Sans Expanded, a wide grotesk, for the names, titles and numbers, with Geist for the reading text
• Always readable — whatever colour you pick, even a pale yellow or a near-black, the text and the buttons are adjusted until they read clearly

When to choose Vernissage

Vernissage suits modern, photo-led events with a clean, editorial feel:

• Modern and city weddings — black-and-white portraits, your names across the cover, one colour from your palette
• Engagement parties and elopement celebrations — a short page that is mostly photographs
• Gallery and exhibition openings, launches and studio parties — the gallery look is the point, with your brand colour as the accent
• Minimal corporate evenings and agency parties — white walls, a black band and your brand colour, nothing more
• Milestone birthdays and anniversary parties — when you have good photos to show

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 and corporate events.

For a black-and-white Swiss editorial page without photos behind colour, try Folio. For a page of glowing colour, try Prism.

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

Vernissage 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 Vernissage options are kept in case you switch back.

Vernissage options

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

1. Accent colour

The one colour of the page. Pick it two ways:

• A suggested swatch — Lavender (default), Cobalt, Coral, Acid lime or Black
• Pick any color — the last chip opens your device's colour picker, so you can match a brand colour or your wedding palette exactly. The colour's code is shown beside the chips

Any colour works. On black (the cover, the message band) your colour is used at full strength; on the white walls it is deepened just enough for every label and button to read clearly, so a bright acid lime becomes a deeper green there. With Black, the page is purely black and white, and the buttons on the black band turn white.

2. Black-and-white photos

On by default: every photo Vernissage shows — the cover, the gallery, the story, the photos beside the message, the details and the gifts, and the photos around the venue — is shown in black and white, like prints on a gallery wall. Your photos themselves are not changed. Photos in the sections Vernissage shares with every design (your own sections, sub-events, gift ideas and your guests' photo album) keep their colours. Turn it off to show them in colour.

3. Lettering

The width of the grotesk used for your names and the titles:

• Wide (default) — wide and airy, the gallery look
• Regular — a regular width that fits longer names on fewer lines

4. Cover line

The small line at the top of the cover, over your photo (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("Please come and celebrate with us").

5. Closing line

The title of the closing card at the end of the page (up to 80 characters). Leave it blank to use the default ("We can't wait to see you").

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

Where the photos come from

Vernissage hangs your own photos through the page. Besides the cover, the gallery and the story (which show their own photos), it uses your Gallery photos, in the order you set, followed by your cover photo:

• Beside your message — the first of them
• Beside your dress code in Event Details — the second, when your dress code is shown
• Behind the gifts heading — the third
• Around the venue card — up to four of them, when you have at least two photos

A place with no photo of its own simply goes without one: Vernissage never repeats the same photo to fill a gap. To change which photo appears where, reorder your gallery photos or change your cover photo. With only a cover photo, it appears on the cover and beside your message.

How each section is treated

Cover

The full-screen cover replaces the standard header:

• Your cover photo across the whole screen, keeping the horizontal crop you set, in black and white unless you turned that off. Without a photo, the cover is black with an abstract canvas of your colour hung in it
• The cover line (option 4), small, at the top
• The date, the time and the place, above your name — 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
• RSVP — a rounded button in your colour that scrolls to the RSVP form. It only appears when your RSVP section is visible, and never on a save-the-date page
• Your event name in the wide grotesk across the foot of the cover. Long names step down a size so they never break mid-word

Section heads

Each section opens like wall text in a gallery: a small label in your colour, the title in the wide grotesk, a fine line under it and, for the story and gifts, your subtitle or gift message.

Message — the black band

Your message on a black band that runs the width of the screen: a small square of your colour, a title, your text and a Reply now button, beside the first photo of the hang (see above). Without a photo, the text has the band to itself.

Countdown — dates on the wall

Each unit is a large, light numeral in the wide grotesk between fine lines, with its name in your colour 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)

Your photos hang in one row along the wall, each with a block of your colour offset behind it. With three or more photos the row scrolls sideways (swipe, or use the keyboard), stopping on each photo; one or two photos sit side by side.

Story — spreads

Each milestone is a spread: its photo with the block of your colour behind it on one side, and its date, title and text on the other, the sides alternating down the page on wider screens. Every milestone is set the same way; one without a photo is text alone beside a line of your colour.

Itinerary — the programme

The programme sits on a pale grey panel. On wider screens, the section's title stays in place on one side while the moments scroll past on the other, along a thin line with a dot of your colour at each one. Each day's date or label sits on the line (a day heading appears only when the day has a date or a label). Every moment shows its time in your colour, its name in the wide grotesk, and the place and any note beneath. Entry icons are not shown. On a phone the title comes first and the programme follows.

Location — the wall label

The venue on a white card in the middle of the section, like the label next to a painting: the section's label and title, your address, your directions, a View on map button and, when a map can be shown, a small map. When you have at least two photos, up to four of them hang around the card at fixed places, drifting gently as you scroll (still when the device asks for reduced motion). On a phone the card comes first and the photos follow two by two.

Gifts

A photo from the hang fills the top of the section with your gifts heading and gift message on a white card over it. Every registry, payment option, charity and wishlist item is then its own card, grouped under small labels 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. Without a photo for this place, the heading sits on the page like any other.

Event Details

When your dress code is shown and a photo is available for it, the dress code becomes a split: the photo on one side and your dress code on a grey panel on the other — its name, your description, the colours to wear and to avoid as swatches, and your notes, each on its own ruled row. Then a card per topic: 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 reply card

"Will you be there?" with your RSVP deadline under it, and the reply form on a white card with a block of your colour offset behind it. On a save-the-date page the card holds the save-the-date note instead of the form.

Closing

A white card over a wash of your colour fading into black: your closing line (option 5), the date and place, and a Reply button. Under it, your event name and links to each section of the page.

Sections that use the shared layout

These sections keep Fotify's shared layout and are dressed in Vernissage'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 square white card with a fine edge, with titles in the wide grotesk and buttons in your colour. Photos in custom sections are capped in height so a tall portrait never takes over the page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Are my photos changed when they show in black and white? A: No. Vernissage only displays them in black and white; the photos you uploaded stay exactly as they are, in colour, and your guests' uploads are never touched. Turn off Black-and-white photos to show them in colour on the invitation too.

Q: Why does a photo from my gallery appear beside my message? A: Vernissage hangs your own photos through the page: your gallery photos in order, then your cover photo. See Where the photos come from above to change which one appears where.

Q: I picked a bright colour. Why does the button on the white page look darker than on the cover? A: A very light or bright colour, like acid lime, can't be read on a white background. Vernissage keeps it at full strength on black and deepens it on the white walls just enough for the buttons and labels to stay readable.

Q: Can I use Vernissage for a corporate event? A: Yes. Set the accent to your brand colour with Pick any color, use the Cover line for something like "Join us for the launch of", and turn off Black-and-white photos if your product photos should stay in colour.

Q: I don't have a cover photo. Will the cover look empty? A: No. Without a photo the cover is black with an abstract canvas of your colour, your name across its foot.

Q: Does Vernissage work in right-to-left languages? A: Yes. In Hebrew and Arabic the layout mirrors: the cover line and the reply button move to the other side, the programme's line runs down the right, and the colour blocks sit behind the photos on the other side. The cover photo's crop stays as you set it.

Q: Does the page move? A: Only gently: the photos around the venue drift a little as you scroll. 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 the other modern designs: Folio, a Swiss editorial page in black and white, or Meridian, a split-screen page with a poster in your brand colour
• 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.