Invitation templates / Christening invitations
The Garden Gate: a christening invitation template
A garden painted in oils as your guests walk in: the white gate swings open onto lunch under the willow, the blossom drops its petals over the godparents' bench, a robin splashes in the bird bath, and the little tree planted for your child takes everyone's ribbon.
The design
The invitation is one long primed canvas, and the christening day is painted on it in the open air, the way the Impressionists painted their gardens: short loaded strokes, lifted colour, violet in the shadows, the bare linen left where the words go. Every scene paints itself in, coarse strokes first and then the finer, as the guest reaches it. It opens at a white garden gate between the hedges with the child's name lettered above it: open the gate, or scroll, and the view walks through it to the long table under the willow where lunch will be. Down the canvas: the chapel on its hill for the service; the child's own portrait, painted from the hosts' photograph, finished with the last fine strokes when it is touched; the bench under the blossom for the godparents, the tree letting fall its petals at a touch; a robin in the bird bath with a verse about what grows, who splashes when tapped; the baby's washing on the line, which the painter repaints in each colour of the day for what to wear; the table again for the reception and the order of the day; the family's photographs as little oil studies; and at the end the young tree planted for the child, where each reply ties its ribbon. The leaves keep moving in the breeze all the while.
Colours and type
The Garden Gate comes in 3 colourways: Linen, Blossom and Morning sky, with 2 type pairings: Instrument Serif and Newsreader and Radley and Petrona. The colours and type change in the editor at any time; the layout stays its own.
Who it suits
Made for christening / baptism, baby dedication and naming day, in the Floral & botanical style.
What is included
An invitation website with the church and the celebration after, the godparents, your photos, a song if you want one, and the RSVP with the number of adults and children coming. You write your own words and add your photos in the live editor, send every guest a personal link by email or any messaging app, and follow the replies as they come in. Free for up to 20 guests, with the full design.
More christening templates
- Meadow at Knee Height: A walk through a spring meadow at knee height: grass sways all round the words, daisies open as you reach each part, and a dandelion clock waits by the reply.
- In the Olive's Shade: A lime-washed chapel wall in an olive grove, an olive branch swaying over the child's name and its shadow moving across the whole invitation.
- Pressed in Spring: A herbarium sheet: spring flowers are laid down one by one under glassine and the specimen label types itself; guests open the flower press, look through the hand lens and lay a flower of their own.
- The Shallows: Clear, shallow sea seen from above: small fish school over rippled sand, a turtle drifts by, and the child's name floats on the surface, its shadow on the sand below.
- First Light: A valley at dawn, painted wet in watercolour as you watch: the sun dropped into a rose and gold sky, ridge behind ridge, and a butterfly resting on a painted cosmos.
- Wet Watercolour: A sheet of cold-press paper that paints itself: drops of pigment fall, bloom and dry into flowers around the child's name, and the guest gets to paint too.
- The White Rose Posy: The florist's bench on the christening morning: a white rose opens in its bud vase, and the posy is made as you read, a rose set in for each godparent.
All christening invitation templates