Digital Invitations
Digital invitations get shared over WhatsApp and opened on phones with patchy signal, where every second of load time costs guests. I built a static template with a countdown, RSVP, maps and itinerary that loads in under a second and adapts to each event by editing a single configuration file. No CMS, no database, no recurring hosting cost.
The problem
A digital invitation gets shared over WhatsApp and opened on a phone, often on patchy signal and on the way somewhere else. Every second of load time costs guests who never make it to the RSVP.
There was a business problem too: every event is different — a wedding looks nothing like a baby shower — but rebuilding the site from scratch for each client leaves no margin.
What I built
A static Astro and Tailwind template covering several event types — weddings, quinceañeras, baby showers and birthdays — each with its own theme:
- Countdown, RSVP, venue map and itinerary
- Copy, colors, dates and active sections all live in a single config file
- Components don’t know which event they’re rendering: they just read the config
- No CMS, no database, no recurring hosting cost
The hard part
Deciding where to draw the line between what’s configurable and what has to be touched in code. Make everything configurable and the config file turns into a badly designed programming language. Make nothing configurable and every client becomes a fork you maintain separately.
I kept the section skeleton fixed and opened up only what actually changes between events: palette, typography, copy, and which sections show. The components ended up with no decision logic of their own, which is what lets a wedding and a baby shower be the same codebase.
Result
Publishing a new event means editing one file and deploying. The Sofía and Sebastián invitation came out of this template.