New Year's Eve invitation wording you can paste and change

New Year's Eve invitations have more to say than any other party invite. A guest reading yours is working out whether they can come after their sister's thing, whether to eat first, and how they get home at two in the morning. The wording below answers those in the invite so you are not fielding the questions one at a time.

Paste any of these into your event on Bringalong, swap the names and times, and share the link. The invite page carries the wording, the RSVP buttons and the calendar add, so your guests reply on the same screen they read on.

The seven lines a New Year's Eve invite needs

Write them in this order and the invite reads itself. One line for what it is, one for the date and start time, one for the address, one for food, one for drink, one for travel, and one reply-by date. Anything else is decoration.

The most common gap is food. A guest who cannot tell whether dinner is happening will either eat before and arrive full, or skip dinner and get unpleasant by eleven. Two words fix it: supper at nine, or snacks only.

1. What it is: New Year's Eve at ours, or New Year's Eve drinks and supper.
2. When: December 31, 8 pm until late. A real number, not 8ish.
3. Where: the full address plus the buzzer, floor or gate code.
4. Food: supper at nine, or snacks from eight, or eat before you come.
5. Drink: what you are pouring and what you would like people to bring.
6. Travel: nearest station, night bus, parking, or the offer of a sofa.
7. Reply by: one date, usually around December 20.

Wording the midnight toast

Saying midnight is not enough, because the useful information is when people need to be in the room and holding something. Give the pour time. Glasses poured at 11:45, toast at midnight tells a guest to stop talking and come inside at a quarter to.

Pick the line that matches your night. For a sit-down: supper at nine, toast at midnight, dancing after. For a drop-in crowd: we are pouring at 11:40, so be here by then if you want a glass in your hand. For guests arriving from somewhere else: come any time, but the countdown is in the kitchen at 11:55 and we would like you in it. For families doing an early finish: countdown at 8 pm with grape juice, home by nine.

If you are watching a broadcast countdown, say which one and on which clock, because somebody in your group will be checking their phone against the TV and announcing the discrepancy.

• Glasses poured at 11:45, toast at midnight.
• Supper at nine, toast at midnight, dancing after.
• We gather in the kitchen at 11:55. Be in the room.
• Early countdown at 8 pm for the small people, then bed.
• Fireworks from the balcony at midnight, coats by the door.

Asking for a bottle without sounding like a cash bar

BYOB on its own is too blunt and too vague, because it does not say what you are already providing. Pair the ask with what you have covered and it reads as normal party logistics. Bring a bottle of whatever you like drinking. We have mixers, ice and soft drinks sorted.

If you have the sparkling wine for the toast already, say so, or you will end up with eleven bottles of it and no beer. The fizz for midnight is covered, so bring beer or wine if that is more your thing. If you want nothing at all, say that in three words, because guests who are told to bring nothing will still bring something and feel better for being told.

Splitting a cost is also fine on this one night, as long as the number is in the invite and not at the door. We are getting the food catered and splitting it, which works out at 15 each. That sentence belongs in the first message you send, next to the address.

• Bring a bottle of whatever you like drinking. Mixers and ice are here.
• The fizz for midnight is covered. Beer or wine if that is your thing.
• Nothing to bring. Turn up.
• Bring a bottle and a snack to share if you can carry both.
• We are splitting the catering, 15 each, pay me whenever you see me.

Late arrivals and a door time

Half your guests are coming from somewhere else, so give them a window rather than a single time. Arrive any time between 8 and 11 is a complete instruction and it stops four people messaging to check whether 10:30 is rude.

If you have a hard cutoff, give the reason and the workaround in the same breath. The buzzer goes off at 11:30 because of the neighbors, so message me if you are later and I will come down. If you are serving a meal, protect it: sitting down at 8:45, so please be here by 8:30, and if you cannot make that we will see you for pudding.

And if you would rather people did not drift in at 1 am, say when the door closes. It is your flat.

• Arrive any time between 8 and 11.
• Coming from somewhere else? Join us from 10:30.
• Sitting down at 8:45, so please be here by 8:30.
• Buzzer off at 11:30. Message me after that and I will come down.
• Door closes at 1 am and we stop answering it.

Sofas, spare rooms and getting home

This is the line that decides whether people come. A guest who cannot picture the journey home at 1:30 am will say maybe and then stay in. Put what you know in the invite: the route, the night bus, the walk to the station, or a bed.

Be specific about what is on offer, because sofa space is not infinite. One sofa and two camp beds, first to claim them. If you are offering breakfast, name a time so nobody is sitting in your kitchen at seven while you are asleep. And give drivers a line of their own, since the person on soft drinks all night deserves to be noticed rather than quietly accommodated.

• One sofa and two camp beds, first come. Bring a toothbrush.
• Taxis are hopeless between 12:30 and 2. The 29 runs all night from the corner.
• Ten minutes' walk from the station, and the last train back is 11:40, so plan on staying.
• Breakfast at 9:30 for anyone still here. Bacon, coffee, no conversation.
• Driving? Tell me and I will keep the good soft drinks coming.
• Street parking is free from 6:30 pm, and the car park on Mill Lane is open all night.

Phrases to cut

Dress to impress tells a guest nothing, and it makes two of them anxious. Write what you mean: black tie, smart, or wear what you like. The party of the year and bring your dancing shoes are filler that take up the space where your address should be.

Cut anything unresolved. TBC on a start time reads as a party that may not happen, and more details to follow means you have sent an invite with no information in it. Hold the invite for a day, then send it complete. If something changes later, edit the event and the same link shows the new version, so there is no second announcement to write.

• Dress to impress. Say black tie, smart, or wear what you like.
• Time TBC, or 8ish. Pick a number.
• More details to follow. Send the details instead.
• The party of the year, biggest night ever, and anything in capitals.
• A wall of emoji where the address should be.