New Year's Eve party invitations you can send as a link

New Year's Eve has a planning problem no other party has: your guests are being invited to three things on the same night. The invite that wins is the one that answers the practical questions fast. Start time, whether there is food, and how people are getting home.

Bringalong builds the event in about a minute with no account. You get a public invite link to share on WhatsApp, iMessage or email, and a private manage link that stays with you and shows every reply as it arrives.

When to send a New Year's Eve invitation

Early December is the window. By December 10 most of your list has either committed to someone else's party or decided to stay in, and once that decision is made it is hard to move. If you know you are hosting, send on December 1 even with the plan half formed. A date, a start time and your address are enough to hold the spot.

Two follow-ups cover the rest. One around December 20 for the people who have not opened the link. One on December 28, when the hesitant ones are bored of leftovers and know whether they are travelling. That second message is the one that turns Maybes into Goings.

1. December 1: send the invite with date, start time and address.
2. December 8: add the food and drink detail once you have decided.
3. December 20: message anyone who has not opened the link.
4. December 28: nudge the Maybes and lock your head count.
5. December 30: send door code, parking and taxi notes to the Goings.

What the invite has to answer

A New Year's Eve guest is doing arithmetic while reading. Can I get there after my sister's thing? Do I need to eat first? Will I be able to get home? Answer those three and you stop eleven follow-up messages.

Dress code is the one people ask about privately. If you do not mind what anyone wears, write that down, because silence reads as black tie to half your list.

• Start time, plus a door time if arrivals are staggered.
• Whether there is a meal or snacks only.
• Drinks: what you are providing and what to bring.
• The midnight plan, so nobody disappears at 11:45.
• Dress code, including 'wear what you like' if that is the answer.
• Kids: welcome, welcome until nine, or adults only.
• Parking, the nearest station, and whether the sofa is available.

Build the night backwards from midnight

Midnight is a hard deadline, which makes the rest of the evening easy to schedule. Work back from it. At 11:35 you open the bottles and start pouring, because filling eighteen glasses takes longer than you expect. At 11:50 you get people into one room. At 11:58 you find a countdown on a phone or the TV and turn the music down.

Pouring is the part that goes wrong. One 750 ml bottle of sparkling wine fills six small flutes, or five generous ones. For 18 guests that is four bottles for the toast alone, and you want two more cold for whoever walks in at 11:52. Chill them by 7 pm. A bottle takes about 25 minutes in ice water and closer to three hours in the fridge.

Set out a tray of poured glasses at 11:45 and the queue never forms.

Food and drink for a party that starts at nine

A 9 pm start means guests have eaten, or think they have. Snacks across four hours works out at 10 to 12 bites per person: something hot at 9:30, cheese and bread that sits out all night, and a second hot thing near 11 that soaks up the drinking.

Drinks run at roughly two in the first hour and one an hour after that. For 15 guests across five hours, plan near 90 servings in total, spread across beer, wine and something sparkling. Put a jug of water and a stack of glasses somewhere obvious so people help themselves.

• One hot snack at 9:30, one at 11, one at 1 am if the party holds.
• 10 to 12 bites per person for a snacks-only night.
• Two drinks in the first hour, one per hour after that.
• One 750 ml bottle of sparkling wine per five guests for the toast.
• Two litres of soft drinks and a full jug of water per four guests.

Getting guests home, or not home at all

Cabs between 12:30 and 2 am are the hardest booking of the year in most cities, and the fares show it. Put what you know in the invite: whether the night bus runs, how far the station is on foot, whether a sofa and two camp beds are on offer.

A sleepover offer changes who says yes. Count what you have before you promise it: duvets, towels, floor space, bathroom slots in the morning. Four extra people need somewhere to drop a bag. If breakfast is happening, name the time, or you will have guests awake and hungry at seven while you are asleep.

Take car keys from anyone driving and hand them back with coffee.

Replies without the group-chat scroll

A group chat buries RSVPs under memes inside a day. On Bringalong each guest taps Going, Maybe or Can't go on the invite page, adds a plus one, and leaves a note or a dietary flag. Your manage link shows the running count, and you can export the list as a CSV if you are writing place cards.

Guests add the date to their own calendar from the invite with an .ics file, Google or Outlook, so your address travels with the reminder. Change the start time and the same link shows the new detail, with no second announcement. If half your list works with you, print the QR code and stick it on the office fridge.