Dear Delilah
Wedding stationery and invitations, beautifully told
Visit Live Site
The Challenge
The wedding invitation market is split between expensive physical stationery and generic digital tools that feel like afterthoughts. Platforms like Zola and The Knot offer digital invitations as a feature, not a product, and the result shows. Couples who want something beautiful, personalised, and interactive have to choose between paying thousands for letterpress or settling for a template that looks like every other wedding. Dear Delilah was designed to close that gap with a luxury digital-first experience backed by physical stationery for couples who want both.
The Research
We researched the wedding stationery market across both physical and digital segments. Physical stationery averages $800 to $2,500 for a full suite. Digital platforms range from free (basic) to $200 (premium) but offer limited customisation and no physical product option.
The competitive analysis revealed a clear positioning opportunity. Existing digital platforms compete on price and convenience. None compete on design quality or emotional experience. Physical stationers compete on craft and luxury but cannot offer interactivity, real-time RSVPs, or day-of features.
We also mapped the feature landscape. Most digital platforms stop at the invitation itself. Very few offer seating management, guest dietary tracking, or interactive features like song requests and photo sharing. No platform we found combined digital invitations, a full interactive microsite, and physical stationery e-commerce in a single product.
Market Positioning
Feature Landscape
| Feature | Dear Delilah | Paperless Post | Zola | Minted | Withjoy |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animated/cinematic themes | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Live preview customisation | ✓ | – | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| RSVP + dietary tracking | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | – | ✓ |
| Seating planner | ✓ | – | – | – | ✓ |
| Song requests + voice notes | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
| Photo gallery for guests | ✓ | – | – | – | ✓ |
| Physical stationery e-commerce | ✓ | – | – | ✓ | – |
| Day-of features (bingo, polls) | ✓ | – | – | – | – |
Development Time Allocation
- Theme Engine + 50 Themes 30%
- Guest Management + RSVPs 20%
- Dashboard + Live Preview 18%
- E-commerce + Payments 15%
- Interactive Features 10%
- Auth + Infrastructure 7%
The Approach
We structured Dear Delilah around three tiers: a free digital invitation for price-sensitive couples, a premium tier with the full interactive microsite and guest management suite, and a bespoke tier with white-glove design consultation and custom theme creation.
The product architecture separates the couple-facing dashboard (where they customise their microsite and manage guests) from the guest-facing experience (the invitation and microsite itself). This separation means the dashboard can be feature-dense while the guest experience stays clean, fast, and focused on the couple's story.
- 1Choose
Couples browse 50+ cinematic, animated, and illustrated themes and select their starting point
- 2Customise
Every detail is editable from a live-preview dashboard: colours, text, photos, music, schedule, and more
- 3Send
Share via a unique link. Guests RSVP, select meals, request songs, and leave voice notes
- 4Manage
Track RSVPs, manage dietary requirements, plan seating with the drag-and-drop Diplomat tool
- 5Celebrate
Day-of features like Wedding Bingo, live photo sharing, guest polls, and connection cards
The Design
The visual identity needed to feel luxurious without being stuffy. We developed a design language that pairs editorial typography with soft, warm colour palettes and generous whitespace. The theme system was the most complex design challenge. Each of the 50+ themes is a self-contained visual world: its own colour palette, typography, animation style, and layout logic. Themes range from minimal and modern to richly cinematic, with animated elements like floating petals, parallax landscapes, and candlelit textures.
The dashboard design prioritises clarity over density. Couples are not power users, and many interact with the platform just once for a few hours. Every feature needs to be discoverable without a tutorial.
The Invitation Builder
Couples design their invitation in real time. Choose from 50+ cinematic and animated themes, then customise every detail from a live-preview editor.
The Couple Dashboard
A single view for everything: RSVP progress, guest list, connection cards, setup checklist, and a live preview of the published site.
The Build
Dear Delilah runs on SvelteKit with Clerk handling authentication (including Google OAuth for fast signup), Neon PostgreSQL via Prisma for the database, Stripe for payments, and Vercel Blob for media storage. The theme rendering engine dynamically loads theme styles and animations per microsite without bundling all 50+ themes into the client.
The RSVP system supports multi-event weddings (ceremony, reception, brunch) with per-event guest responses, meal selections, and plus-one management. The Diplomat seating planner uses a drag-and-drop interface with table capacity constraints and automatic guest grouping suggestions.
Guest Management
A full guest management suite. Track who has been invited, who is attending, who is awaiting, and filter or search across the whole list.
The Result
Dear Delilah launched as a complete wedding platform spanning digital invitations, interactive microsites, guest management, and physical stationery e-commerce. The product offers the design quality of luxury physical stationery with the interactivity and convenience of a digital platform.
On-the-Day Features
The guest experience doesn't end at the RSVP. On the wedding day, guests open their personalised menu to access order of the day, photo challenges, song requests, voice notes, and a shared memory book.
