Fortune Teller Party Invitation

A 5x7 invitation drawn as a major arcana card. The gold arch runs the height of the card with XXXI at its peak, crescent moons sit in the corners, and inside the arch hangs a spider web over three bowls. It belongs to the Fortune Teller’s Parlor party blueprint.

What’s Included

• 5x7 invitation as a dark PDF, a light PDF for home printers, and a PNG for texting or email
• Write-in lines for host, date, hour, place and RSVP, so it prints ready to fill in by hand
• A costume line asking guests to come as a period fortune teller: a Victorian palmist, a cartomancer or a reader of tea leaves
• Robert Burns’ own words from his 1786 poem “Halloween”: “the Charms and Spells of that Night, so big with Prophecy” up top, and his closing line “Fu’ blythe that night” at the foot

The Motifs

The web is the Web of Fate from Dennison’s Bogie Book, a party game in which the host draws a large spider web on orange mat stock, writes fortunes in its sections, and lets each guest spin a top on it (Library of Congress). The three bowls are Burns’ luggies: clean water, foul water and an empty dish, set on the hearth for a blindfolded guest to choose from. Burns explains the game in his note to the poem (Library of Congress, Burns’ Complete Poetical Works), and the matching fortune teller place cards turn each bowl into a seat.

Printing Tips

Print at actual size on 110 lb cardstock and trim to 5 x 7. The dark version fills the page with ink, so use the light version for a big guest list and write the details in gold or silver pen. Mail it in an A7 envelope. For wording and RSVP timing, see our invitation etiquette guide.

Pairs With

• Fortune Teller’s Parlor blueprint for the stations, menu and games
• Fortune Teller Place Cards for the table
• Haunted Victorian Seance blueprint if the night turns to the dead