8 Open House Invitation Designs (Plus, Tips & Wording Ideas)

Hosting an open house is all about making a great first impression, mingling with community members or family and friends, and celebrating your new house, company, business location, or milestone. Whatever the occasion, you’ll need to send out a high-quality open house invitation to welcome friends, neighbors, vendors, and colleagues to the event.

You can throw an open house event for a business grand opening, a company holiday party, a housewarming party, or a graduation celebration. Below, you’ll find some of our favorite open house invitation designs that work for all kinds of business or personal events. Plus, we’ll address common open house FAQs and share sample invitation wording.

8 Open House Invitations to Welcome Guests

Whether you’re throwing an open house that doubles as a housewarming party, inviting the community to come see your newly built office, toasting five years in business, or celebrating another milestone, we have plenty of high-quality party invitations to consider, with several listed below. Our open house invitation templates offer customizable, eye-catching fonts and colors to match your plans and make your open house event invitation pop.

1. New Home! Invitation

Celebrate your major #adulting moment and becoming an official homeowner in style by bringing your friends and neighbors over to break in your new digs.

Customize this housewarming invitation template with your newly updated address, and fill your new place with familiar faces.

2. Grand Gold Invitation

After quite a few late nights and a pint’s worth of elbow grease, your grand opening is just around the corner. With keys in hand and the lights finally on (thank goodness), you’re ready to roll out the not-quite-red carpet to officially launch your business.

Invite your favorite clients, ride-or-die supporters, and all-time biggest cheerleaders as you open your doors. This luxurious, gold foil business invitation is fit for your show-stopping, mic-dropping launch party.

3. Tone on Tone Invitation

This elegant tone-on-tone open house invitation features a foil beveled edge and several monochromatic colorways. The contemporary design would work for any business or personal open house event, and the details are easily customized to match your celebration.

4. Champagne Toast Invitation

Raise your glasses, because you and your colleagues just moved into a new office. Spread selfies across social media, share the good news in your newsletter, and send out this open house event invitation to welcome vendors, partners, and clients over to the new space. Get ready to loosen those ties, pour a few after-work cocktails, and prop the door open, because it’s time to toast to your new office.

5. Tree Pattern Invitation

String up the holiday lights and pop bottles of champagne to prepare for the New Year.

This holiday open house card works well whether you’re sending out Christmas party invitations for a gathering at home or inviting colleagues and clients to an office holiday party. Customize the invitation design with your party details, and send it out to those who made this year memorable. For the office version specifically, where branding and a headcount for the caterer both matter, our roundup of the best corporate holiday and Christmas party invitation platforms ranks seven options on exactly those terms.

6. Grid and Banner Announcement

As a Realtor, you’ll love this open house invitation that’s perfect for a real estate open house and helps you get the word out to house hunters in the area. Customize the invitation with alluring photos from the home’s interior and exterior, and embellish the text with several coveted amenities.

7. Timeless Accents Invitation

This minimalistic invitation design stands out with a unique typeface and gold foil accents. The text can be fully customized, which means you can use this invite for any type of open house event you want, from a fundraiser or grand opening to a housewarming or graduation party.

8. Typographic Open House Invitation

The simplicity of this typographic open house invitation is its superpower. It’s easily customized for any kind of business or personal event, and it’s backside supported so you have room for extra details.

Choose between black, navy, taupe, or burgundy with metallic accents, or go with a monochromatic palette in black or midnight blue. Have another color palette in mind? Work with one of our designers for a bespoke design.

Holiday Open House Invitation Wording

A holiday open house invitation has to answer three questions the design cannot: when guests may arrive and leave, who is included, and whether there is a meal. Each of the three complete examples below names all three, and any of them can go out on a Greenvelope open house design. For a December open house, aim to send invitations about 4 to 6 weeks ahead. Replace the bracketed details with your own, and either fill in the optional parking and entrance line or delete it.

1. Family and Neighbors, an Afternoon Drop-In

The door is open all afternoon.
Holiday open house at the [host family] home
[Day, date], 2 to 6 p.m.
[Street address]
Drop in anytime between 2 and 6 p.m. and stay as long as you like.
Hot cider, cookies, and a cheese board all afternoon, but no sit-down meal, so plan dinner separately.
Neighbors, family, and children are all welcome, and your invitation covers your household plus [number] guests. If you would like to bring anyone else, check with us first.
Replying is optional. A quick yes through this invitation by [reply-by date] helps us plan the cider and cookies.

Our Tree Pattern invitation by Claudia Owen, the gold trees on black shown above, carries this one well.

2. Adults Only, an Evening of Drinks and Appetizers

Cocktails are poured from six.
An adults-only holiday open house at the home of [host names]
[Day, date], 6 to 9 p.m.
[Street address]
Drop in anytime between 6 and 9 p.m. for cocktails, wine, and light appetizers; dinner will not be served, so please eat beforehand.
Your invitation covers you and a partner.
[Parking and entrance instructions]
Please reply through this invitation by [reply-by date] so we know how much to pour.

Pair it with the Tone on Tone invitation by Colin Cowie, the monochromatic design with the foil beveled edge above.

3. A Business Open House for Clients and Neighbors

Our door is open, and the coffee is on.
[Company name] invites clients, neighbors, and friends of the business to our holiday open house
[Day, date], 4 to 7 p.m.
[Business name], [street address]
Stop by anytime between 4 and 7 p.m. We will raise a short toast at 5:30 p.m., and the rest of the window is come and go.
Hot drinks, appetizers, and dessert throughout the event; no seated meal is planned.
Clients, neighbors on the block, and colleagues are all welcome, and you are welcome to bring a guest. Walk in whenever you like, with no reply needed to join us.
[Parking and entrance instructions]
If you already know you are coming, text [host name] at [phone number] by [reply-by date]. It only helps us order the right amount of food.

The Typographic Open House invitation by Gwen B Design suits the business version, and its backside leaves room for the parking and entrance lines.

What a Reply Tells You at an Open House

Replies to an open house help you estimate total attendance and plan refreshments. They do not establish how many guests will be in the room at the same time, since arrivals spread across the whole window. For a rough sense of timing, you can add an optional question to the reply form asking which hour a guest expects to arrive (our help center covers custom survey questions). Read those answers as a planning estimate: they are not appointment slots, and they do not limit how many guests arrive at once.

For wording beyond the open house format, from Christmas Eve dinners to office parties, see our holiday party invitation wording guide. Once the wording is settled, how to send holiday party invitations online walks through the sending and reply side step by step.

Open House Invitation FAQs

Before you start spreading the word, make sure you have your invites just right. Here are some common FAQs and key bases to cover when creating your open house invitations.

What’s the Difference Between an Open House and a Traditional Party?

An open house implies guests can come and go as they please within a specified window of time. No one arrives “fashionably late” at an open house (great news to your typically tardy friends). Most of the window runs without an agenda: guests arrive at whatever time suits them, enjoy snacks or a beverage, and mingle with others. If you plan a toast, ribbon-cutting, or tree lighting, list its time so guests can decide when to arrive.

What Information Should Be Included on the Invitation?

Similar to baby showers, birthday parties, and wedding invitations, the most important information to include is the date the event is taking place, the start and end time of the open house, and where it’s being hosted. Make it clear it’s an open-house-style gathering.

We also recommend giving a good baseline for what attendees can expect to experience, such as “Enjoy festive food and beverages, meet our Realtors, and mingle with other community members.”

If you’re hosting an open house for a business, include details that will incentivize attendance, such as free refreshments, door prizes, or exclusive discounts.

Open House Invitation Wording Ideas

First and foremost, wording and open house invitation design should align with what you’re all about as a company or person. What’s your personality? Are you wanting to appear super formal or relaxed?

Depending on the tone and style of the event, we’ve prepped some wording suggestions below:

• Come check out our new digs! Enjoy some drinks and grub while you scope things out.
• You’re cordially invited to our open house. Enjoy delectable refreshments and merriment.
• We’re offering a sneak peek in three weeks. Hope to see you there.
• We couldn’t be more thrilled about our new home. Please join us at our open house to celebrate this milestone.
• Help us cheers to future years in our new home.
• You’re invited: Help us kick off the New Year in our new office!
• Hip, hip, hooray! It’s almost open house day!
• You’re invited to an eventful open house affair. We hope to see you there.
• Come on in for a sneak peek of what we’ve been cooking up.
• No need to knock, come on in and make yourself at home.
• We have something big to celebrate. Will you join us?
• We’re the new kids adults on the block and we would love to get to know you. Join us for a housewarming.
• We’re new to the neighborhood. Please join us for an open house this weekend.
• You won’t want to miss this exclusive open house.
• Join us for a ribbon-cutting ceremony, followed by live music and refreshments.

For December gatherings, the three complete examples under Holiday Open House Invitation Wording above spell out the arrival window, guest scope, and food in full.

How Should RSVPs Be Handled?

Unlike other types of events where it’s essential that guests RSVP, open house invitations are more relaxed. For a public, walk-in event such as a real estate open house promoting a listing, replies are usually unnecessary; for a private preview or any gathering where you need numbers, it is worth asking.

The easiest way to collect RSVPs, for you and for the attendee alike, is using online invitations. Guests can RSVP with just a few clicks, and you’ll be able to track responses and even set up automated reminders.

By encouraging RSVPs, it helps you get a better idea of the amount of food, beverages, and space needed to celebrate the occasion. Just know, not everyone who RSVPs will attend, and not everyone will RSVP.

When Should I Host My Event?

When you should host your open house will depend on the type of event:

• For a personal event, like a housewarming party, you can choose whatever day will work best for you.
• For a real estate open house, it’s traditional to hold an open house on a weekend afternoon, often on Sunday.
• For other business events, look at local event calendars and steer away from dates that would be bad for foot traffic. Event calendars can also help determine dates that your open house could be part of a larger event. For example, if there is a big community event happening on the same block as your business, you can capitalize on the large crowd by hosting your open house.

How Should I Invite Guests and Spread the News?

The simplest way to invite guests is with a digital invitation via email or text.

For business events, consider also distributing open house flyers or creating a Facebook event with the invitation details to spread the news. Promote the event via LinkedIn, Instagram, or Facebook posts.

When opening a new business or moving into a new space, it’s a good idea to make it a community affair and invite your neighboring businesses, the Downtown Development Authority and/or Chamber of Commerce, city commission members and public officials, and anyone who supported the effort to get you up and running.

Leave the Doors Open

We can’t prop the door open for you, and we won’t be there to pass out champagne on your behalf. We can, however, help you get the invitation in front of everyone you would like there, and keep track of who replies. Using our easy, advanced guest tracking system, simply upload a CSV file of your guests, customize your open house design template, then fire off your invitations in just a few clicks.

All that’s left is to leave the doors unlocked and put an open house sign up before the party starts.