I recently received an email invitation for a friend's bridal shower. A few weeks before this, I received an email baby announcement from my cousin. And a few months previous to that, I had two baby showers where the invitations were sent via email.
Although the email wedding announcement that I recently received seemed to be a little strange, I see nothing wrong with using email for bridal and baby showers, baby announcements, birthday cards, or party invitations. In fact, I think it's genius.
For my baby shower, we designed our own invitation and reminder in Photoshop, then inserted the image in an email. We sent out the invitation a week before the shower, and the reminder the day before the shower, and people could directly RSVP by replying to the email. So simple!
However, if you don't have Photoshop, or don't want to design your own invitation, there are lots of good websites that let you make and send your evites for free, including evite.com, Purpletrail.com, Mypunchbowl.com, and Pingg.com. These do the work for you, sending out all the invitations, sending a reminder, and allowing the guests to RSVP and see other guests who have RSVP'd.
Email is such a good communication resource, and best of all, it's free! So next time your gearing up to buy invitations, envelopes, and several rolls of stamps, think about sending an evite.
3 comments:
I agree with this to an extent...my biggest issue with it is that my grandparents and even my parents often have a hard time doing the who internet/email stuff. They LOVE having real printed pictures, or announcements or whatever it is, so instead of sending a "virtual" album, I send out hard copy pictures to them every few months. They are SO grateful to have those hard copies and are not really into the whole virtual stuff.
I think that it is weird to get a wedding announcement via email (tacky...especially if you "expect" a gift). I sent out baby shower announcements (non-email) when I had my daughter and was AMAZED at the generosity that people showed. We received so much (money, gifts, etc...) that it completely made up for any cost associated with sending out the announcements. I think that people figure if you send them out via mail that they like that (who doesn't like getting an actual piece of mail?!) will return the "favor" by sending you something. The weird part that it wasn't my intention at all to "get" anything from it, but we were certainly blessed by people's generosity.
So, I think for a party it's great to use an evite, but a birth, wedding and even Christmas cards...there's just something about actually getting something in the mail...
On the surface, this sounds great, but I agree with Anonymous. For an informal gathering or announcement, an email is fine, but I truly believe that most people should be sent by mail (or hand delivered) written announcements, thank you cards, and invitations.
I got an email wedding invitation and it was totally in keeping with the ethics and personalities of the bride and groom. They didn't want to use paper products and I could RSVP right online. It was convenient and I didn't forget. There were photos from when he proposed. It was nice and very non-tacky.
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