Now that we’re vaccinated, bring on the parties!
With COVID on the wane, it’s party time!! Online invitations are the easiest way to go, assuming you have your guests’ emails. The sites have many invitation designs to choose from, many categories of invitations, and most keep track of your RSVPs. Most sites also allow you to customize existing designs to suit your taste and needs. I find it a fun and creative process to compose online invitations and it is instant gratification. I still love paper invitations through snail mail, and it’s handy to have the hard copy to remind you to RSVP, but the convenience of online invites can’t be beat. Here are some of the most popular sites.
Paperless Post was one of the earliest evite sites and has many invitation categories and designs to choose from, all of them lovely and stylish. You can find casual to very formal designs. It has over eighty categories of events to select templates from. Tracking invitations is easy, and you know if the invitation was opened, bounced back, accepted or regretted. Guests can also send you a message from the site. You can customize the envelopes and choose which ‘stamps’ you’d like. Each invitation is priced by ‘coins’ depending on your customization and the level of complication of the invitation itself. I usually end up with invitations that are 4 coins each. 25 coins cost $10.00 and 400 coins cost $50.00.
Purpletrail is your choice if you are creative and want to control the designs, and if you want the option of printing and mailing invitations or sending them digitally. The site has interesting themes, and you may design the invitations as you want. You can add photos or messages to your designs. There are over 5,000 designs to select from, and you can personalize the one you choose however you like. The site is free, and you only pay when you print a card, and there is a small charge to have a design expert review your customization.
Smilebox is an online-only invitation site. There are over 1,000 ready made templates you can choose from. You can customize any template to include adding collages and/or music. You can download all your designs, and track guest responses. The site is free but offers only limited access to limited offerings, basically the basic templates. For a fee you have access to all of Smilebox’s templates, as well as all of their customization features.
Minted is primarily used for wedding invitations, but many people use it to create online invitations for free for all types of other occasions. You choose a design, track all the RSVPs, and you can include a gift registry if applicable. Select the look you want and customize it as you wish. Artists are invited to the Minted Platform, and they get part of the payment when you choose their designs.
GreenVelope’s mission is to reduce paper waste thru online invitations. It allows users to upload their own custom design or customize one of GreenVelope’s designs, done by independent graphic designers. The goal is to deliver online custom invitations sent electronically ‘to help save trees, time and money’. They donate a percentage of every sale to Mountain to Sound, a non-profit organization that maintains forests. They offer personalized envelopes, private guest lists and no ads on their invitations. The cost is $39.00 for up to 40 guests, $124 for 150 guests.
Evite has over 4,000 invitation designs. There are two levels – Free with ads or Premium which costs $14.99 – $79.99 per event and no ads. It will also enable users to host virtual events, and will track RSVPs for all, your events. It tracks deliverability status of each invitation sent and send RSVP reminders to guests who have not done so. It will create polls for guests to learn meal or any other relevant preference. Preferences. Hosts can also send thank you notes to participants.
Ojolie is different from all the rest reviewed here because all the cards are animated. The cards have wonderful style and design, and simple and really fun animation. You can write whatever you like, and there are many designs that are not occasion-specific. This would be an unconventional and informal invitation, but for the right event, it would be perfect! Most of the cards are free to send, and the ones that are not are inexpensive. A two-year membership is $22.00 and for that you can send all the cards you like in unlimited quantities. The specific invitation category has eight designs to choose from, but there are many other cards not specifically invitations that you can turn into an invitation format. Check out some of the animations!
