I’m a girl who loves to get “real” mail in my letterbox.
And by real mail, I mean personal stuff, not bills.
So last year I painstakingly wrote out about 15 – 16 envelopes and sent out handwritten party invitations.
Do you know that was the most stressful part of having a party? I even wrote that I would NEVER send out party invites in the mail EVER again.
Strong language? Yes.
I think 3 people RSVPd within a day and the rest didn’t RSVP until I hounded them about 3 weeks later. About 3 people didn’t ever bother to RSVP.
That’s why I felt so strongly about not mailing out the invites this time.
This year I took the etsy invite and made it into a jpg so that I could “write on it” in Picasa (Google’s free photo editing programme).
And then I emailed it out to all the guests.
This year I only had to chase up 2 of them. Again, 1 just didn’t respond so I’m getting the hint 🙂
The whole thing was so much less painful than last year.
This is the way to go!
Sadly, it doesn’t seem like South Africans care about getting things in the mail.
Is it the same where you live?
While I love, love, LOVE to send out “proper” thank-you notes, I was leaving for the USA 4 days after the kids’ party and I knew that was going to be unrealistic what with all the holiday preparations needed.
So I did the same trick of “writing” the thank-you notes in Picasa.
I did individual thank-you notes, attached some pics of each particular guest (and of my kids using the gift if it was already in use) and emailed out about 12 sets of thank-you notes.
Oh my gosh, it was a mission.
In retrospect, it would probably have been quicker to hand write them like I did last year. But that’s just because my internet was so slow that particular weekend.
Last year I sent out thank-you notes, and then I sent out professional photos taken at the party.
As with the invites I wasn’t quite sure if the thank-you notes arrived but most people thanked me for the photos.
What have I learnt this year?
- Definitely email the party invitations
- Not sure about the emailed thank-you notes. As Gretchen Rubin says in The Happiness Project, she realised that she likes to do certain things that other people don’t really care about. So too it is with me and thank-you notes. I do realise that lots of people don’t care one way or the other (a family member told me not to bother sending her a thank-you… I did one anyway) but I felt like something was missing in the email. We had one present after the birthday and for that one, we mailed a paper thank-you and I feel much better 🙂
Where do you fall on the email vs mailed party invitations and thank-you notes?
Mind you, I do see a growing trend of text invites and thank-yous and I’m being very old-fashioned here, but to me, that just doesn’t sit right 🙂
With the older kids we now do hand delivered invites – about 20% RSVP – this has been the trend for the last 10 years (thats how many years I have been doing parties) – it is easier now because the kids each have a small group of the same that they invite each year so I know the moms and send invites and then sms them the same day!
with Jacks I emailed them purely because I am disorganised and couldnt get myself organised in time to hand them out/post them.
We are posting for the wedding though – Save the dates and invites – I really dont like emails!
I prefer to get party invitations in the mail so I can stick them in a prominent place (I’m a bit behind on the technology I suppose) near the calendar. However, the last few birthday parties for my boys were done via Evite and I fully confess to texting 1 invite for a party. I do think it’s probably not the most polite way. A trend I’ve seen regarding the RSVP is to write “regrets only” on the invitations instead. I do like that as it clarifies the proper response for the invitee. I think there are quite a few people who aren’t aware that RSVP means to respond if you are actually attending. At least, that’s been my experience in the invitation world. I like to take photos and make thank you cards that are then mailed. However, we are forever behind on thank you notes it seems.