There are many pros and cons to using paperless or email invitations for a party or other social event. Here are some of the most important ones to consider before deciding which to choose.
The Advantages
* Free and easy – Paperless invites are free, and easy to organize. You don’t have to spend money on the invitations, or the stamps to send them out.
People are always checking their email, so they are highly visible. You can also use a service like Evite.com if you tend to host a lot of social occasions, so you have everything in one place.
* Saves time – There’s no need to get out the address book, or print out a lot of sticky labels (expensive and time-consuming) in order to access your database of people you would like to invite for a party. At Evite, it creates a list of friends and connections for each person in your family, so birthday party invitations will be a breeze.
* Eco-friendly – You are saving on paper and the cost of the transportation of the letter, and therefore lowering your carbon footprint.
* Attractive designs – You can find online stationery companies that have templates for every occasion, so your invitations will look gorgeous.
* Saving the date – The sooner people know you are having the party, the sooner they can save the date and put it on their calendar to attend. There’s no delay until the mail gets there.
* Easy to ask and answer questions – If you are inviting children to a birthday party, you might have questions about food allergies, for instance, and the parents might have questions for you, such as drop-off and pick-up times, whether or not adults will also be invited, and so on. It’s very easy to answer an email, rather than deal with these issues over the phone.
* Present issues – Some parents feel obliged to give presents, but as a greener parent, you might not like their choices or wish to have a large pile of unwanted gifts around the house. So you could say gifts are optional, but if they do wish to give something can it be books, art supplies, or other items your child loves that are genuinely useful and won’t gather dust. They can also turn into activities at the party, like a bead jewelry-making kit at a princess party.
The Disadvantages
* Etiquette – Most etiquette books still frown on digital invitations, especially for weddings, but times are changing. A child’s birthday party is an informal occasion, so the paperless invitations should not be considered rude by most people. And if you explain in your email that you are going to be hosting an eco-friendly birthday party, most people will like the idea and the parents and kids should be eager to go along with it.
* Confusion over who is invited – Is it the whole family, just one of the children, and so on? Name the people in the invitation if your child knows both the boy and girl, for example, but is only friends with the girl. You can also state that the parents are invited as well, so there is no guesswork, but be sure to cater for them as well.
* Some people still don’t use the internet a lot – They might not look at their email often and your invitation might get shoved way down the page, or onto the next one. Be sure to ask them to RSVP you in the email.
* Email is only about 50% deliverable – Email clients often have sensitive spam filters that might get triggered by images, words, and so on. Be sure to ask them to RSVP by a certain date. Keep a list. If you don’t hear from them by that date, resend, with a second date to reply by.
