Digital invitations are easy, simple, eco-friendly, cost friendly, time-saving, and cute.
E-vites are especially good if you're doing everything you can to go green as the invitations are paperless- no waste, no killing of trees, no use of toxic inks... E-vites also enable you to include links to registries and directions to the event without trying to cram everything on a handwritten invitation or using both sides of the paper or even two pages. Digital invitations are easy, simple, eco-friendly, cost friendly, time-saving, and cute. However...
Older friends/family members may not be familiar with how to manipulate an e-vite.
How many people on your list are maybe a bit older and perhaps not quite tech savvy? When we sent out e-vites for Birdie's baby shower I discovered many of our older friends/family members were not familiar with how to manipulate a digital shower invitation. For example, they had no idea they needed to scroll down for links to the registry or scroll even further for a map and directions to the venue. We should have considered paper invitations for quite a few guests.
How personal do you want the invitations to be?
Before deciding whether to choose digital vs paper invitations, ask yourself how personal you want the invitations to be. If you want casual, impersonal, and your guests are trendy 20- 30 something-year-old go-getters then, by all means, go digital. This is a group that understands the need for spending time on things other than the invitations. Not to mention it's totally hip (does anyone use 'hip' anymore except when talking about hip replacements?) to use the e-vites with this group. These kids are not only trendy and busy, they're also modern and environmentally conscious and they don't tend to stand on ceremony.
What about keepsakes or reminders?
Another thing to ask yourself is, do you or will someone want to frame the invitation or have it to use as a keepsake for the baby book or scrapbook it? Do people scrapbook anymore? Or am I dating myself, again? Do people like to put paper invitations on their fridge as a reminder? Of course, the e-vites are nice because of access. We may or may not remember to bring the paper copy with us if we need the registry info or directions or have a question but we always have our phones with us making the e-vite easily accessible. If we need a reminder we can set our phone calendar to notify us. And let's not forget that with some e-vites, the guests can interact with one another to go in on a more expensive gift or set up carpooling. Plus, I feel e-vites make the RSVP much easier as I tend to put it off with a paper invitation.
What's the bottom line, then?
The bottom line is, I like both the digital and paper invitations. Helpful, right? In my opinion, my choice will depend on the occasion first and foremost. If we're having a formal affair such as a wedding in the family, I prefer paper invitations. If the event is more casual, I will use digital and paper invitations. The digital option will be sent out to those tech-savvy guests while the paper ones will be sent out to those who are less knowledgeable about such things as e-vites as well as those (and we have a couple) who would be highly offended by us even thinking of not sending out paper invitations. If I'm unsure of the guest, he/she will receive a paper invitation. Don't worry, our gatherings aren't huge enough to make categorizing guests a daunting task. If we do happen to have a huge event, casual or not, I'll send paper.
What do y'all prefer, paper or digital invitations?
