Saturday, December 08, 2007

I is for Invitations

Dear Party Throwers (we include ourselves in this category),

Remember the good old days when people sent out paper invitations through the mail with addresses and stamps and sometimes RSVP cards for things other than weddings? Sure it took more time and killed trees, but it was nice and thoughtful and really, who doesn't like to receive anything in the mail other than catalogs, bills and junk?


In the past week we have received no fewer than 10 invitations via email or evite to build gingerbread houses, shower an expectant mother, celebrate various birthdays, sing Christmas carols, and attend myriad luncheons. Of course the volume is due mainly to the season, and in our case the mode of invitation is the direct result of Peru not having anything that even remotely resembles a mail system, but I suspect the situation would be the same even were we not in Peru.

Now, I know this is Christmas card season and everyone is feeling like they have done their best for the USPS bottom line, but it isn't December all year long and stamp prices are constantly on the rise (9 cents in 10 years) so, the postal folks claim, they can continue to operate in the black (as if we believe this is the goal of any government agency). What if we all banded together in response to rising stamp prices and in homage to the good old days and for our next function actually sent out a paper invitation - GASP!! As an added incentive think about when you open your mail how thrilled are you to receive something that wasn't massed produced or doesn't end with a "you owe this much" section?

In our house we are very lucky in the mail department as Kenny parents send holiday cards for every holiday and my parents each write to us once a week (and they include a letter for Caleb too). My parents starting writing to me and each of my siblings when we moved away from home and now write (with actual pen and paper) six individual letters every week - we've saved our letters and they are a great record of our recent history.

So the challenge is to pick an upcoming event and using the Christmas card address list you have recently updated and your beloved printer, cricut machine or some elbow grease surprise your friends with an honest to goodness, hold in your hand invitation. And while I can't guarantee stamp prices won't continue to increase, I can promise you'll be glad you accepted this challenge.

Happy Inviting!

PS If you're in our vicinity next month look for one of these in your mailbox to celebrate Caleb's 2nd birthday

8 comments:

Ilene said...

I have a Cricut. Have had one since May. Still haven't opened the box. So much for my ideas of catching up on scrapbooking and pretty cards. I should take you up on your challenge.

Any idea how to use a Cricut?

Celia Fae said...

I must disagree here. While I enjoy receiving cards, I like evites better purely because you can see who is coming! I think people who like making stuff should send cards and people like me should be allowed to evite. I hope by the time my kids get married I can send an evite! How tacky!

Paige said...

Evites are good because they can be deleted. Oh, you sent an Evite? Sorry, never got it. And you ain't never getting my $25 "contribution!" Or a dang white elephant present. I'm so over them look for a nasty white elephant blog soon.

Heather said...

No way, Jose. While I agree that everyone should write a hand-written letter ever so often, there is no way I am going back to real invitations! Don't you love the earth?

Heather

Nortorious said...

I understand the complaint. Weddings should be paper mail, but for the rest? Evite me. People move around too much. Emails are forever.

Nate and Sina said...

I'm with you on this one Linsey. Paper invitations are much nicer to receive and to give. It is such a simple way to add a little something to your event, like place cards at an otherwise casual dinner. I think people really don't use them because they don't plan ahead well enough to prepare them and an Evite takes them five minutes.

Evites are appropriate when gathering a group of friends who all know each other for a Seinfeld marathon or trivial pursuit championship. Not a dinner, most definately not a baby shower, and certainly NOT a party celebrating the birth of the Baby Jesus. (Hey, our commander-in-chief always gets away with using a Christ reference to promote his opinions, I thought I could give it a try.)

Jessica said...

What are people going to put in their baby books? A print out?

Adrianne said...

I love real cards, I'm lazy enough that I have fallen in the Evite trap. I'm waiting for Evite to be in Spanish.

 

Design by Custom Blog Designs/FreeStyleMama Creations