Virtual Invites

The other day I received my first digital wedding invitation. It was a personalized email that included all the info you’d fine in a physical invite as well as a link to the couple’s wedding website. While certainly not as fun as a traditional invite (I find real mail always more interesting than the virtual kind), it did do its job.

I know wedding experts frown on email invites (and in all honestly, I’m not totally sold on the idea) but I can certainly understand their appeal. They’re cheaper, they’re greener and they make keeping track of RSVPs much easier. And really, apart from a handful of close relative or friends, who really is going to keep your wedding invite?

But on the other hand, not everyone understands this internet thingy and many guests will likely be less than impressed if you go the email route. My friends seemed to understand that and made it clear that they were making a small number of invites for less internet-savvy guests and that if we wanted, they could send us a paper invite.

If you choose the email invite route, I think that’s the approach to take: do be prepared to have to create real invites and do be prepared to send them to more than just those guests over 60.

A few other tips:

- Don’t make your email look like something that escaped 1997. Stick to one font and one colour and only use effects like italics and bolding sparsely

- Do keep your layout simple and clean and keep in mind that because different email programs display emails differently, what you see isn’t necessary what your guests will see

- If you’re building out a graphic email, keep links and images to a minimize to avoid your mail being labeled as spam (this is particularly important if you’ll be sending them from a web-based email address like Gmail or Hotmail)

- But don’t make your graphic email all one big picture. Most email programs automatically turn off these images and receivers who aren’t paying attention or aren’t email-savvy might be confused or even delete your invite

- Prior to sending out your digital invites, send out an email asking that your email address be added by your guests to their safe/white lists; this will prevent your invites from being labeled as spam. You can also use this email to ask if any guests would prefer paper invites

- And do be prepared for at least one email to be labeled as spam and for you to have to follow up with that old-fashioned technology the phone