Digital invitations for events like anniversaries, birthdays, baby showers—and, yes, even weddings—are becoming increasingly popular, but is it time that you too made the switch away from good old-fashioned paper invitations? If you’re getting an early start on planning your first big event post-COVID and you’re unsure whether to spread the word via modern or more traditional means, we’re here to help. Right now, we invite you to check out a little list we’ve put together comparing the benefits of physical and digital invitations. There’s no need to RSVP folks; just read on…
What are the benefits of Digital Invitations?
Economical
If you’re looking to cut costs somewhere, digital invitations are a great option. Not only will you save money on envelopes, stamps, and all the other necessary trimmings, but the evites themselves will cost a fraction of their physical counterparts. Greenvelope, Paperless Post, and Riley & Grey all provide cost-effective invitation suites and services for those planning weddings.
Meanwhile, with Instant Downloads, you can access an array of stylish templates for a wide variety of occasions, from kids’ birthday bashes to elegant bridal showers. Each template can be personalized and downloaded straight to your phone or computer! The best way to see if a design is available as an Instant Download, you’ll notice the Downloadable symbol.
For more information, please check out our Instant Downloads page and featured article!
Environmentally Friendly
With online invitations, the cost to Mother Nature is also reduced. There’s no paper involved and a digital wedding invitation or birthday evite doesn’t require fuel to get to its destination, so you can rest easy in the knowledge that you’ve done your part for the environment.
Easy!
You don’t have to recruit a team or create an assembly line at the kitchen table. You don’t have to lick stamps and envelopes until your tongue is blistered and sore, or painstakingly pen addresses until the local kids rename your hand ‘The Claw’ and designate you as the neighborhood bogeyman. With online invitations, once you’ve selected your design, the rest is quick and easy. This is particularly helpful if your event is just around the corner, or you’re particularly swamped, and time is of the essence.
Breezy!
The last few weeks before your wedding day can be stressful enough as it is, so you don’t want to spend your time hunting down phone numbers for off-grid relatives and acquaintances who have yet to RSVP. With digital invitations, this can all be avoided. The most popular online services offer guest tracking and management systems that will make the whole RSVP process a breeze—not just for you, but also your guests. In just a few clicks, guests can make their intentions clear, and, in some cases, provide information about meal preferences and even reception song requests. If your event is a smaller and more casual get-together, Facebook Events also allows guests to say yay or nay with a single click, while also allowing you to keep track of your guest list.
…& Discreet.
If you’re planning a surprise birthday party or bridal shower and you really want to preserve the secrecy surrounding the event, then digital invitations are the way to go. There’s no need to worry about the guest of honor happening upon a carelessly placed invitation at a friend’s house and ruining the surprise if you send the invite to a password-secured email account instead. The extra caution and care will be worth it when you see the look of genuine surprise upon their face.
How to Make Digital Invitations on Zazzle
Time needed: 10 minutes
Whether you’re on-the-go or in the comfort of your own home, grab a phone / tablet / laptop & start creating and sharing your moments digitally, in just 3 simple steps
- Find and choose the perfect design.
When browsing Zazzle, look for the ‘Downloadable’ label. If you see this displayed underneath a design, it means the creator has made this content available for Instant Download.
- Customize your digital invitations.
Customize your chosen design with details, dates and even photos. Select ‘Instant Download’ to add the digital template to your cart, or alternatively, you can buy both printed invitations and a digital download…the best of both worlds!
- Place your order.
Once your order is placed, you’ll receive an email within minutes that will contain a private link for you to access your new digital design file.
Note: Infinitely customizable, you can edit and download your design as often as you need to, in a variety of different file formats.
What are the benefits of Physical Invitations?
Charming & Traditional
While digital invitations and the services that surround them are modern, slick, dynamic, and practical, the appeal of the paper invitation is rooted in its old-fashioned charm. Even if the design is modern, a physical invitation is traditional, and tradition is something that can be very important to people when it comes to certain events—particularly weddings. Paper invitations might cost more and make things a little more complicated, but they make up for it with style and, quite literally, substance.
Cherishable
The tangible qualities of paper invitations once again come to the fore, here. If your event is of particular significance, such as a milestone anniversary or, once again, a wedding, you may wish to retain some keepsakes for sentimental reasons—to have and to hold, so to speak. Physical invitations make wonderful keepsakes, whether they are added to a picture frame and mounted on the mantle, placed into a scrapbook, album, or collage, or simply stored away safely in a keepsake box.
Part of the Occasion
In the previous section, we joked about blistered tongues, cramped hands, and the downside of mailing invitations. But there can be joy in that toil. For those planning weddings, this is an opportunity to gather your bridal party and/or families to help with the duties, reminisce, and have fun. Or perhaps you could pour a couple glasses of wine and turn the process into an intimate activity for you and your spouse-to-be. Either way, while it can be time-consuming, it can also be a special and memorable occasion.
Reliable
Not everybody is omnipresent on social media or is even particularly adept with smart phones, tablets, or computers, and thus digital invitations can be problematic. There’s also the possibility that evites could be lost in chaotic inboxes or spam folders, or seen in a busy moment and soon forgotten about. If you want to ensure that the less tech-savvy or active folks in your sphere get their invitations, then the old-fashioned way is best.
…& Exciting!
For the guest, receiving an invitation in the post is a hugely exciting moment. Whether it’s a party announcement they weren’t expecting or a wedding invitation that they’ve been eagerly awaiting, they’ll be overjoyed to discover it in their mailbox. Sure, a digital invitation will bring excitement of its own, but, let’s face it, it’s hard to beat the real deal!
How to Shop Invitations on Zazzle
The best way to shop Zazzle’s amazing marketplace of invitations is by starting on our Invitations & Announcements page. Whether you’re planning a wedding, baby shower, birthday or any other special occasion, there are endless invitations for you to choose from!
Here are 6 of our top invitation categories:
Once you select an invitation, you have access to Zazzle’s FREE design tool to make any changes or additions.
FAQs for Digital Invitations
1. Digital invitations will you save money on stationery costs (stamps, envelopes, etc.).
2. Digital invites are environmentally friendly – there’s no paper involved!
3. Evites are easy to send – sometimes it’s a matter of a few buttons and off they go!
4. Digital invitations often come with RSVP tracking, making it easy to track your guest list.
5. If you’re planning a surprise party, digital invites are discreet with no paper trail!
The idea of a ‘digital invitation’ might have been a crazy concept prior to the technological world we’re currently living in. Although digital invites may come off as tacky and informal to some, these ‘evites’ are becoming a more normalized, cost-effective, eco-friendly way to invite friends and family to events in recent years!
Rather than ordering paper invitations, stuffing them in envelopes, sealing them, adding a stamp and sending them off to a post office, digital invitations are completely online. You’re able to customize a digital invite with your own information and instantly send it to your recipients electronically (whether that’s over email or text message!). Check out Instant Downloads on Zazzle!
Of course it’s ok to send digital wedding invitations! If you & your partner are looking into cost-effective, eco-friendly and simple options for your wedding invites, digital wedding invitations are an amazing alternative to physical invites.
We hope that our list of the benefits of digital invitations versus physical invitations has helped you choose the right kind of invites for you and your event.
In the end, however, it really doesn’t matter which invitations you decide on, as long as they bring together all the people you love, in one special place, for one special day!
Seamus is a Content Specialist at Zazzle. He is quite happy in the role. So, if you’re following, that makes him a content Content Specialist. Seamus likes to write, read, watch sports, drink good beer/coffee, and spend time with his two beautiful kids. To say that he doesn’t like ketchup is an understatement.
