MyPunchblog

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

Now that we are halfway through the month of March, the days are getting longer and spring is just around the corner. What a perfect time for the start of National Spring Fever Week! How are you celebrating spring? It’s a great time to do some spring cleaning or plan a weekend getaway!

Today is also the start of National Wildlife Week and American Chocolate Week. We love chocolate at Punchbowl and really like the idea of hosting an iron chef party where the main ingredient is chocolate!

This week also includes two events that surely signify spring is almost here…St. Patrick’s Day and the start of March Madness! Whether you’re hosting an informal St. Patty’s Day dinner or are heading to the bars to celebrate and watch college hoops, we have everything you need to get started. Start planning your party!

This week’s other reasons to celebrate include:

• March 15: National Pears Helene Day
• March 16: National Artichoke Hearts Day
• March 17: St. Patrick’s Day
• March 18: Oatmeal Cookie Day
• March 19: National Chocolate Caramel Day
• March 20: Snowman Burning Day
• March 21: National French Bread Day

Want to be the first to know about our Reasons to Celebrate? You can now sign up to receive a daily email with the day’s Reasons to Celebrate! Just sign in to your MyPunchbowl account, go to the “Settings” tab, and check the box to receive the “Daily Reasons to Celebrate updates” under “Emails from MyPunchbowl.”

Have a great week!

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO. Follow him on Twitter @mattdouglas

I’m very excited to announce that MyPunchbowl has acquired I’m In! — a site for local vendors. With the acquisition of I’m in! MyPunchbowl has entered the local party planning market. Our new local vendor portal enables our users to find vendors for their parties and events. To check it out, visit our new local vendors portal.

We’ll be sending out a press release in the morning, but TechCrunch broke the story this evening.

Here is the official announcement: 

Punchbowl Software, Inc., developers of the start to finish party planning site MyPunchbowl.com, today announced the acquisition of I’m In! (imin.com), through a transaction with GroupGo LLC. I’m In! previously operated as a site for group travel and local trip ideas. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Using assets of I’m In!, MyPunchbowl today launches a comprehensive local vendor portal for the party planning market. The new MyPunchbowl local vendor portal includes over one million vendors that are suitable for parties and events. Vendor categories include Artists, Attire, Bakeries, Balloons, Bands, Caterers, Churches & Synagogues, DJs, Entertainers, Event Planners, Event Staffing & Services, Florists, Musicians, Photographers, Rentals & Equipment, Transportation, and Venues & Locations.

“Our new local vendor portal enables small businesses to connect directly with consumers who are actively planning events,” said Matt Douglas, CEO, Punchbowl Software. “The acquisition of I’m in! has accelerated our entry into the local party planning market.”

The local vendor portal also includes the ability to search for party venues and locations. As hosts plan events on MyPunchbowl, they can now search for a venue for their party in the new venue finder. Hosts enter their location and choose from twelve venue categories including birthday party venues for kids & adults, restaurants, and baby shower venues. After a venue is selected, hosts can populate the location and address directly onto their online invitation.

MyPunchbowl also now offers featured listings for venues. Featured locations receive priority placement on the venue finder. Retail venues and chains that service the party planning market can contact MyPunchbowl to get a featured listing.

Visit the MyPunchbowl local vendor portal to search vendors for your next event.

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

It happens to everyone at some point - you need to cancel an event that you’ve already invited people to.

With our latest release, we make it a little easier on you and your guests. If you need to cancel your event, just choose Cancel Event from the Event Options menu on your Dashboard:

We’ll take you through it step by step and we even include an option to send your guests a message:

But wait, there’s more! If you need to reschedule your event we’ll give you the option to copy to get you started:

We hope your event goes off without a hitch, but now if you do need to cancel you can do so with confidence.

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

Our most recent release includes a feature we’ve all been anxious to have on the site: fun RSVP styles! Now when you send an invitation you can choose or customize your own phrases and sayings for your guest RSVP responses. For example, let’s say you’re throwing your annual Talk Like a Pirate Day party (coming up on Sept 19th). You might want to use our Pirate RSVP style for your guest responses.

Here’s how it works:

1 - Create your event and design your Invitation

2 - When you get to the Invitation Options page, choose Yes under “Show the guest list and the responses on the invitation?“

3 - Click the RSVP Styles button

4 - Choose one of our preset RSVP Styles or write your own!

The interface includes a preview of what it looks like on your invitation:

Enjoy!

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

Our latest site update includes a welcome new feature for all the eCard senders out there. We’ve taken the “Dashboard” concept from our Party Planning site and applied it to our eCards site.

What does this mean? Sign in to your account to view all your past, present and scheduled ecards on your eCard Dashboard page! Here are the highlights:

• Save - Want to create an eCard but save it for later? Just sign in, design the card then save it. It will be saved and waiting on your Dashboard until you want to send.
• Add Recipients - Already sent an eCard but want to sent it to more recipients? Just click “Add Recipients” next to the card on your Dashboard and you’re on your way.
• Edit - Sent an eCard with an embarrassing mistake? Just click “edit” on the Dashboard to change the card. It will be updated for all future viewers.
• Share - Want to share your card on Twitter or Facebook? Click “Share” from the Dashboard.
• View - Just want to bask in the glory of past eCards? You can view them all on the new eCards Dashboard.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

If you use our Birthday Reminders service you probably enjoy getting reminders for all of the birthdays in your life. You can even customize when you receive reminders on your settings page. It’s great to know a birthday is coming up in a week or two, and now you can do something about it!

Our newest eCards improvement allows you to schedule an eCard to be sent at a future date. Just create your eCard as you normally would. When you get to the Preview & Send page you’ll notice a new option under the Send eCard now button - “Send it later”:

Click this option to schedule your ecard:

Next time you get a birthday reminder schedule an eCard to be sent!

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

It’s a request we heard many times: “My event spans multiple days, how can I show that on my invitation?”

Well we finally have an answer. Simply click “Add end date” when you’re choosing a date for your event and we’ll display the start and end date on your invitation.

Enjoy!

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

We’ve recently made some great updates to the site and you’ll be hearing more about them soon. I thought I’d highlight one that you probably noticed if you signed into your account recently.

If you connected your Facebook and MyPunchbowl accounts, we now automatically import your Facebook events and list them in your MyPunchbowl Dashboard along with your other events. We’ll even show your response status to Facebook events and let you click through to them from your Dash. This is a great way to centralize all of your social activities in one place.

Don’t want to see a certain Facebook event on your Dashboard? Just archive it or delete it.

Connect your accounts and check it out!

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

Do you have ideas for princess birthday party favors that you want to share with other moms? How about a recipe for a choo-choo train birthday cake? Maybe you have great ideas for games to play at a baby shower or music to play at a graduation party?

Now is your chance to channel your inner Penelope by sharing your great tips and party advice with other MyPunchbowl party planners on the new MyPunchbowl Forums. Everyone has a little bit of wisdom to share—advice or tips to share from past party experience from food and decorations to supplies and etiquette.

MyPunchbowl Forums are also great if you’re currently planning a party and have questions or need creative ideas. Post your questions to the forums and get feedback from others who have been in your shoes.

Lastly, MyPunchbowl Forums have a section specifically for posting your suggestions for us. These could be suggestions about our product—features you’d like to see or ideas you have about how we can improve the site. There is also a thread in which you can make invitation design suggestions.

I invite you to check out MyPunchbowl Forums to start sharing your party planning wisdom and suggestions today!

This post written by Sean Conta, Founder & CXO

We released an update to the site last week and one of the new features that has the team excited is the introduction of a site-wide global navigation bar at the top of the page:

You may have noticed that over the past few months we’ve greatly expanded the services that MyPunchbowl offers. We now have eCards, Birthday Reminders, Engagement Announcements, plus others.

The new global navigation bar may not be the kind of thing that slaps you across the face and says “I’m an awesome new feature!!” but we think it is a really nice way to both navigate through the site and convey all that we have to offer.

I’d also like to announce a contest  to name the little “dot” that indicates where you are in the site (see above … it’s on Birthday Reminders). Current suggestions include “the notch”, “the dot”, and “the nubbit”.

Post your entries in the comments below. The winner will receive a free hug from Devin, our graphic designer.