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From Paper to Online: Making the Invitation Jump

Dear Penelope-
I’m throwing a double 50th birthday party for my husband and his twin brother later this summer, and I like MyPunchbowl.com, but I’m not convinced about using an online invitation service. To me, it feels a little impersonal and I worry that my mother-in-law will disapprove and think that I’m not taking her sons seriously. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?
Julia McPhee
St. Louis, MO

Dearest Julia,
No need to worry! My mother-in-law was the same way, until I got her hooked on us (for her weekly bridge games, mostly). The great thing about a party planning site like MyPunchbowl.com is that you can send online invitations that illustrate clearly how formal (or not) you’d like your party to be. If you’re more worried about the lack of individual invitations than the look of the invitation itself, you can choose to hide the guest list on the invitation. Even better, you can send a personal e-mail to each guest, begging Aunt Erma to bring her famous pasta salad or letting your mother-in-law know how much you’d love to see her.

Obviously, I love our site (I’m paid to). But I do understand your apprehension. Making the jump from paper to online invitations is scary, yes, but your invitation options will multiply exponentially, you won’t have to worry about trusting party photos to survive in an envelope marked FRAGILE several times over and the best part of all—it’s free! If your mother-in-law can’t appreciate a good deal when she sees one (especially after raising twin boys), then my name’s not Penelope.

Good luck and be brave!

Enjoy Planning.
Penelope