Many personal wedding website providers and software companies offer the opportunity to send email invitations to your wedding guests, but does that mean you should do it? No! I’m taking a stand on this and saying do NOT ever send your wedding invitations over email. I just don’t think proper etiquette allows it.
I understand that with budget concerns, this may sound like a good idea but it is not. Today, you can get nice looking wedding invitations at any of craft and super stores at a bargain price and get them printed cheaply at your local Kinko’s (or any other chain printer). There is really no reason why you can’t afford invitations.
Check out this ‘bargain’ solution to expensive wedding invitations – only $150! It claims to be a classy way to send out your wedding invitations – yea right! Is it really the ‘affordable’ solution to wedding invitations?
A wedding is a personal event which is why you invite your closest friends and family to attend but sending your wedding invitations over email is about impersonal as you can get. This is the same reason why etiquette demands you to hand write and snail mail thank you notes to guests after the wedding. Would you write a generic thank you and mass email it to all your guests? Noooo! You might as well just run up to city hall if you aren’t going to give the respect and consideration to your guests.
This discussion was recently raised over at patgalca’s myLot and here are some of the comments/questions raised:
- With no set addressee, who exactly is/isn’t invited?
- Could anyone forward the email to those not invited?
- What if the email had bounced?
- What if the email had been incorrect and the guest had never received it?
If you want to save money on postage, try using a postcard as your RSVP (USPS – only $0.26 each as compared to $0.41 each) or even allowing guests to RSVP by email – only if you know ALL guests have access to the internet. An email announcement to visit the wedding website is also a good idea to supplement the wedding invitation but I don’t think it should actually replace the wedding invitation.
If you use email as your delivery method for your wedding invitations, you will most likely turn off most guests and many may decide not to come because of it. In any case, email wedding invitation is a bad idea for everyone involved.
What are your thoughts?
