Electronic Invitations

Baisakh 2080 was a month filled with weddings and coming-of-age rituals and Jestha looks to be the same. In Nepal, like everywhere in the world, these occasions are viewed as times of great happiness and people wish to celebrate them with their families and friends. So, they send out invitations. 

Now, as of 2023, these invitations are still mostly printed ones. However, as technology catches on, people are slowly starting to favour their modern counterparts, e-vites, over them. After all, why wouldn’t they? E-vites, or electronic invitations, offer a myriad of benefits over paper cards. They are convenient to deliver, environmentally friendly and can be made interactive and uber attractive. 

So, let us take a look at the advantages of e-vites and why it has begun to replace the traditional invites we are familiar with.

One great advantage e-vites hold over printed traditional invitations is that they are easy to produce and deliver. Now, ease of production may not mean ease of design. In fact, since e-vites are interactive and make use of multiple media like audio, video and animation, they may take longer and require more effort to design. But once the look and feel of the invitation have been finalised, they do not need to be mass-produced. 

They do not need to go to the press and hundreds of copies do not need to be printed. Also, they do not need to be physically delivered to the recipients. They can be forwarded by email or social media. This saves time, energy and money.

The cost-effectiveness of e-vites deserves extra emphasis. As anyone who has ever hosted a large event can attest, it costs a lot to print invitation cards. This does not include the cost of fuel and labour spent to deliver them to potentially hundreds of recipients. Plus, the printer charges extra if we run out of cards and have to print more. All these make traditional cards unexpectedly expensive.

On the other hand, after the initial design, e-vites only require internet connectivity. They do not need to be physically printed and delivered. This saves tons of money which can then be used to make the actual event people are being invited to more lavish.

Circling back to the design part, designing a multimedia card may sound unnecessarily boisterous and a bit gimmicky. But that is only if we overdo it. If done well, they can be an attractive display of creativity and emotions. E-vites are also customisable. So, we can send individual invitations to individual guests, reflecting our relationship with them and the value we place on their presence. We can also add interactive features like RSVP buttons, location maps and reminder options to help guests stay updated on our event.

Speaking of reminders, e-vites allow both the guests and hosts to get and stay in contact. Changes, updates and additional details can all be tacked on to the original e-vite and sent to all the guests at the click of a button. There is real-time communication that minimises hassles and confusion and makes occasions enjoyable for everyone. E-vites save us from a lot of pain.

We can further lessen our effort by setting up automated systems. For example, we can have guests confirm their participation with an RSVP click on the invitation. We can then have this data be stored on a database to estimate the number of guests for catering, seating etc. We can configure shared calendars to notify guests about the event date and location. And if gifts or cash need to be exchanged, we can have that be done through online registries too. E-vites help streamline and economise events. 

E-vites are also greener than traditional invites. They do not need to be printed, hence, save paper. They do not need to be delivered, which reduces things like fuel consumption and emissions. Overall, the production of e-vites is much more environmentally friendly than the production of physical invitation cards. This does not seem like much but if enough people do it, it can considerably reduce deforestation and pollution and can contribute to sustainability and green growth.

E-vites may be an especially relevant way to invite people to environment-themed events because they display eco-consciousness and a commitment to practising what is preached. If influential people start doing this then this may help set a precedent and spread a positive social message. 

All in all, the benefits of e-vites over traditional paper invitations are undeniable. They can save our time and money and make occasions a little less tiresome. It perhaps would not be wrong to say that electronic invitations are a modern and practical solution to the hassles of inviting.