Fresh off the evite creation roller coaster, is yours truly.  Earlier today, I took my first shot at figuring out how to create an electronic invitation, also known as an evite.  Let me paint the picture of the “who” and the “why.”  In just 2.5 months time, a client of mine, aka “the who”, is throwing a baby shower, aka the “why”. For this to happen and share their experience with close friends and family, Tiara Ashley Events, is creating a memorable experience that will align with our client’s theme and color scheme.  Let me also go on record to note that creating an electronic invite is not hard.  In fact, thanks to modern day tech, it's easier than ever to create an invite in the matter of minutes.  To sweeten the deal, the following options allow you to… (drumroll please)... create free of charge.  These are by far cost efficient and eco-friendly options that will surely have you intrigued to try it out for yourself.  Without further ado, here are the 4 platforms I recently tested along with my feedback for each website.

#1 evite

After looking into a few options, I decided to go with a site that had a lot of feedback and positive reviews. I personally like this site if you’re looking for a simple, DIY invite to share with friends and family.  Overall this is a free and simple solution for a cute, yet basic invitation. 

The Pros: 

1. It’s super simple and easy to use.

2. There are pre-populated templates to select from that will help you create an invite in the matter of minutes.  

3. You can manage your invite and RSVP list using the free app.

The Cons: 

1. There are not a lot of trendy template options to choose from.

2. Customizations are limited, unless you decide to pay for upgrades to unlock additional options.  Starting from $14.99 and up, you will be able to upgrade to evite premium to use font selections, additional templates, select various, colors, etc.

#2 Greetings Island

Their cute, cute templates caught my eye!  By far, I found Greetings Island to offer the most up to date templates that you can customize free of charge.  It almost seemed too good to be true.  I’ll say less, as I list my takeaways below.  

The Pros: 

1. Clearly, I love their template designs.  Their templates align with a lot of today's themes and are visually bright, colorful and fun. 

2. Online, they offer a simple and easy to use interface to seamlessly manage your designs. 

3. They also offer an ability to create, save and manage invitations or greeting cards along with a guest list by creating a login with your email and password.

The Cons:

1. While I personally loved the template that was created, I simply wasn’t able to manage it from the app.  Not sure it was just me, but their app was slow, glitchy and wouldn’t allow me to easily maneuver the platform effortlessly. Sad day. Try your luck on the app using your apple or android device. 

#3 The Green Envelope

The Green envelope offers popular template designs for customization.  An added benefit is the fact that they partner with the National Forest Foundation to aid in the development and conservation of the forest through customer purchases. 

The Pros:

1. Offers simple and user friendly templates that you can customize. 

2. The versatility of the customization goes beyond the invite itself, but also offers options to customize the digital envelope, backdrop, stamp options, messaging and more!  

3. The appeal of putting your dollar towards the conservation of the forest is always an added plus :)

The Cons:

1. Their customization interface is not as user friendly as evite.

2. Upon creating your free invite, the default “trial mode,” will only allow you to share 10 invitations unless you pay for the upgrade.  There are 2 different options to elevate your abilities, by either paying by the number of invites you can send, starting at $19 for 20 people or starting at $125 for a yearly membership.

#4 Canva

Last but not least, I couldn’t help but give Canva a whirl.  This website is clearly a fan-favorite as they offer the ability to create, customize and manage a variety of different products for your business or personal use.  Canva is a unique platform that offers their site visitors to feel like a professional graphic designer.  Here are my takeaways.

The Pros:

1. Canva delivers on their ability to allow the user to create and customize anything from posters, websites, business cards, to invitations, it does it all.  

2. It’s truly a one-stop-shop that will offer you thousands of template options to create your design.  If there’s not a design option for you, simply create a new design from scratch like a pro!

3. It’s free, easy to use and allows you to download your design to share with the world. 

The Cons:

1. Like many “too-good-to-be-true” offerings,  Canva has to make a profit too.  Not all designs can be accessed.  You’ll have to upgrade your profile to gain more access to templates and customizations, which starts at $119.99/year for up to 5 people. 

It doesn’t take a big event to try out creating a fun evite.  Maybe you’re feeling like you want to add a special touch and decide to create a fun invite for your friends for game night. Or Maybe you’re feeling flirty and want to send a date night invite to your significant other for a special night out.  Whatever the occasion is, you can create a fun evite by testing out these free platforms.

If you feel like event planning is the career path for you, stay connected on my journey for tips and tricks on how to get into planning great events. Until next time!