How to make an electronic invitation: 5 best services

Anyone with basic computer skills can create an electronic wedding invitation; you don’t have to be a designer or programmer to do this. To begin with, future newlyweds should decide what they want to present in a card for guests, and then they can begin the creative process.

Invitation cards for wedding guests are a must-have attribute; with its help, the bride and groom inform friends and family that they want to share their holiday with them, and also accurately indicate the date, time and location of the celebration.

You can send wedding invitation cards electronically or present them in person. Information technologies make it possible to improve this process and make postcards individual and original.

Nuances

Some may think that an electronic wedding invitation is too humble and not solemn. In fact, this option allows you to unleash your creative potential even more than standard postcards printed in a printing house. The bride and groom can bring any of their ideas to life, since the only limitation is their own imagination.

Another argument in favor of electronic invitations is zero cost. Regardless of how much text there is in the postcard, what design or font it has, it will not require any costs.

Unless the future newlyweds want to make invitations electronically themselves, but entrust this matter to a professional, a certain amount will be required as a fee. This option is rarely resorted to, since the main idea of the solution is not simplicity, but the personal participation of the bride and groom, the implementation of their ideas and preferences.

This choice can also be justified by the fact that guests from other cities or even countries will be present at the wedding. In this case, making several versions of invitation cards is not the best alternative, since it will take a lot of time and effort.

Expert advice! If you use the mail, there is no guarantee that the letter will arrive on time. Visiting another part of the country or the world just to hand an envelope to a friend or relative is also not very practical, so information technology comes to the rescue.

There are several options for electronic invitation:

a static postcard with an image suitable in style, made in the tone of the entire celebration as a whole: the text can be made using any font you like - Gothic, calligraphic, retro, Old Church Slavonic, etc.;
an animated card with cartoon images of the bride or groom holding hands, laughing or kissing: there may be fireworks in the background or shouts of “bitter” appearing in clouds, as in comics;
postcard with a photo of the newlyweds : you can use an existing photo or specially take a new one in a romantic setting or in a suitable setting if you are planning a themed wedding;
video invitation : this option takes more time, but at the same time it turns out to be the most touching and original: using a video camera or a regular telephone, the bride and groom record an address to the guests in a picturesque place or edit a whole love story, not forgetting to voice the details of the banquet.

In addition to the date, time and location of the celebration, the invitation indicates organizational aspects. For example, if the wedding will be themed or decorated in a certain color, this should be notified in advance so that the guests have time to prepare suitable outfits. For those who are new to the city where the celebration will take place, it is advisable to attach a detailed route map.

Important! Before you create electronic invitations, you should make sure that all guests have access to a computer. Older people are unlikely to be able to receive such a postcard, so they will have to make a personal paper version.

As with a regular invitation, an electronic one is sent to the guest several months before the wedding. In this case, the next day it is worth calling all the invitees and asking whether the letter arrived. The likelihood that it will be lost is extremely low, but a person may change his email address or simply not check it for a long time. A follow-up call will also be a sign of good manners.

PhotoDECOR

PhotoDECOR is a utility that is used for editing photos and creating greeting cards. Using the application, users can adjust the brightness, sharpness and gamma of the image; there are ready-made templates for frames and cards.

The program runs on the Windows operating system (32/64 bit) and has a Russian-language interface. The software is shareware, but there is a trial version with limitations (no more than 30 launches). Three license types are available:

Basic. The cost of this version is 556 rubles. 170 frame and card templates available.
Standard. The license price is 1,196 rubles. There are 500 card and frame templates to choose from. There are also ready-made templates for DVDs and calendars.
Pro. The cost of the maximum version is 2,396 rubles. The utility catalog contains more than 1,000 templates for frames and cards in high resolution.

After launching the utility, you need to open the directory with postcard templates, which is located on the right side of the interface.

All available cards are divided into categories: children's, calendars, unusual, holiday, universal. After selecting the option you like, the postcard will be displayed in the main window of the graphic editor.

Next, users can choose frames, decorations or inscriptions. When creating an inscription, you should write a custom congratulatory text. It is possible to edit fonts: size, style, family, shape, position, color.

Advantages:

user-friendly interface;
large catalog of template frames and cards;
Possibility of printing finished projects.

Flaws:

You cannot create an animated postcard.

Postcard options

If the bride and groom are fluent in using computer programs designed for creating and processing images, as well as editing videos, then they can easily make a card in electronic form.

The main program for creating a static invitation is Photoshop, but if it is not available, you can use free analogues, for example, Gimp, Artweaver, Google Picasa, etc. These editors are freely available and do not require a license fee, but have an intuitive interface similar to Photoshop.

If future newlyweds create a video card, then they will need appropriate programs. The most common of them is Windows Moovie Maker, which was standard for the operating system of the same name until 2007. Instead, you can use other free video editors, such as Shotcut, Lightworks or Free Video Editor.

For those couples who do not want or cannot use programs to create a unique invitation, there are ready-made templates where you only need to enter the names of the future newlyweds and guests, as well as the date, time and location of the celebration. Such templates can be found using the corresponding query in a search engine. They can contain text or an empty field for it; in both cases, you need to use a graphic editor to insert the necessary words.

Attention! In fact, making your own greeting card without the help of a computer can be even easier if you want to create something original. Consider both options.

An intermediate option is online editors that allow you to create a postcard with the desired design without learning the complex functionality of computer programs. To begin with, a background is selected, then it is proposed to insert additional elements onto it, for example, silhouettes.

The last step is to type the text of the invitation in a separate window and select the desired font, after which the card is automatically put together and the finished version becomes visible. If desired, you can edit it further or save it in the desired format on your computer.

Original wedding invitations

Sometimes they hold themed weddings, for example, in the form of a pirate party, carnival, some kind of fairy tale, etc. In this case, it makes sense to come up with original invitations . Depending on the client’s wishes, any format is possible: triangular, round, in the form of a scroll, playing cards, etc. Not only the shape is important here, but also the color scheme - everything should be in harmony with the style of the celebration. The presence of decorative elements and handmade work will clearly indicate the intention of the organizers to make a memorable, exclusive holiday. In this format, humor in the invitation text and original ironic graphics are appropriate.

Compatibility with the style of the celebration

An electronic card for guests can be created to suit any wedding style; only the general design, font and images in the photographs of the newlyweds will change. For a wedding invitation in the classic version, a light background is chosen, with an image of two wedding rings, doves or hearts placed in the corner.

The desired text is created in the empty area; if desired, you can play with the font - add or remove shadows, apply a gradient, etc. If there is free space around the edges, choose a neutral pattern several tones darker than the background.

For a wedding in the style of the famous film, there are two options for creating an electronic card. You can place a romantic still frame from this picture or an image from its poster on it, correcting the date, time and place of the premiere to the details of your own celebration. If this seems too simple a solution, there is another option - dress in the style of the characters from the film, take a photo and make the photo the basis of the invitations, with text on top.

For all other styles, invitation cards are drawn up in the same way. A background of a suitable shade is taken as a basis, and images of elements characteristic of the theme are arranged in a space free from text. For example, for a wedding in vintage style, these are antiques; for retro, vinyl records, a typewriter or a car of the last century.

Useful video: video tutorial

If the bride and groom are not very fluent in graphic editors, but want to create unique invitations for their wedding without using ready-made templates, then they can make a card themselves, following the recommendations of the step-by-step video tutorial. It clearly shows how to create an interesting invitation using Photoshop.

Do you want to create a stylish and original invitation to the most important celebration in your life? Useful tips are presented in the video below:

GREENVELOPE

Save time, save trees, save money - this is exactly the main motto of the Greenvelope service. Over almost 10 years of existence, a full-fledged version has been developed for creating your own exclusive invitation and a simplified version for Email/SMS mailings in a smartphone application.

For lovers of everything eco-friendly, the Greenvelope website provides statistics on how their work saves the environment, which, of course, immediately encourages interaction with this service. The main difference is not the base of faceless invitation options, but the instructions of the designers and photographers with whom the team of creators works.

Additional Tips

When composing electronic wedding invitations, templates can be obtained from the Internet. It should be taken into account that the card must be combined with the overall style of the celebration. For example, place cards are usually made in the same design as cards for guests. In addition to this, future newlyweds should consider the following details:

It is advisable to make the background of the postcard light and the text dark so that it is clearly visible on any monitor;
It is better to upload a video postcard to a file hosting service, and then send a link to all guests so that they do not have to download a large amount of data to their computer or gadget;
if future newlyweds and their friends use social networks more often, then it is better to create a mass mailing of postcards there, and not by mail;
For those who cannot receive invitations online, it is worth printing out a ready-made version.

Summary

A wedding invitation is the first thing guests see, which sets them up for the right atmosphere. An electronic wedding invitation allows you to simplify the process of sending cards. It is advisable to take advantage of all the possibilities in your arsenal to create a bright, original and memorable appeal to friends and relatives.