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A money-saving idea for bat mitzvah invites
I am about to do something I used to consider tacky.
I am going to have people RSVP to an e-mail address for my daughter's bat mitzvah.
I began brainstorming this a few days ago as I drove back from meeting with a woman who sells invitations and stationery. My least expensive option was about $700 for invitations, response cards and thank-you cards.
I went on line and found some nice invitations for a much more reasonable price. I realized how much money we'll save if we skip the response cards (about $150) and the cost of stamps to go with them.
But in terms of thank-you notes, I'm not yet ready for my daughter to thank people by e-mail!
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Comments
Good for you. I feel that e-mail is pretty impersonal by friends and loved ones with things like thank you cards, birthday wishes and other more personal things. A hand-written note in/on a card says so much more about how the sender feels towards the recipient. The use of an e-vite and response to such an event is not a bad idea and saves paper(s) - (money too). Not tacky, but I am not Mr. or Ms. Manners, could be wrong, but these are my personal feelings.
Posted by: Tutor | March 18, 2009 12:54 PM
Great idea! You can take it a step further and for $200 create a Website with all the party information, plus you can post photos after the party for your guests to see!
Posted by: Sheri Lapidus | March 18, 2009 2:15 PM
Email thank yous are seriously tacky. I can understand using a free service like E-vite for the invitations, but even the cheapest of thank you cards is preferred over an email!
Posted by: Elita | March 18, 2009 2:41 PM
I also found a great customizable Bat Mitzvah invitation online that saved me a ton of money, and had people call or email their responses. It went fine. I have a lot of other money saving ideas - please feel free to email me.
Posted by: Harriet | March 18, 2009 10:06 PM
Harriet: Please share with us your other ideas!
Posted by: Lois | March 19, 2009 10:02 AM
I am finishing my nieces bat mitzvah invites right now - we are making them from a beautiful floral scrapbook paper we got at Michael's, overlayed with a silver translucent vellum (that the print goes on) and printing them out of the computer in a colored ink to match the floral paper. The whole thing is costing $1.28 an invite with envelopes. The RSVP (on a separate card from the invite itself)is an e-mail address that we got just for the bat mitzvah from g-mail (free). I think it is totally acceptable - especially in this economy! Besides, most people are on their e-mail every day or at least once a week so you may get your responses more quickly. Sometimes it takes days or weeks to remember to stop at the post office if you do not have a box in your immediate area. For Thank Yous...that is not appropriate, especially considering what guests spend/give for Bar & Bat Mitzvah's these days! May I add a shameless plug? My website is www.settocelebrate.com. We do not do Bar/Bat Mitzvah invites (I am doing my niece's as a favor), but we do beautiful "Mazel Tov" photo banners that are often ordered for Bar/Bat Mitzvahs. We can do them in any color combination and shortly we will be doing them in hebrew as well.
Posted by: Jaclynn | August 26, 2009 12:43 PM