By Edith Rich
These days, receiving anything important through snail mail is extra special; in an age of instant messages, texts, and email, there is an intangible and irreplaceable sense of importance and ceremony in receiving something through traditional mail. When that envelope comes with your name written across the front, you know it is something big – a wedding, a baby shower, a graduation, or any one of the landmark life experiences that make us human. As we slide open the sealed flap, we don’t want to see just a plain piece of paper, we want to see an extravaganza of color, elegant writing, and little details that make us feel honored and important for receiving this special piece of paper.
Yet these days, it is getting harder to find a unique card style to keep that sense of awe going. Bows, ribbons, little charms, and silver foil accents have all be done a million times before. They are old hat, and can make your special announcement seem just average. What you need to keep your card recipients feeling that special sense of purpose and ceremony is something totally different. What you need is to use photos cards.
Photo cards went through a brief heyday in the middle nineteen nineties when the personal computer and internet had given everyone the capability to print and send their own pictures. Yet this interesting technology fell out of vogue as even more new fangled and unbelievable forms of technology popped up. The iPod, SmartPhone, wireless internet, and a host of other advances made being able to print your own photo cards seem old hat.
However, something interesting happened that few imagined could: among all this digital technology, we began to feel lonely and started to yearn for that human connection again. We don’t want emailed wedding invitations; we want a card we can hold in our hands. We want to touch something special and beautiful and be included in something that keeps us connected together.
So now, instead of finding newer and faster ways to share announcements, what people really want is to take a step back and connect with something human again. And the perfect thing to do this is to add a photo to your announcement or invitation.
Photo cards make what you send so much more than just words on a page, it makes what you send a tangible link to real people, real emotions, and humanity. You could just send an email letting the world know your baby was born, but a picture printed on a nice piece of cardstock with her birth information is so much more powerful and connective. Don’t just send an invitation to your wedding; send a photo of you as a couple happy together to remind people what being invited to a wedding is really a celebration of: it’s a celebration of love, togetherness, and family.
The next time you need to send something extra special through snail mail, take it to the next level and add a photo onto it like those below. You will not only make a big impact on your recipients, but do your small part to preserve humanity in an increasingly robotic era.
Great for announcements, like birth of a child, Christenings, Baptisms, etc…
Great as ‘Thank You’ cards too!
Even graduation announcements, wedding announcements, Sweet 16 party invitation, and Bar or Bat Mitzvahs.
About the Author:
Edith Rich is a stay-at-home mother of three, and loves doing crafts with her kids, putting together projects and is a self proclaimed collector of photo cards. She also loves blogging about crafts!
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Comments
6 Responses to Using Photo Cards for Unique Invitations and Announcements
Great post, Edith.
My Dad makes all of his own cards for Birthdays, Weddings, Christmases and just about any other reason he can think to make and send one. Each card is specific for that individual. Most cards will have a several photos of the person he is sending it to and usually includes a poem or tells some type of story. On the back of the card are pictures of both my Dad and my Mom with its own special logo created by my Dad.
We all love getting these cards and I have saved everyone of them including the ones he sends to my kids. It is a great way to celebrate an occasion and I would much rather have this than a gift or an email.
Edith,
I love photo cards- especially birth announcements. I just got one in the mail a few days ago and you are right- it is a rare and wonderful thing. Glad actual photos you can hold in your hand are becoming common place again.
I love making my own cards and making each one for that particular individual. I’ve been doing that for 20 years since I got my first computer and tought myself how to do it. It’s so much fun and adding photos always makes it more special. I’ve done all kinds of invitations from showers to weddings and with each project I find such a great sense of accomplishment.
Livinthelife: you inspire me to give this a try. I have had a couple done professionally, but haven’t done one myself. I think this is a “crafty” type project, I might really like!
Pam, your dad is completely awesome. Tell him (personally) I said that – would you?
I love the way options have increased with the advent of digital technology. I admire those who get creative with their cards and really manage to make something that is personalized and special!
I actually sometimes even get a little creative and go the extra step to add 3D stickers and stuff to it. Like a mini scrap book page.