Email Invitations Take The Next Step Toward Good Manners

**Note - I'm not responding to comments any more today because Blogger keeps eating what I write:(. See you tomorrow.

This long weekend my family celebrated 3 events. Dinner with my brother and his fiancee, the first time we siblings have seen the pair since their engagement. Fourth of July. Beloved Big Nephew's 10th birthday. It was a festive couple of days.

In an odd harmonic convergence - we're big on those in California - last Tuesday I got a note from Jill of Paperless Post. She asked if I would write something about their email invitations. Not a sponsored post request, just, would I write something, please? She was polite. Big points in my book. Hard to resist. And I have been advocating email invitations since this post, last year. So I played around on the Paperless Post site. It was fun.

I know a lot of people are fidgeting right now. "No, no, this cannot be!" And I would never advocate email invitations if any recipients would be offended. That's the key. There is nothing, to my way of thinking, inherently impolite in electronics.

Email invitations are movies, paper is theater. Alternatively, emails are musicals, paper is opera. The traditional remains, the invention takes its space. You get my gist. In the year 2010, I would feel comfortable sending everything except the most ceremonial of invitations via a high-production-value email invitation system. High-production-values are key. The novelty alone, of animated envelopes and 3D effects, should compensate in many cases for the weight and feel of paper. By 2012, I may feel comfortable sending all invitations as bits and byes - assuming that music, video, and other effects can be added. There's always a tipping point when the benchmark for appropriate and courteous shifts.

Manners should be observed in the spirit of true courtesy. Intent is more important than trappings, unless you're meeting with the Ambassador.

Voila the Paperless Post I might have sent for last week's events. To design these, I customized various templates by choosing papers, envelope liners, motifs, type fonts, and colors. Like I said, fun. All invitations arrive by email. Each email contains the image of an envelope.

When your invitee clicks as requested, the animated envelope opens up and your invitation rises from inside.

For my psychoanalyst brother who has been known to attend the Burning Man festival, I thought antique keys, in white, with a whimsical script on navy, might provide the correct soupcon of irony, all the while tipping a hat to our High WASP culture.

Click to R.S.V.P. and you see this reply card. All dimensional and everything.

For the 4th of July, a celebration more cultural than personal, I'd be happy going with one of their pre-set designs. Kind of nifty, no? Or, as my mother would say, "Dear, that's very good-looking."

While for my nephew's birthday, we'd have to go soccer. Specifically, Chilean soccer. Open this envelope,

And out come these happy guys.

Who, judging from the multitude of Internet remarks I've seen, might make some midlife women very happy too. We will leave that statement where it lies, and move on. Click the photo, and the invitation turns over to reveal,

Fun, yes? Unfortunately, not perfect yet. My third response to Paperless Post, after 1) "Gee whiz, and 2) "I told you so!" was, "Oh I wish I could get my hands on their engineering team!" I wanted to write some use cases. The user experience, as we call it, wasn't quite as intuitive as I would like. No way to search for invitation styles or motifs; instead, one has to browse through design after design. Cumbersome. Navigation provides redundant ways to move through the design process. Confusing. But still fun. I expect they will improve, as they state very politely that they are still in Beta, i.e. the trying it out phase. At least they're polite and let you know.

My suggestion? Sign up. Play. See what you think. Could make a great birthday party invitation for your wired pre-teen. He or she could design it themselves. Using a photo they took with their iPhone ShakeIt Fauxlaroid or Hipstamatic apps. Thereby adding to the production value. Or, one could throw a rehearsal dinner for a much-loved brother. Just saying.

And that, my friends, is all the technology and with-it-ness I can muster for today. Phew. Teetering on the deep chasm of ignorance.

All images via Paperless Post, except the Chilean soccer players:).