FAMILY REUNION INVITATIONS

The Family Reunion Invitations…

Date (check), Venue (check), Theme (check), Guest List (check)……now it’s time to prepare and send out your family reunion invitations. The invitation serves several purposes…it provides the reunion details such as when and where, gives you an account of how many will be attending utilizing R.S.V.P., and communicates a theme. Keep in mind that even if you don’t have a specific theme for your family reunion, in essence you do have a theme…“It’s A Family Reunion”.

Now don’t get it twisted, just because it’s your family doesn’t mean you should send them some dull, awful, run-of-the-mill type family reunion invitations. It’s the invitation that sets the tone, mood and spirit for the family reunion. Therefore, you want your reunion invites to be special, compelling and persuasive. You want it to possess somewhat of a magnetic pull and component…to be enticing so that your family looks forward to attending the reunion. The excitement starts the minute a family member goes the mailbox and opens the invitation. What tone or spirit does your family reunion invitation convey? Does it shout, “This is going to awesome…I don’t want to miss this family reunion?”…Or it so dull that it doesn’t even warrant being saved as souvenir or memento and ends up being thrown in file 13 (the military term for “trash can”).

So put some effort into making your family reunion invitations as exciting as the reunion itself. Here’s where you can use your creativity to personalize and create your very own unique family reunion invitations. Two very important key points to keep in mind; first, the family reunion invitation doesn’t have to be that regular card shape; second, the internet has changed everything.

Let’s start with the standard card shaped invitation. No, I’m not saying that this plain standard simple card-type invitation is taboo. Look at how someone took what would have been a plain invitation (above) and jazzed it up by adding large colorful letters and a beautiful border! Remember, this initial communication should appeal to your family. Besides, this is your family…they’re important you…and you want them to have the very best…Right!! So, don’t bore them with those plain ordinary looking invitations. Don’t opt for those pre-made invitation cards from Wal-Mart, instead make your own invitations. You can create unique and professional family reunion invites using something as simple as Microsoft Word or any other simple or advanced graphic editing program or software like Photoshop. In addition, if you don’t have time or don’t want to bother with creating and designing the invitations from scratch, you can take advantage of free invitation templates. And…Yes, I did say, free! You simply download the template, personalize until you’re satisfied and then print. Whether you create your own or use a template, give equal importance to the quality of the stationary or invitation card stock which your family reunion invitations will be printed on. If you own a quality printer, you can print them yourself. If you don’t, use a local printer or search the internet for affordable online printers. I’ve found some great deals using online printers. With a little internet surfing and you can, too.

Thanks to the internet which has changed the way in which we now communicate, another great way for sending your family reunion invites is with free online invitations. In addition to the free ones, there are several paid websites which offer email templates or invitation generators. With a quick click of a mouse or a button an invitation can now be emailed and received almost instantaneously. The recipient can simply click “reply” from their email program. Both the snail mail and email invitations have their pros and cons. Therefore, I use a combination of both. The snail mail invitations can serve as beautiful keepsakes and the email invitations are virtual and almost instant. It’s really up to you and what works best for your family. Remember, have fun and be creative!

CLICK LINKS BELOW FOR MORE INFO, OPTIONS, IDEAS

Free Invitation Templates
Free Online Invitations
Invitation Card Stock
Make Own Invitations
Sample Invitation Letter

List below are several creative ways of sending family reunion invitations. Your reunion budget and the number of individuals atttending would certainly be a factor for some:

Post Card
This is a beautiful idea. You can use these in a two fold way…as an initial save the date announcement or as the actual reunion invitation. I’ve done both. Print your own or search online for companies that print these very inexpensively. Some of these online companies will even mail them out for you for an additional charge.

Email or Snail Mail Chain Letter
This is truly an ultra unique way to send your family reunion invitations. You will need to get everyone’s email address in advance, if don’t already have an email listing for your family. Create the chain letter and be sure to include date, time, location and other reunion details in the letter. Start the chain by asking the first person on the list to send it to five family members. At the end of the letter ask everyone to RSVP as this will provide you with a head count after the invitation has reached everyone.

Coffee Mug
Send your family reunion invites in the form of a coffee mug. Simply use a software program to design your invitations and have it printed out on a coffee mug. You can either use a local company or search the web as there are several online companies that do this very reasonably.

Key Chain
Same concept as the Coffee Mug above. Use a family photo, reunion logo, or your reunion theme on the front…have the reunion information printed on the back. Search the internet and you will find some great deals on these. You can use this as reunion favor as well.

YouTube Video
Another idea is to prepare and personalize a video message as an invite to the family reunion. Set up a YouTube account, upload the video, and send an email with the link to your family.

A Box of Chocolate
Send each family member a small box of chocolates with a note attached. The note is the actual invitation, so it would include all of the reunion details.

Refrigerator Magnets
Simpy have the reunion information printed on these. you can also use these as a reunion party favor.

Pop-Up Invitation
You can create your own, download them or order them online. . Do an online search for websites which provide instructions for creating these.

Remember that it’s the invitation that sets the mood for the event so be creative and have fun!

I hope you got value and inspiration from this post. Your feedback is welcome. Please leave it in the comments below.