Paperless Post Changed the Invite Game, But Will They Conquer the Tactile As Well?
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
Every good party begins with an invitation, but does how one arrives matter as much as what is says? Today, invites to everything from barbecues to bacchanals can come via text, direct message, or evite, but for some there remains a lingering notion that when it comes to truly significant soirees, paper is non-negotiable. You might be surprised by just who’s in that camp.
“Paperless Post was really born out of a love and appreciation for paper,” says James Hirschfeld, co-founder of the popular digital invitation brand. “There can be so much style in a beautiful piece of stationery; it’s a real luxury product.” So why did he, with the help of his sister Alexa, create a brand that zeroed in on digital communication? The siblings started their business with the notion that email invitations could incorporate style, taste, and functionality—and 175 million users would agree.
As of this July, Paperless Post has moved into the physical realm, but not simply with printed invitations. Instead, the brand launched an e-commerce platform featuring decorations, table wear, and even balloons. “We’re making the process of event planning easier,” Alexa says. “If users find an invitation design they want to send, we can show them products that will make their party more successful.”
Since Paperless Post debuted in 2009, 500 million guests have been invited to more than 20 million events of varying degrees of pomp on the platform. “We were careful in the beginning to not think that the product was the height of formality,” Alexa says.
This tracks with Lizzie Post, writer and great-great-granddaughter of Emily Post. “Traditionally, and especially for weddings and formal events, you would never send an invitation digitally,” she says, noting environmental causes as an exception. It’s simple: “Printed invitations create a sense of importance.”
Etiquette may dictate snail mail is the way to go, but in reality, digital invitations have become commonplace. Television producer and T&C contributing editor Susan Fales-Hill is of two minds on the matter. In the case of a philanthropic event, Fales-Hill would use a digital invite, but for personal milestones, she advocates abstaining from the digital. “They are a huge cost savings and make responses easier to track,” she says of the former. “But printed invitations become keepsakes that one can revisit over the years. No evite is capable of providing that window to emotional time travel.”
But can printed invitations keep up with modern life? According to the Hirschfelds, wedding invite users on their site have increased 35% since 2019 for a number of reasons, from environmental impact, lack of postal reliability, and budgeting. In the beginning, it came down to practicality. Then there was Covid and opting to go paperless just became easier. “It became about the nimbleness,” James says, “and the ability to change the plan without printing, reprinting, and reprinting again. People really saw the value in that.”
Today, many couples are utilizing both digital and print components as part of their nuptial planning. Jung Lee, an event and wedding planner based in New York City, explains that the majority of her clients favor traditional invitations on heavy card stock, but keep their other correspondences virtual. “We often send out an electronic save-the-date and note a formal invitation will follow,” she says.
At the end of the day, whether you go analog, digital, or do a mixture of the two, the way you communicate with your guests is a question of personal taste—something to which Paperless Post is acutely attuned. “We’re trying to help hosts show their style in the physical presentation of their events,” James says. That’s an invitation we’ll gladly accept.
This story will appear in the October 2022 issue of Town & Country.
You Might Also Like
