Party invites - missing something obvious?

[MollyAndMuck]

All the invites my kids have had recently are all properly printed, like a background picture with printed text on. Last time I did ones where you had to actually write them out, but obviously I need to get more modern!

How are people doing them? I know for soft play parties they can be included and they do them for you, but I've seen the same things for parties at home etc. My party will just be in a church hall so I need to do it myself but I don't know how. Design it in Paint and print it out?!

Feeling really clueless, please help. Is there a really obvious website everyone uses or something?

I'm thinking of Bluey theme as DD really keen, if that helps.

You can buy them on Etsy then use a programme to edit them. Lots use canva now and it's really easy. Hope this helps!

I don't think people care whether they're printed or handwritten.
Just go to Card Factory (or order from them if you can't get to a physical shop).

Thanks, are people buying proper photo paper for printing as they all seem really shiny?

I used to don the ones you write in.
Or knock something up in Word.

My youngest is 12. I think last birthday it was just a WasApp message.

Vista print

You can use Canva to do this for free I think, and then just get them printed or do it yourself using a home printer. You would need to save the Bluey image from an online search and it will likely be copyright licensed. I doubt it would flag up unless you were creating for commercial use though,

I use Canva for ours and print them out x

So you mean you are getting physical invitations for parties? I'm quite surprised, in a year of reception we haven't had a single paper invite (printed or handwritten!) the done thing here is to create an electronic invitation on an app (there are loads of free ones) and WhatsApp it round. Took me 5 minutes to do ours. This seems very laborious either way!

As pp, I buy from Etsy and edit in Canva. I then use freepics, snap fish or some similar photo printing app which normally offers x amount of free prints. Some parents do the handwritten invites too so that's definitely still a thing.

We normally just receive customised invites purchased from Etsy and then sent as an image on our class what's app group.

Very rarely paper nowadays. But we always receive hand written paper thank you cards after the parties we attend rather than a digital card.

Greetings Island do free editable PDFs that print really nicely, or you can just share as an e invitation

DD is just leaving year 1 and we've never had electronic invitations, just paper ones in bookbags - how does the first person to have a party get the contact details of all the parents?

@GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut

Do you know if your child's class has a what's app group for parents? I've got one child in primary and one in secondary. We've had a class what's app group every year for each of them. Multiple groups in fact - which can be quite tiresome to keep up with.

I'd be surprised if your class doesn't have one so it's worth checking if you've been missed off the group.

Yes a lot of parents now seem to do really fancy printed ones and maybe they enjoy spending time on that but it really doesn’t matter, just buy a pack and hand fill them out if easier for you, it doesn’t make a difference to me as a parent or my children receiving the invites. As long as I know the time, place etc and you make it easy for me to reply

Canva I suspect, so easy these days

I used a website called greetings island and then printed them out myself at work.

https://www.greetingsisland.com/invitations/?utmsource=google&utmmmedium=cpc&utmcampaign=ATLASSUKInvitationnSearch&gadsource=1&gbraid=0AAAAADuNMSFQFOYHmcPsFK9FeWUFWCMPx&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1qO0BhDwARIsANfnkvvlGOCqiIifOX-WiuiPNJncpQi1ErFmt6qUYiASuS6Gv6yK-V94xX4aAgPHEALw_wcB

Canva and whatsapp it! Save the ink and paper!

@GrannyAchingsShepherdsHut yes as pp said, everyone's details are on the class WhatsApp and the odd ones that aren't you can get through asking around.

I design them on canva and my DH is friends with someone who works at a printers up the road so they print them for us at mates rates.

Ive ordered custom ones off ebay before, we don't have a colour printer so I order them as printed invites. There are loads of themes available, they usually cost about £10-£12 for 30. We don't have whole-class whatsapp groups in my kids school, so all invites are paper.

Thanks all. I don't have numbers for everyone, and it's not a whole class party as the entertainer will only do 15 kids so looks like I'll be using some of the suggestions here and printing off!

Around here everyone does the free ones you can create online and then send them via whatsapp group.

That is because in Reception you are probably doing a class party. As time goes on, and activities get more expensive and you don’t want to pay out for for your child’s enemies, you need to make the invitations a bit more personal, bespoke and hush hush.