There’s not much party that can happen without a few guests.  That’s why we figured the first step in this Green Birthday Guide had better be to address the whole invitee thing.  

Just as phrases like “semi formal” set the mood of a party, using greener alternatives for your invitations can, too.

Stores offer a lot of really nice invitations.  You can buy them in ten-packs in stationery departments or custom order them from the print shop.  Unfortunately, most of these options aren’t very green.  They probably use virgin trees for paper and pack the product with a lot of bleaches, dyes, and chemicals to create the pretty pictures we see.  

Here’s our list of tried and trued standbys for all our bashes:

1. Just call folks up.  Invitations can’t get much cheaper or greener than this.  It’s a great excuse for a quick chat and perfect for inviting family and close friends.  It works really well if you have a large family like mine.  I don’t think we’ve ever seen a real, print invitation.

2. Send a quick email.  Okay, not so classy.  That’s why I make mine into pretty little pdf documents like the one I shared with all of you from our Thanksgiving in Berlin.  Add a picture, a link to Google Maps, and you’re good.  These invitations can look wonderfully professional.  As an added bonus, this option may or may not be the perfect solution for last minute bridal showers and parties you suddenly have to host.  (Not that I know.)

3. Send an electronic invitation from a site like evite.  Their services are fast and free.

4. Mail a postcard invitation.  I did this for a bridal shower in college when I didn’t want to spend the extra money on envelopes and added postage.  Little did I realize I was cutting my paper waste down, too.  Put some nice card stock in your printer, and make the invites four per sheet.

5. Make handmade invitations from stuff you have.  Dig around your craft stuff (and dare I say recycling bin?) and get crafty with the things you’ve got.

6. Buy invitations made of post-consumer products and recycled materials. Check out green companies like Twisted Limb Paper and Greenfield Paper Co.

What about you?  Have any green invitation tricks up those sleeves?  We’d love to hear!

(Images from Flickr)

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at 4:43 am and is filed under Celebrating Green & Simple Holidays, How to: Living Eco-Savvy, How to: Money Savers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.