I'm not a huge fan of the evite, but it does make the reponse much easier. All you have to do is hit "reply" instead of sending something back through snailmail....much more convenient.

It takes the mystery out of going to a party and being surprised by the guests who have chosen to come. Also, I've been guilty of replying "no" if I find out that a particular annoying person/people have responded that they're going....so bad of me! However, it's a much easier way to send out invites and respond to parties, so I understand the appeal.

I think it is impersonal and lazy to use evite. It is good in some situations however, because I live out of the country 3/4 of the year and I never miss these invites.

I think for close friends and small gatherings last minute they're okay.

I agree with aimeeb. They are good for a group of close friends, but for my big Christmas party I would never use anything but the good old postal service. Something in the mail creates much more excitement don't you think?

I think evite is fantastic. It's not like I'm using them for my wedding, but for things like my Chrismukkah party and housewarming party,they're fantastic. It's great for Party that she has a job that pays to make invitations, but I work over 80 hours per week in a chemistry lab, and I can't exactly whip out the construction paper in the middle of the afternoon and make 50 invitations. Truthfully, if I had to hand make each invitation, I just flat out wouldn't have a party. I think my time out of the lab is better spent cooking and baking for the party than making an invitation that I know my friends would just throw away in the end.
Plus, I love the fact that it tells you who is coming to an event. I live in the middle of the city and only about 30% of my friends have cars. When those with cars see who has replied to come, they'll call up others in the area and offer rides. It also saves you from the embarrassment of asking someone if they are going to a party... just to find out they weren't invited.

Hear, hear, julieulie! I'm totally with you. Not only do I not have the time to make invites, I don't have the money to buy them. I *did* hand-make invites for my wedding 2 years ago because I fell in love with a style that I could make for about $1 per invite, but they were about $4 per to buy - if I had to do it again, I'd just add the extra $400 or whatever to the already significant credit card bill that came afterwards. It was way too much of a hassle to make them, totally not worth the savings...

As far as Party's Evite complaints go: You can "hide" the responses so that no one but the host sees the RSVPs (if you really want to do that as a host - personally, as an invitee, I *like* seeing who else is going to a party), and you don't have to leave a comment - just click yes, no or maybe. As far as the designs, you can always create your own (as I have done for an upcoming Women, Wine and Wii girl's night I'm hosting). It's the e-mail of the invitation world. I have friends who hate e-mail and still prefer to write letters by hand. And that's fine, it's just not me. Most of my friends and I are total geeks, and we love any technology that makes our lives easier. Evite is one such technology - it's time- and cost-efficient - and I will probably never buy or make a paper invitation again.

too impersonal I thnk

i love them for last minute things...we do them in our office a lot for weekly football parties to figure out who's hosting and who's bringing what...but i don't know about big parties.

I agree with party about not liking knowing everyone who is going to be at an event. Half the fun of going to a party is guessing who might be there. I can see the evite appeal, and I also think for some things they're a perfect, but I don't really care for them as the norm.

I tend to side with scorpstar77 and julieulie.

Looks to me like something that saves trees.

Good point,, but they look so good in scrapbooks.

It depends. It's easy for last minute informal get-togethers like playdates or just a quick dinner gathering amongst friends. It saves trees, stamps and time. But for more formal parties, I like to send out real invitations.

I think it's a great tool to use for quick get togethers. It makes things Very easy and helps the host have less stress. AND it's free and more eco friendly. Since my mom is a mail carrier, I'm supposed to say Send Mail! haha but I tend to use evite more often. But I do mail letters to loved ones all the time.

Party I'm not so into them either. I feel so much pressure to add a witty comment that I just procrastinate responding to the last possible moment and then end up saying nothing. I mean how many times can I get away with "Thanks for eviting me."?

hah, they may make thanks for he evite cards.

I think it's fine, a lot of people are busy with children, spouses, jobs, volunteer work and to actually sit down and hand do an invitation, the world is a busy place and I feel happy just to be invited, to see somebody included me makes my day. Also I can mentally prepare for who else was invited. Sometimes having a heads up is nice. I feel no pressure to leave a witty comment. I just mark yes, no or maybe.

I think they're nice for casual things, but not for nice parties or dinner parties.

evite is awesome! i've been using it since my 18th birthday party. it's great because you know everyone checks their e-mail on a regular basis & there are no worries about invites getting lost in the mail. plus, i find people are more apt to rsvp when they don't have to pick up the phone.

all of yum's complaints are easily fixed by using your own images & changing a few default settings.

I have always viewed Evite this way: Evite is a great thing for parties that you don't care about 100%. In this day and age, there are still some people who could care less about an invitation sent through email and do not take this kind of invitation seriously.

I personally feel (and have noticed) if you want your event to be a success and want people to take your invite seriously, it must be sent by post. For added responses, use the Evite as a back up and reminder tool.

One thing I have noticed from throwing a few co-ed baby showers: Men will respond to the Evite, but not the paper invitation, and women will respond to the paper invite more readily than the Evite.

If it is casual, and a lot of people, I think evites are wonderful. For something special, I would of course opt for a hard invite.

I think they're fine for less formal events with friends.

evite is only good for casual events with tons of people. i prefer invitations.

Party and I disagree about this one, I actually love evites! I usually make my own image in photoshop and send it out. It's the easiest way to keep everything organized. I wish I had the time for real invites, but I usually end up planning parties at the last minute.

I just used Evite for two of my birthday parties (one family, one friend). This makes it much easier to keep track of sine the two are on the same day. The most important thing to me though, is cost. I'm a single parent and don't have anything to spare, so when I can save I will. This is a BIG savings! I agree with others though, that for a really big event like a wedding or shower that this wouldn't do. I view it as something used more informally. I love it.

Never tried them OR heard about them!

my boyfriend uses evite and one of my co-workers does too. I don't think you are REQUIRED to leave a comment, obviously. If you can't attend and want to say why, then you can leave a comment. And if you want to make sure that you will know someone at the party, then you can see who will be attending. It's been a long time since I threw a party that required actual invitations or e-invitations, so really, either one is fine with me. If I'm doing a themed party, I would probably make up themed cards, but if it's just a casual get-together, why not send the e-vite? Everybody is on email anyway.

As long as noone uses Evite for wedding's....i think its fine. haha

I love them for casual get togethers. of course for a formal event I would sent a paper invite. But I find alot of people don't check their mail as regularly as their e-mail these days, so I think this is a good option for some people.

This has been a recent source of conversation and debate around here. Although I think it a good option not only for the convenience and ease of contacting and responding... but also in keeping my efforts to reduce waste (they "save the trees" so to speak).

However, I do think it lovely to send a real snail mail invitation when hosting something special. I feel the same way about giving and receiving hand written (or at least hand signed!!) holiday cards and hand written thank you notes.

leluxe-can you imagine that!!

I may be two years late to this thread but I must leave a comment. I prefer life before evite. Evite is like spam from friends and coworkers. If I know you then I already know you're planning a freaking party and I've already told you if I'll make it or not. The people that I know who use evite are just obsessed with getting responses and therefore obsessed with themselves. I prove this repeatedly by never clicking on the evite link and just wait a few days until the sender says,"Hey Pat, you got my evite right? Make sure to respond!'. Yeah thanks, I already told you I was coming why must I open and write a witty remark? I would prefer the anti-evite site, maybe something called FYIvite, which is just a heads up that a shindig will be agoin' on.