By Sarah Finnie Robinson, Director of Social Programming at Practically Green
Obsessions: For some people, it’s chocolate. For others, Corvettes. Personally? I’m obsessed with stationery. I love writing and receiving letters. And I adhere to the old-fashioned practice of writing a proper thank-you note on nice stationery — not just zipping off an email.
Until now.
Look! I just made a note for you! Click here.
To be fair, there are other online cards and stationery resources. Evite, 123Greetings, Blue Mountain among them. Smilebox has a free download that lets you use your photos and videos along with their designs and music… the demo of Benjamin’s 7th birthday is pretty compelling. Cocodot has a metro, graphic feel. For New Yorker magazine cartoon fans, Pingg offers several, among thousands of other choices. My cousin Martha, a music aficionado, is a devotee of Jacquie Lawson cards. Click here to see the card she sent me for Hallowe’en this year.
But back to my first choice, Paperless Post.
It’s one of those Necessity-is-the-Mother-of-Invention stories. A social college guy named James was preparing to throw his 21st birthday party. He was all set: He’d arranged the venue, the drinks, the menu. He had the invite list. He had his date. However, like many people his age, James had no earthly idea what his friends’ snail mail addresses were; nor did he relish the idea of getting that list together. James knew all of their email addresses, of course. … Fast forward: James and his sister Alexa collaborated to offer really nice stationery, customizable and elegant – but e-mailable, efficient, and cost-effective. Paperless Post was born in April 2009, and it’s been booming ever since. From the site:
Paperless Post stationery is as tasteful as its tangible counterpart, but it also makes life simpler. In minutes, members can send out invitations for any occasion- dinner parties, anniversaries, save the dates – whenever they want to send something more personal than a simple email or awkward PDF. After sending, they can then monitor as guests receive and reply to their invitations.
Last year, Paperless Post sent out about one million holiday cards. Does that sound like a lot? They’re gearing up for millions more this year. James and Alexa think this is especially appealing for busy moms:
The Holidays are busy enough without having to think about the time-consuming process of sending offline Holiday cards to all of your friends and family. In general, people really love the instant feedback they get from Paperless Post which is something that they don’t get from paper mail. With Holiday Cards, we found that users really loved getting 50 immediate responses from friends and family all over the world.
Weddings, birth announcements, save the date, bar mitzvah, baby showers, change of address, they’re all covered.
How would you like to be invited to this Thanksgiving feast?
Or this New Year’s Eve bash!
We asked James and Alexa if they’ve ever calculated how much CO2 (and $$!) a Paperless Post customer might save by, say, doing their entire wedding this way; or by sending 500 Christmas cards this way instead of via snail mail. Answer:
Yes! By using Paperless Post you save a ton of money on postage alone! It costs $30 for 600 Paperless Post Stamps (1 stamp sends one piece of Paperless mail) compared to the $264 that 600 USPS stamps cost. In terms of saving trees, every 1000 cards sent on Paperless Post saves a tree.
Have a look around and you’ll discover your own special favorites.
RSVP and let us know what you think. Will you send e-Holiday cards this year?
Sarah Finnie Robinson is the Social Media director at Practically Green, a new website that coaches people on making eco-friendly and healthy everyday decisions.
Other articles by Sarah on babybites’ blog: