Where was this when I was pregnant and planning? The Glory of online Invitations

Progress is amazing. The world of the interwebs is amazing. Due to me having a 3.5 year old toddler I have had my head in the sand of parenthood and small business like an ostrich.

I recently went to a baby shower and was amazed at how adorable and how easy it was to have everything personally themed.  They are huge Super Mario Bros fans and excepting a little girl. It was all Princess Peach.  Regrettably I didn't take photos like I should have but I overhead the friend who organized it talking to a relative about how easy it was with templates from all the same site. I didn't even realize that people now do Ready to Pop announcements in addition to Baby shower invitations!

I love to do themes and throw parties myself but I feel like we had covered the big milestones already. My only hope is that my little man would love a themed birthday and lucky enough he is ALL about Godzilla, King of Monsters.

I was invited to check out BasicInvite.com and got some amazing free samples.  Before saying yes I checked out their website and found the most adorable template for my friend Ashley.  Their family is into race cars and this seemed so perfect.

One of the things that really caught my eye was that almost all the templates had accompanying thank you cards!  I think that is truly genius because then you can have the thank you cards on hand as you open presents and use a post it not to instantly write down what they received and from whom, then a few days later sit down with the stack and get it done all at once.

Along with the idea of already having the thank you cards they also offer "Address Capturing Service" - Basic Invite offers an address capturing service that allows customers to simply share a link on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or any other form of social media to request their friends and family’s addresses which will be stored in the customer’s account and can then be selected during the design process. Basic Invite offers recipient address printing at no cost on all Christmas card orders. That is definitely something I will be using in the future and OH GOD how much time could of been saved if this had been around when I planning my wedding, baby shower, 100 days, first birthday, etc etc.

After scoping it out I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of their products and how efficient and quick it was to process. I not only did a sample for Colin's birthday months away but also some things for business.  I went a little rogue and used the wedding invitations options to get some logo printed stickers for the shop and also tried out their clear plastic cards for my own consultant/artist business.

I was also in love with the idea that they do custom samples. Basic Invite is one of the few websites that allows customers the ability to order a printed sample of their actual invitation so they can see exactly how it will print as well as the paper quality before they ever have to place their final order.

Once again the templates that were available and that I ended up choosing were super easy to customize. It can be a little overwhelming since they have almost unlimited colors. Basic Invite is one of the few websites that allows customers almost unlimited color options with instant previews online. Once you select a design you can change the color of each element on the card to over 180 different color options so you can make sure the card is exactly how you want it down to the littlest detail. This is something that sets them apart from almost any other online stationery company and is the biggest draw.

There is also an option for 40 different colors of envelopes to choose from. So if you make major color changes in your template you make sure you have just the right envelope to match to make it a complete package and this is for ALL products not just wedding invites. I also like that they envelopes are all peel and stick so that is one less hassle in the entire process.

Here is the big reveal!  My order came and I was super happy with the results and the care of the packaging. It is great that they also offer a code to use on your order if you are satisfied with your samples which makes it even more appealing to use Basic Invite.

I ended up going with the Dragon and didn't change any of the colors because I loved the template just the way it was.

I did customize my back to make it a little more personal with a note and photo of Colin in his favorite dragon costume. Since the part is quite a few months from now and we do not know the current showtimes for the new Godzilla movie I left a little blank spot that I can fill in later if I decided to order them now.

It was so easy to add the photo and it connected to a variety of different photo programs that were also helpful.

I also ordered the accompanying thank you card because let's be honest, If I don't have the cards already I might never actually write them and then I would feel like a jerk.

Right now Basic Invite is offering 15% off with coupon code: 15FF51 
and there are having specials with ladybug baby shower invitations and baby shower invitations for boys. 

I will say that being able to check out these samples and explore this company has been a treat and I look forward to how else I can use them in the coming years as I have more parties and perhaps more family to plan for (it's not all about me and don't jump to any conclusions).