This post may end up reading like an ad spot for Paperless Post. I promise that it isn't, even though we did decide to use it for our wedding invitations. We'd received invitations via Paperless Post before - first among them from our friend Jess, who used it for her 30th birthday invites early last year. As the name implies, it's an online service that lets you send out all kinds of cards that would normally be popped into the post. Party invitations, thank you cards, birthday cards, and save-the-dates can all be sent with this service, which can be free or cost a bit of money, depending on what you're after.

It struck me as a great idea for our own wedding because, well, Blake and I aren't really sure how much a stamp costs anymore. You send your guests an E-mail containing the picture of an envelope, and when they click on it, your invitation flies out of it and displays on-screen! The designs are very customisable, right down to the stamp you want to put on the envelope (we chose one with a dinosaur on it).

You can choose to use totally free designs (as we did for our Tea Ceremony invites), or spend a bit of money on the flashier ones (as we will for our Wedding Ceremony invites). It will all cost us way less than it would have if we'd decided to print and mail them off instead.

For me, the money-saving aspect is just one small, teeny tiny advantage of doing invitations electronically. The big winner is the instant gratification aspect of it. Not only can I get RSVPs right away, Paperless Post in particular lets you see to whom you've sent the invite, who has opened the invite, who is attending, and who isn't attending! So I get to look at our entire guest list and giggle with overly enthusiastic glee as an invitation goes from being "sending" to "sent" to "opened" to "attending"! And what if I put in a bad E-mail address and it bounces back? No worries - Paperless Post will tell you if it's undeliverable, too!

I can also send RSVP reminders with the click of a button, which I think is awesome, especially after I'd heard some of the RSVP nightmares from coworkers and friends. Evidently there are some people out there (family, mostly) who say things like "of course I'm coming, you already know I am, do I still have to RSVP to the Tea Ceremony?"

HEY. LISTEN. I'M A BRIDESMAID AT A MATE'S WEDDING AND I STILL RSVP'D USING THE RSVP OPTION PROVIDED TO ME. IT'S POLITE, GUYS. A NON-RESPONSE IS NOT A "NO" OR AN "OF COURSE", IT'S A NON-RESPONSE THAT PEOPLE HAVE TO CHASE UP AND THEY HATE DOING THAT.

That's not just me talking. That's every single person I've talked to about their weddings, whether it was online, paper, or something in-between.

I cannot imagine what it must be like for people to mail off a paper invite, wonder if it's arrived yet, wondering if the reply's in the mail, and wondering if you haven't gotten a reply because they didn't receive it or aren't coming or if the reply's still on the way! Not to mention some people on the other side of the world who think that popping it in the mail on the date of the RSVP deadline means that it totally counts as getting it in on time!

I've heard from a few folks who feel that an electronic invitation doesn't replace the personal aspect of a paper one. I kind of get this, but only kind of. To me the sending of a paper invitation is only more personal insofar as there might be some DNA of ours left on the envelope after we'd touched or licked it. That's kind of creepy, guys.

It's not like a lot of thought didn't go into our invitation. We put plenty of effort into creating and customising everything on it; we just skipped a few steps after that! Now I'm not saying that a text-only E-mail is somehow less thoughtful or not an okay option; shoot, I reckon that if you want to send someone a text saying HEY COME TO MAH WEDDIN' <STRING OF EMOJI> then that's fine and dandy!

Now, a very close family friend of ours doesn't "do" the internet. Like, no computer, no smartphone, no E-mail address, nothing. She's made the point that some people might want to keep a copy of the invitation as a memento of the occasion, particularly for those who might not be able to attend themselves. Ah, now there's something that makes sense to me.

Incidentally, a service Paperless Post also provides is that you can order paper versions of most of their online designs. It could be an idea for us to order some of these for our immediate family members, just as something for them to hold onto to mark the occasion until the photos are sent through! Something that's still being considered, largely dependent on how much longer I really want my To-Do List to get!