Is it Okay to Email Wedding Invitations?

An invitation to a wedding invokes more trouble than a summons to a police court.
~ William Feather

Weddings are great. Nothing beats an event where you can dress gorgeously, have lots of fabulous food to eat, with music, and of course, awkward but enthusiastic dancing. At least that's what I consider a good wedding. Talking about weddings, there are a few things that can turn a good wedding into epitome of tackiness.

However, here, we are not going discuss what all can be considered tacky by your wedding guests. We are just going talk about wedding invitations, namely whether sending online invitation breaks an unspoken code of conduct for weddings.

Since we are living in a digitized world, it is anything but abnormal for people to ask someone over to their place through an online invite. Is it okay to do that even for the wedding? The old-schoolers will find it preposterous.

However, there is a growing number of people who don't find it tacky, in fact they would commend your attempt of not wasting paper, and saving trees.

"Online invites for the wedding? Is the bride going to be in blue jeans?"

Email invites are considered too casual for the wedding. A wedding is a traditional event, where two people commit to each other for lifelong companionship.

Such a custom which has traditions of its own, needs to be carried out, if not zealously, at least not with a casualness reserved for a kegger. Breaching the rule of sending paper invitation is considered careless and downright crass, by some.

As traditionalists are dead against it, some individuals reach the middle ground by printing invites, save-the-dates, and thank you notes on recycled paper.

"Never received your email invite? I don't check my spam box."
You can never be sure that your guests have received your email invite, and there is another sticky matter of not owning a computer. If your guests are not computer-savvy, or you are not updated with their email address, you can end up offending certain people.

That being said, you can keep your email invite away from the spam trap by adding a reading script, which may be time-consuming but is worth the trouble. Avoid using pop-ups for the invitation, as the invitation could end up in spam.

Speaking about snail mail, lost or delayed invitation scenario can actually happen. The only way to safeguard yourself from such a situation is to send a paper invite and after a few days, email them too. You can also call them to find out whether they received the paper invitation.

"I am 98 years old, son. Do you expect me to have an email account? I do have a Facebook account, though."
Lumping all elderly in the non-computer-savvy category might be too harsh. However, there are some people who just don't prefer to keep up with the times. So, reserve your paper invites for them. As far as sending an invite on Facebook is concerned, that would be taking this thing a bit too far, even according to the online invite proponents.

If you use electronic mail for the RSVP and Save-the-Dates too, then it means a lot of money saved. You can put this money to better use, like giving a great wedding favor to the guests or buy something good for the two of you. This is your wedding, and you have every right to save a little if you don't care about the old-fashioned ways.

An invite is the first impression people have of your wedding. It will set the tone of the upcoming event. Moreover, most people consider it tasteless, impersonal, and lazy. If you don't agree with these labels, you may go the paperless route.