Birthday Party Invitations: Making Them Fun
It’s true that creating your own birthday party invitation is a lot of fun and something you could do together with the birthday person. If you’re not too crafty, don’t feel like there’s nothing to do but buy some ready-made invitations from the local store, there are so many birthday party invitation ideas on the internet that you might enjoy finding them all together.
If the birthday party you’re planning has a particular theme, simply browsing the internet is sure to bring you a fan site or two. If your theme is a popular kids’ birthday party theme, you’ll find that many of these sites even have birthday party templates ready for you to fill out and print. But certainly these sites will have clip art that can be offered to you to share and include in the invitations that you can put together.
As you search the internet for birthday party invitations, chances are good that you will come across some template software that will guide you step by step through the process. Template software gives you the best of both words, it’s as easy to use as ready-to-use invitations that you can actually create yourself.
With or without software templates, making your own invitations is not such a difficult task. You can use MS Word, or even just its rich text editor found on all Windows operating systems. Simply choosing big, bright text and using some of the clip art you found on the internet makes presentations look great.
Certainly, lots of colored cardstock, glitter, and clues, and having an old-fashioned craft night makes for beautiful and personal birthday party invitations.
The most important thing about your invitations is the information. Start with a nice big header announcing the birthday party and be sure to include the party theme if you want to have your birthday party with a fun theme. Choose a big, bright font for this, but try to keep the yellow just for highlights, yellow is a bit harsh on the eyes. Then move on to the details of the birthday invitation.
. Whose party is it? The first thing is to announce the name of the birthday boy or girl. Be a little creative. ‘You’re invited to Ben’s special day’, ‘Sally would love for you to come to her 5th birthday party’.
. How many years? It’s much easier for parents of their child’s party guests when selecting cards and gifts.
. When: When entering the date, it is a good idea to include the date in long form, ie Saturday June 3, simply typing 4/3/07 can be confused with March 4.
. Where be clear, especially if the party is not at your house. This would be a great place to include some easy instructions using the school or a common known landmark as a starting point. Parents love maps, you may be able to find one online to include stapled to the back or just as a sheet in the envelope. If you only need a few streets, you could even include the short map in a small area on the body of the birthday invitation.
. At what time: Make sure to include both the start time and the end time. Seriously, you don’t want tired party kids still around long after the other kids have gone home.
. Theme – If you have a theme, your birthday party invitation should reinforce it and maybe include a couple of dress-up ideas.
. RSVP: For your own good, remember to ask for an RSVP, there is nothing in the word more stressful than trying to plan a party without knowing how many kids to expect. Including a special RSVP coupon with the birthday party invitation is a nice polite reminder to parents that they’d really love to hear about it ASAP.
. If you have any other information you’d like, consider writing it on the invitation instead of having to remember to tell everyone. If you want parents to stay with their children, it’s not impolite to say so. If you prefer parents to leave their children in your care due to room restrictions, it’s far better to say something here than to go through the stress of having to entertain parents while trying to organize a child’s birthday party. If you have a large space and a lot of patience, you can feel good about suggesting that siblings of close age are welcome too.
When you send out your birthday party invitations, remember to keep a list of who has received yours and check them off as they respond. Also most importantly, make sure you make a couple more than you think you’ll need. Without fail you will have forgotten some poor child, it seems that he is in the rules.