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My brother recently got married and my little family got to be highly involved in the process. Balancing work-at-home mom life with planning bridal showers, designing the wedding program and assisting with the wedding prep any way I can is hectic. But watching my little guy serve as a ring bearer and the delight on my brother’s face as his bride walked down the aisle was so worth it.
As a marketer, pairing clients with the best services for their needs is an important job I don’t take lightly. I recently found unique bridal shower invitations from Basic Invite and now recommend their service for a variety of use cases from baby showers to graduation parties and wedding invites.
Here’s why Basic Invite is outstanding regardless of the occasion you’re celebrating.
1. 180 Color Options
A fun aspect of throwing a bridal shower is the ability to integrate it with the bride and groom’s chosen color palette. And honestly, using the same colors makes for easy decision-making, especially if your bride tribe is large and you’re sharing the party planning with many ladies who all have design preferences.
Basic Invite allows you to choose from 180 color options with instant online previews. So although it’s easy (which is exactly what this busy momma needs), the designs also look great. Some other invite websites give you just a couple of color combination options, which is limiting when you’re going for a specific look.
2. Order a Custom Sample
What you see on a screen doesn’t always translate perfectly to a printed piece. That’s a challenge of online designs. And there’s nothing worse than getting things just the way you want them only to realize the fold is slightly off or the color doesn’t look the same because of how you have your computer screen calibrated.
Basic Invite allows you to order custom samples so you can see exactly how your design will look. And when they say custom, they mean completely custom to where the sample you’re receiving is exactly what you’ll be ordering if you make no additional changes.
This helps you feel confident about your invitation order before spending money on larger quantities. Just make sure you allow yourself time to use this feature and don’t procrastinate building that perfect invitation look you’ve always wanted.
3. 40 Envelope Options
Even the envelope you send your invitations in can be customized to meet your needs. You can choose from 40 color options to match your invites.
My favorite aspect of the Basic Invite envelopes is the peel and stick seal. When you’re trying to save time and truly enjoy the special moments that bridal showers, weddings or baby showers provide, you want speed and simplicity. And you can rest assured that you’ve sealed the envelopes securely.
4. Address Capturing Service
As sending snail mail isn’t as popular as it once was, capturing addresses and writing them down isn’t a practice that many people do anymore. And because of that, getting invites out promptly is challenging.
Basic Invite offers an address capturing service where you can link to your social media accounts to request an address from friends and family. You can store them securely in your account and then use the addresses when you’re designing your invitations.
Another huge time-saver that I love is that you can order invitations with recipient address printing. That means no painstaking handwriting is required to get your invitations in the mail quickly to optimize your time.
5. Foil Cards Add Glamor
When ordering invitations, you can add a touch of elegance and glamor with foil cards. You can add foil to invitations in gold, silver or rose gold. Plus, you can choose from flat or raised foil when you use Basic Invite’s foil designs.
The foil is just a nice touch that makes your invites more distinctive and unique. And your recipients won’t be able to miss these invites, which might help reduce the amount of follow-up you have to do to check in on your guest list.
6. A Unique, Practical Bridal Shower Gift – Bridal Shower Thank Yous
For family members, I like getting practical bridal shower gifts that help the bride and groom save time. Ordering bridal shower thank yous and giving them as a gift is a great way to help the bride get thank you notes out the door quickly after an event.
I also like giving a custom return address stamp to the bride and groom with their new Mr. and Mrs. name. That can make the wedding thank you process faster and be a gift they’ll use as long as they live at their current address.
How I Find Time for These Activities as a Work-at-home Mom
When the groom has a sister in marketing, it’s a natural fit to have her help with some of the aspects of wedding planning, such as invites or the program. Having worked in marketing for more than a decade, I know how different weights of paper feel and what various finishes will look like.
But I’m also swamped. Self-employment is challenging. If you want time off or time to focus on other things, you have to make that time. There are no vacation days or holidays unless you do the work in advance to allow for some vacation days.
So here’s how I find time for helping with family activities that are near and dear to my heart without hurting my work or my relationship with my sons or husband.
- Use evenings: I try hard to set aside evenings to catch up with my husband and unwind from the busyness of the day of work and caring for two small children. But sometimes, it’s the only time I have for overflow work like helping plan a bridal shower. I still aim for only once or twice a week that I use this free time because otherwise I face burnout and risk losing my connection with my husband.
- Share the load with my husband: work-at-home mom life requires open and honest communication with my husband. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, I know I have to ask for help. And just vocalizing some of my concerns can help him know how to help. If you never share those feelings, you can’t work as a team to get through the busy periods.
- Say no to special projects: I’ve found myself saying no to special projects since welcoming our second child. I have recurring monthly work that pays the bills and special projects could consume my special time with my family or lead to me saying no to non-work activities like helping out with a bridal shower or being there for a sibling when they ask for it. Self-employment is challenging because there is always more that you can do. The key to keeping your sanity and doing the things that matter most to you is in saying no to some things to leave room for others.
- Get out of bed immediately when my alarm goes off: this one is hard. The life of a mom with young children is exhausting. But then add in work and other commitments and it can feel drowning at times. I know if I spring out of bed, I can get more done before my kids wake up. But it’s still so tempting to just lay there and enjoy the quiet solitude. So some days I allow it and others I push through and get out of bed early to ensure everything gets done.
Participating in Important Family Events
While my immediate family comes first, I also want to be there for my other family members when they go through important milestones, like a wedding, move or welcoming a little one.
I love services like Basic Invite that make it easy and help me maximize my time to be there for those I love.
You can take advantage of 15% off at Basic Invite for a limited time with coupon code: 15FF51
Happy designing!
