Thursday, May 29, 2008

Tiny*Prints Gets a Big Reception

Last weekend we celebrated Mira's first birthday. I know the first birthday is really more for the parents than it is for the baby, so I wanted it to be a casual but fun gathering of friends and family. I also wanted to have pretty invitations to send out and also keep as a memento.

Usually we order the standard photo cards for birthday parties. They're usually glossy, and some of the designs are cheesy or limited in how much you can personalize them. Nothing fancy, but they get the job done.

So when Parent Bloggers asked if I would like to try out some invitations from tiny*prints, I took a look at their site. After looking through their birthday options, I agreed to order Mira's party invites through them.

I was really impressed with the modern, stylish designs they offer for birthday invitations. Even baby-themed birthday invites were both elegant and fun at the same time. It was actually very difficult to choose which invite I liked the best. Some had cute drawings on them, others were photo cards, and they came in a variety of different sizes.

Finally, I decided on a photo card, and went to the next step: personalization. The on-screen editing of each section of the invitation is simple, easy to use, and allows you to preview your changes immediately. Can't think of what to say? They have suggested verses to borrow.

The photo editing was better than any other I've seen. Photos can be changed in several ways: zoom in or out, move to better fit the size of the window, rotate, and change to black and white or sepia tone. If you decide you don't like the changes, you can always revert to the original.

Before I placed my order, the system also let me know that an actual human being (a professional designer) would be reviewing my order to make sure everything looked the best it could. How many places offer that?

So how did my invitations turn out? Well, take a look at this:

(Bad blurring of personal info was my doing.)

I was stunned at how pretty these invites were! I love the thick cardstock they are printed on, and the colors are vibrant and rich. (No glossy finish, either!) The envelopes were also much better than the standard see-thru lightweight envelopes you find at other places.

Overall, I love the tiny*prints invitations. The only downside is that they are a little more expensive than other photo invites I've seen. But the quality makes that additional cost worth it, I think. Several of the guests told me they thought the invites were beautiful, and they planned to save them.

I recommend tiny*prints, and would use them again for birthday invites. They also offer moving announcements, birth announcements, thank you cards, and invites for lots of other events.

3 comments:

Incognito Mom said...

Mira's 1st Birthday invites were beautiful! Last summer I used the same invite but in blue and green for my little boy's 1st birthday and I also found tinyprints.com's website to be simple and easy to use. I'm an idiot when it comes to anything that involves photo editting so if I can use this site then anyone can. Like you, everyone raved over our invites too. So, here's another recommendation for tinyprints invites. I've also had several friends use them for birth announcements and the end result and the quality are as good as the birthday invites.

Anonymous said...

Wow that invitation is so pretty. I made my own invites for my little one's first birthday, but maybe I will try them out for her second. Thanks for the info!

Anonymous said...

I have used Tiny Prints over and over--birthday invites, Christmas cards, birth announcements...they are fabulous and beautiful every time.