The Plunge Blog

When it comes to raw practicality, it's obvious that paper wedding invitations make about as much sense as, say, journeying to your wedding on horseback, using the telegraph, or waiting until marriage to lose your virginity. It's anachronistic.

We have better tools. More modern tools. Think about it--when's the last time you actually used the postal service to get together with your buddies? It's easier (and cheaper) to use e-mail, texts, Facebook, Evite, etc.

As you are painfully aware, however, you are not simply getting together with your buddies. Common sense has been hijacked by a junkie's need preference for etiquette, decorum, and old-fashioned invitations. The gods of wedding manners have decreed that you can't simply e-invite people; it's Just. Not. Done.

You probably shouldn't even suggest digital-invitations to your bride. It's not a battle you can win.

...But that might be changing.

Today the New York Times introduces us to Paperless Post, a new breed of formal, high-end, stylish electronic invitations. How are these different? Unlike the cheesy templates you get at Evite or whatever, these cards are created by a bunch of high-society, decorum-conscious designers, and they're meant to convey class.

From the Times:

Paperless Post, which is in New York, is a venture of Alexa Hirschfeld, 25, and her brother James, 23. It enables users to design, send and track e-vites and other social summonses on the Web while maintaining easy correctness and a life's-a-party air reminiscent of old-fashioned mailings. The siblings have handled 60,000 invitations since January, and 150,000 since their membership-based operations began last fall.

"The Internet has been a kind of vacuum in terms of aesthetics," Ms. Hirschfeld said. "We wanted to leverage functionality with design." So many people, she added, had gotten bored with such easy-virtue social tools as Facebook or Evite. The recession-related closing of Madison Avenue stationer Mrs. John L. Strong last month further suggests to the Hirschfelds that their customer base will expand."

So. This is the best argument yet to save money and switch from paper. Is it foolproof? Of course not. My grandmother still stares at this newfangled "mouse" contraption with suspicion, clicking the damn thing when the computer is turned off.

Your fiancée's probably still going to balk. But now maybe there's a chance... even if it's just one in a million, like Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber, we're "saying there's a chance."

Happily, wedding invitations--if you're lucky--are outside your domain of groom duties, and this is one area where you can hit the snooze button. Get the rest of the "wake up or hit the snooze button" breakdown here.