GOING for IT!

March 19th, 2012

Ricki was an East Coast girl with a large extended family scattered all across the United States, Canada and Ireland. She worked a routine 9-5 job, had never married and lived at home. Over the years, Ricki’s parents begged her to “do something with her life” and broaden her horizons. Yet Ricki’s response was always “I know my job is boring but it pays the bills. I hope you people weren’t expecting the next Bill Gates.” Secretly, Ricki felt stuck and didn’t know what to do.

When Ricki was 46, her mother died suddenly. Ricki was devastated because they had been so close. One night when preparing for bed, she burst into uncontrollable tears. As she cried, she heard her mother’s voice saying “It’s now or never Ricki. Now or never. You’ve got to Go for It.” In that moment, Ricki realized she had to break out of her self-imposed prison and ‘Go For It’……whatever ‘It’ was.

Fast forward one year later and Ricki was in Ireland on a photography junket with a group of wildly adventurous photography buffs. The leader of the group was a tall, handsome Irishman named Ryan. He and Ricki were immediately smitten and fell deeply in love over their six-week tour of picturesque Irish countrysides, remote castles, quaint farm towns and lively pubs. The day Ricki was supposed to fly home, Ryan bent down on one knee and tearfully proposed. Ricki accepted.

As Ricki and Ryan planned their wedding in Ireland, they selected MyInvitationLink.com to announce their wedding plans to family and friends across the globe. The couple loved the idea of a digital wedding invitation they could personalize with their own unique love story, music and multiple photographs and then share with family and friends all over the world. Having an elegant digital wedding invitation was the perfect solution to expensive postage and long delivery times. The ease of emailing their digital wedding invitation and being able to update it, should last minute changes occur, made MyInvitationLink.com’s digital wedding invitation the ideal choice for them. Ricki and Ryan were very pleased with how beautiful their digital wedding invitation looked and how much time and money it saved them.

J. Kelly Chase
MyInvitationLink.com Contributor


From the Moment We Met

March 12th, 2012

The journey to finding a spouse can be a winding road of unexpected twists, periods of walking alone as well as the joyful anticipation of moving forward on the path with a new partner. We all want to be loved at the deepest levels of our being. We all want to share our lives with someone we truly care about…someone who will always nurture, respect, love and cherish us.

Most couples will agree that from the moment they met, their first meeting was different. On that day, circumstances lined up in a unique, wonderful and highly memorable way. Instead of saying to themselves, “Oh no this is not the person for me,” their brain automatically told them “Yes this is THE ONE or someone so close I would love to spend the rest of my life with him or her.” Instinctively, they knew that the man or woman standing in front of them was the one they had been looking for…perhaps praying for…..and definitely dreaming about.

Executing a wedding, whether large or small, can be overwhelming for most couples. All of a sudden you are both dealing with finding a venue, caterers, photographers, invitations, florists, etc. Things you both must have to make your wedding day unforgettable are being mutually agreed upon. Budgets are being created. Guest lists are being reviewed. In reality, your wedding is your first joint venture. This is the project you will both stamp your joint characters, tastes and preferences on months, if not years, before heading up to the honeymoon suite. During this time, there could be some really awkward, frustrating moments but the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual support you offer one another will make the wedding day that much sweeter. During this time, it is important to endure through the challenges and share the joyful moments with friends. Sharing your story, sharing your love brings happiness to those around you. It expands the circle of love. MyInvitationLink.com is built around more than just an invitation. It is about sharing those happy times.

Love is a gift that we bestow upon our spouse. Marital love grows richer with time, working through life challenges and accomplishing goals. It is not by chance that we draw to us the perfect spouse to help us learn and grow. We soon realize how blessed we are to have found the person who allows us to blossom in ways that produce deep happiness and personal transformation. Marriage is a sacred journey uniting two people who become bigger and better than they would have been walking the path alone.

J. Kelly Chase
MyInvitationLink.com Contributor


Return to Sender

December 6th, 2010

The price per ounce for postage in 1863 was three cents. In 1958, a mere 95 years later, the cost for postage increased to four cents. In 1963, it increased to five cents. 1971, eight cents … 1974, ten cents – a $0.02 jump that created quite a stir. Fast forward almost 40 years, and we’re looking at another $0.02 increase on January 2, 2011. The cost of postage in the New Year will be $0.46, or 46 cents – a whopping 1433% increase in 148 years.

Traditionally, wedding invitations are mailed in double envelopes. The inner envelope may be lined, is not gummed, and fits into the outer envelope. The outer envelope is gummed for sealing and addressing. More recently, the inner envelope is often left out in the interest of saving money and postage.

Now, something else that should be noted here is that The United States postal service issues a love stamp each year specifically denominated to cover the double weight of the invitation and reply (a rate slightly less than the cost of two regular stamps). My personal favorite is a little gem designed by some Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland. At 61 cents, it will cover the cost of the extra weight of your wedding invitation:

So the Facebook “Events” application is kinda Neanderthal in it’s ability to send a unique invitation. As a result, you’ve decided to send your cleverly designed and well made wedding invitations to all 972 of your Facebook friends. Don’t worry, the cost of postage will only set you back $592 dollars or so.

Now, let’s talk about dead mail. Those sad little envelopes that never get to the intended recipient and for some reason can’t make their way back to you? That’s called dead mail – it goes above and beyond just the regular tragedy of “Return to Sender”. You sent an invitation to your über-rich second-cousin-in-law that lives in Rhode Island because you knew she’d 1) be hurt if she wasn’t invited and 2) send you a large large LARGE and pricey present. But she never received the invitation. And you never got it back in the mail. It wound up in the dead letter office, a facility that houses the 100+ million letters that are undeliverable as addressed. The 61 cents you spent on that double enveloped piece of artwork you called an invitation is down the drain. Officially.

A better choice is OBVIOUSLY to save yourself the cost of postage, not to mention the hassle of addressing each envelope by hand (in your best penmanship, I might add). Why not create a slick and savvy electronic invitation? Send out the link in any way you see fit: Post it on your blog, put it as your status, tweet it for crying out loud – but let your friends know just how good looking your spouse-to-be really is. Your wallet (or your daddy’s wallet as the case may be) will thank you, and you can stash the cash in your nest egg fund to begin your new life.


It’s French for “Be Polite”

April 21st, 2009

An exciting new development on the website today. We launched the ability to gather and track guests coming to your event. Most people would call it RSVP, but since most of my readers speak English, I really don’t know where to go with this. J’ai décidé que le reste de mon blog sera en français. Si vous désirez une traduction, je vous suggère d’utiliser le traducteur de Google à retourner à l’anglais. Okay, that is not going to work. Let’s just talk about RSVP’s.

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And THIS is the thanks I get?!?

April 13th, 2009

When I was getting ready to be married, one of my friends told me of all the loot that he and his wife received as wedding gifts. He recounted gift by gift the bounteous haul he made. “My grandma gave us a television, my uncles pitched in to get us a bbq grill, her parents gave us all of our china, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” Wow, that was the point that I really got excited about the wedding guest list. . I had always just given my friends a waffle iron and he was talking about all of these great gifts he had received. Invite Everyone!! I exclaimed to Jen (my fiancé). I would gladly stand in a line for three hours to get more loot. I had always just given my friends a cheap toaster, and he was talking about all of these great gifts he got. I was mostly kidding, but the idea of all those gifts was appealing.

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