Simple E-Ideas for Planning Your Holiday Bash

Pingg.com

October’s almost over. Know what that means? Ready or not, we’re on the cusp of Holiday Season 2012. As soon as the Halloween costumes are shed, it’ll be a rat race to the turkey, stuffing, and reindeer games. Keeping track of dates, times, and RSVPs for all your holiday events can be confusing, not to mention stressful. Let's talk about how to keep your cool this season using some of the best e-vite social media apps!

First, the frontrunner: Evite. Founded in 1998, Evite is the trustworthy big brother of the event planning family. While not the most design friendly, Evite provides the basics and is easily the best known service. The site provides users with prefabricated formats and optional add-ons like polls and what-to-bring checklists.

Next up is Punchbowl, a party planning website that goes above and beyond merely sending out e-vites. Punchbowl features an app that allows guests to help choose the party date—an awesome perk that anyone who’s received a slew of negative RSVPs will appreciate. Plus, Punchbowl’s unique approach to e-cards artfully mimics receiving a paper card in the post. The service also walks you through the event planning process start to finish, helping you decide when to send invites (or Save The Dates!), suggesting gift registries, providing a message board for guests, and allowing users to view when invitees open, view, and RSVP for your event!.

Finally, there’s Pingg, which embraces those with old-school tendencies. Receiving a “real” piece of mail can be a rare treat these days when most of our mailboxes are brimming with bills and credit card offers. Pingg plays the e-card and e-vite game, but their coolest feature is Postal Pinggs, where users design their card or invite and Pingg prints, stamps, and delivers it via First Class Mail! Pinng’s mission to go above and beyond simple e-vites to incorporate a “real world” aspect is a feature sure to hit it off with the pen and paper set.

While just a sample of what’s out there, I like Evite, Punchbowl, and Pingg for their unique features. While Evite is entirely free and has great apps for iPhone and Android, Punchbowl and Pingg are free with optional upgraded memberships. Check them all out and see what works best for you! Sound off in the comments if you have any more suggestions.