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August 02, 2021

How to use templates to design invitations for any occasion for free

You’ve got a lot of invitations to create—and fast! Luckily, making printable invitations for any occasion is fast and easy. No matter what your artistic abilities are, it’s easier than ever to create invitations online like a pro.

Plenty of mailing cards, envelopes, handwritten, and some tied with string and bow.

In fact, there are plenty of printable and editable invitation options that reflect your personality to a tee. By creating your own free printable invitations, you’ll get more creative control over what the invitations will look like. Here are a few tricks for designing invitations, based on personality type:

Invitations for the no-nonsense type

You’re busy and you don’t have the time to create your own invites from scratch. The good news is: With free editable invitation design templates, you can get the job done in a flash! Choose from wedding, graduation, and bar/bat mitzvah invitations, to holiday, birthday, bachelor party invites—and everything in between. After you download these professionally-designed templates, you can open them in a Word doc, then customize them with your own message, colors, and more. Print them on your favorite cardstock, put them in envelopes, add decorative stamps, throw them in the mail, and you’re good to go!

handwritten card with pencil, envelope, and stamps.

Invitations for the champagne-on-a-beer-budget type

Want to create the perfect, star-worthy invitations, but you’re a tad low on funds? Don’t let that stop you! There are hundreds of free invitation templates out there. Start by finding a style you already love and use it as a source of inspiration to design your very own. You can do this by perusing info about celebrity weddings, if that’s your thing, or maybe Hollywood-inspired, red-carpet galas. Perhaps a royal wedding is more your style! If so, find out what your favorite princes and princesses chose for their invites and leverage ideas from that. Once you’ve narrowed it down, it’s time to get to work. Try an invitation app like Invitation Maker or Poster Maker that you can use to make invitations online in your browser, and design away. Look for invitation design features like:

  • Plenty of filters and overlay options for stunning, creative touches.
  • Text that comes in many fonts and colors and that’s to add to and edit your invitations.
  • Graphic design elements to embellish your invitations.
  • Ability to save and share your invitations online with friends and family via email or social networks like Facebook, Twitter, etc.
  • Ability to easily print your invitations for free.
designing an invitation card on a tablet.

Invitations for the unforgettable type

This is for the “go big or go home” creators. Someone who likes to leave their mark, or at least leave them guessing. Run-of-the-mill invitations just won’t do, even if they are beautiful and well-designed: you want to add that extra something that really reflects your personality. Bold, printable invitations are perfect for milestone events like sweet sixteen parties, weddings, or engagement celebrations. By creating and sending out a printable invitation, you can save it and cherish it for years to come. Here are a few examples of how free printable invitations can showcase your quirky side:

  • For puzzle lovers: Invitations printed on puzzles that guests must solve to view
  • For the young at heart: Save-the-date invites with colorful balloons attached. Hint: You write the event and date info on the balloon when inflated—then deflate before attaching (e.g., Kate & Alex 2/14/2023).
  • For the hopeless romantic: Message-in-a-bottle wedding invites, with the info printed on a card inside a tiny decorative bottle (it’s perfect for beach weddings/parties, too!)
  • For the fanatic: Themed invitations that reflect your true affinity, whatever it may be:
    • Fairytale fans: Invites evocative of your favorite love stories, such as “Beauty and the Beast,” “Cinderella,” or “Sleeping Beauty.”
    • The sports guru: Invites that look like real tickets to the big game.
    • Music lovers: Invites in the shape of record labels. Get some old 45-rpm vinyl records from a second-hand store and stick them on!
different designing an invitation card on a tablet.

Invitations for the organized type

You want to create unique invitations with personalized imagery that reflects you, or the people in your life. Personalized imagery is very popular for save-the-date invitations or wedding invitations.

Still, you don’t want to spend hours thumbing through photos. The cloud is the way to go! By having all your files, folders, and photos in the cloud, it’s easy to download a free invitation template into Word and then pull the images you need, all in one place. If your cloud has a sharing feature that lets you create your own group, it’ll be easy to share and get feedback on your invitations, or even ask others to share their own photos and albums.

For example, let’s say you’re getting married in June and you’re creating invitations. You can create a group called “Roberto & Isla’s Wedding” and invite family and friends to join. You can ask for baby pics of the groom, couple’s pics, or anything else you may need. You can even ask for feedback on wedding invitation template designs from your mom, sister, bridesmaids, and more—making collaboration a breeze. Luckily, editable templates let you change up your wedding invitation as many times as you wish. Tip: don’t forget to consider both you and your future spouse’s personality when editing your wedding invitation template.

Down the road, you can collaborate on seating charts and menus for the reception, the wedding registry, hotel and travel info for out-of-town guests and so much more. It really is a one-stop shop for designing invitations online and beyond.

Every personality type can benefit from the cloud, as it’s a great tool for keeping stress at bay. Think of it as your go-to hub for designing and organizing—so you can focus on creating memories and invitations without breaking the bank.

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