You guys. It’s officially the holiday season. No, seriously. I have absolutely no idea where October went — not in the “Oh goodness, this month flew by!” kind of way, more in the “We just moved 5,000 miles and I have no idea what day it is” kind of way. More on how we’ve squeezed every big life event into October 2017 later. Right now, I’m jumping head-first into the holiday season — which, considering my penchant for all-things Autumnal, is very unlike me. But once I got my hands on these beautiful, personalised holiday cards from Basic Invite*, I felt my cold, Grinch-like heart thaw a little. Bring on Christmas!
But really, look how cute these photo holiday cards are? I am a sucker for a good Christmas card, and I will admit, defining what is a ‘good Christmas card’ for me takes some hard work. No Santas, no confused looking animals, nothing religious or too serious, and please, for the love of all things Rudolph, nothing cheesy please and thank you.
Essentially, I want to send holiday cards that look like an East London hipster would have made them.
So, I will admit that, when Basic Invite got in touch with me about reviewing some of their holiday cards, I was a little, well, sceptical. Peering over the rim of my glasses, smirk on my face, I assumed I would face a website awash with kitschy slogans and children’s Christmas cartoons.
With just a couple of clicks, I was rightfully knocked off my high horse. I immediately fell in love with how wonderfully versatile Basic Invite is, appealing to all tastes — yes, even my hipster wannabe-Scandi-minimalist-modern-Anthropologie-whatchamacallit style — not just for holiday cards, but for holiday party invites as well.
I mean, quite literally, there is something for everyone. Almost overwhelmingly so, with virtually every color you could come up with available in your design. They even have — wait for it — rose gold foil (and gold, and silver, but rose gold people!).
When choosing your photo holiday card or Christmas party invites, sure you pick one of the (zillion) designs they have on offer, but why stop there? Almost every detail can be amended, including colours, fonts, text, paper shape, paper quality, even color of envelope (they have 40! I can’t even name 40 colors off the top of my head… Red? Blue? Chartreuse?)
In a past life, I was both a publications production manager and a perfectionist, meaning paper quality and seeing samples of a print job are both quite important to me. One of the things I really appreciate about Basic Invite is that you can order samples of your designs in your chosen paper. This way, you can both see the design and feel the paper texture (am I the only nerd who gets excited by this?).
When I put these samples together, it dawned on me how few ‘professional’ pictures I have of Stag and I. Sure, we have about a bajillion of me frolicking in dresses around various cities. But the two of us? Selfies galore. In retrospect, I may have spent a wee bit more time choosing properly shot photos for these samples. You know, instead of sending our nearest and dearest huge, pore-filled close-ups of our faces (sorry, friends).
But that’s the beauty of Basic Invite: try before you buy. Anything but basic (I think I just invented their new catchy slogan).
Right now, you can save 30% off of all holiday cards and invites (yes, even those rose gold beauties) by using the code holi30. A festive season indeed!
Do you send out yearly holiday cards? If so, do you do photo holiday cards? Do you love the ones from Basic Invite as much as I do?
*This post is sponsored by the wonderful people at Basic Invite, a brand I have grown to love. All opinions, as always, are completely my own. Shop the entire range of holiday party invites, Christmas party invites and photo holiday cards.