Shop for party invitations, unique wedding invitations, baby shower invitations, elegant bridal shower invitations & graduation invitations and announcements at InvitationBox.com.

Work stress wearing you down? Are you pregnant and just need a little time to relax? Kids driving you crazy? Need to pamper yourself and your bridal party before the big day?

Spa themed parties are all the rage this summer…what better way to spend time with the girls AND get some much needed R & R. The most popular treatments for you and your pals are manicures, pedicures and massages. Most spas have mini or express versions of the regular spa treatments which are much more cost effective and are done in about twenty to thirty minutes. Costs can range from $70-$150 per guest and sometimes include a gift for the guest. Be sure to ask whether gratuities are included.

On a budget? No need to fear – stop by your local Wal-Mart or department store and pick up the mani/pedi essentials and have a home spa party! Set the scene with some relaxing music, scented candles, warm towels and herbal teas for your guests. Set up mini stations around the room, put out some finger foods and have a goodie-bag for each guest to take with them when they leave. This will be much more cost effective and still a ton of fun!

Take a look at some of the great Spa party invitations we have available at InvitationBox.com this summer…you’re guests will be ready to relax in no time!

For more party ideas and inspirations, visit us at www.invitationbox.com.

Wedding season is coming in full swing…which means many of our customers will be tying the knot very soon! A tradition before weddings is for the groom’s family to host a rehearsal dinner for the bridal party after the church or ceremony rehearsal. It’s a great way to thank your bridesmaids, groomsmen or any person who has assisted you throughout your journey while planning your wedding. In more modern times, the hosts have even invited the out-of-town guests coming to the wedding as a way to thank them for their travels.

Rehearsal dinners can be formal or very casual and in no way must be related to the wedding. Go with an Italian theme, Asian, barbecue – maybe even a luau! The sky is the limit and the most important thing is that your guests are comfortable and relaxed before your big day!

Whatever the theme, we at InvitationBox do our best to have a coordinating invitation – take a look at some of the most popular rehearsal dinner invitations below…

Remember, rehearsal dinners are a great time to give gifts to the bridal party and groomsmen to thank them for their support. You may even want to give a toast in their honor. But don’t stress yourself out too much about this pre-wedding night – make it fun, relaxing and something everyone can enjoy before you walk down that aisle into wedding bliss.

A printed return address on the back flap of an envelope is nice, but sometimes you may want something a little more fun, jazzy, colorful or eye-catching.

IB Designs has introduced their first line of stickers to our website which include a multitude of selections including birthday, baptism, weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, beach, movie, stripes and color themes. Many of the stickers match IB Designs invitations and stationery to create coordinating ensembles. These stickers work great as return address labels, envelope “seals”, school markers, “This book belongs to” and more. Take a look at some of the great designs currently being offered…

Rock star and movie star themed parties are becoming more and more popular for kids from ages 4-16. We all watch Britney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, the Jonas Brothers and many others and think about what it would be like to be a star for a day. So why not make that thought a reality for your child and his/her friends with a movie or rock star party in their honor?!

Invitations – A great place to start! Choose an invitation that really gets your guests excited and talking about the party. For a rock star party, you may want to use an invitation with a guitar, music notes, flashy colors or maybe even a CD! For a movie star party, you might look for an invitation with a red carpet, make-up, a DVD or an academy awards theme! Decide where you are having the party and be sure to include all details for the guests and their parents. Ask guests to come dressed as their favorite celebrity and ready for a night of glamour and style.

Set-up/Decorations – Depending on where you are having the party, whether it is at home or at a separate location, decorations will be essential. The most popular decorations will be helium balloons, metallic fringe, music notes or maybe even some bright lights or spotlights. You can even go above and beyond by hanging up movie or music posters of your favorite celebrities, hanging CDs from the ceiling with clear line or rolling out a “red carpet” made of fabric from your local craft store. If you’re having a party outside of your home, a great idea to make sure the guests arrive on-time would be to pick each guest up in a limo, Hollywood-Style, and have the limo drive the kids to their party location. You can even ask parents and friends to post as paparazzi outside of the party location to snap photos of the kids and make them feel like a celebrity.

Activities – Now to the fun stuff! If you don’t already ask your guests to come dressed in movie or rock star attire, it’s always fun to set up makeup, hair, nail and clothing stations for each guest to go through. After you’re done getting ready you can take pictures of each guest in their celebrity attire. You can even have a parent print out the pictures (if taken digitally) and put them in a frame for the kids to decorate at the party. Need games? Try Hollywood charades, karaoke or guitar hero.

Food/Cake – Just because movie stars and rock stars eat like rabbits doesn’t mean you have to! Set up munchies around the room like popcorn, Cheetos, M&M’s and other fun treats. Want to go a step up? Find out what the birthday girl’s favorite celebrity eats and have his/her favorite foods out to share. You could even pour some sparkling apple cider into wine glasses to have pretend champagne, (for the older kids). For cake, you can ask your local bakery if they can make a cake in a guitar or star shape. Some bakeries could even make a square cake with a red carpet on it with a photo of the birthday boy/girl at the end. Another great idea for rock star parties would be to make ice cream cone cupcakes – where you pour the cake batter into the ice cream cone and then bake it – which look like microphones when finished.

Favors/Thank You Notes – Finished at last! It’s always nice to give your guests something to take home with them when they leave. For a goodie bag, you may want to include a feather boa, inflatable guitar, makeup, fake tattoos or a picture of the guest photo shopped into a picture of their favorite movie star. Or, if you don’t have a digital camera or time to print the pictures out during the party, you can always include the picture in the thank you note you’ll be sending after the event.

Ready to rock out?!
Your guests will be talking about your party for weeks – just like the tabloids!

With the way the economy is today, it is sometimes stressful to think about having a birthday party for your son or daughter when funds are so tight. Of course, you want them to have a great birthday party, but don’t want to be broke for the months after either. Below are some great budget-saving tips to help you plan your child’s upcoming birthday extravaganza!

1. Instead of mailing out your invitations, have the kids hand deliver them at school or aftercare.

2. Need extra chairs and tables? Try contacting your local school or church to see if you can use theirs for a small donation.

3. Whenever possible, bring your own food and beverages rather than using what your venue provides.

4. Start a “party pool” with your child’s friend’s parents so that each person brings a food or drink item to the party for each child’s birthday to help reduce costs.

5. Think home! Host a slumber party or a themed party at your house rather than renting a venue.

6. Rent a movie for a sleepover rather than taking 10 kids to a movie theater.

7. Time the party in-between meal times so that you are only responsible for providing snacks, cake and ice cream.

8. When choosing an invitation, keep your theme and budget in-sight. Watch for sales and join mailing lists early so that you can make use of online discount coupons!

9. Buy goodie-bag items at a discount store or send the kids home with a craft that they can make at the party.

10. Ask your child what type of party they’d really like to have. Chances are, your expectations may be more than your child’s. Work together to come up with a great party.

You’ve gone through twelve years of schooling (or more) with your child and graduation has FINALLY arrived – time to celebrate! Once the cap and gown are ordered, finals are done, graduation rehearsals are held and the big day has ended, don’t let the celebration stop! Host a graduation party in your son or daughter’s honor to showcase their achievements over the past years.

Graduation party invitations can double as an announcement as well or just be an invitation on their own. You should think about sending graduation party invitations out about 4 weeks before the party…longer if you have out of state relatives or many friends having parties around the same time period. Choose a graduation party invitation that really reflects the graduate’s style, school colors, major or personality. Take a look at some of the newest and most popular graduation party invitations we have available at InvitationBox.com…

Need ideas for planning the perfect graduation party for your son our daughter? Check out Party 411 who have great ideas that will help you shape your child’s graduation party into the best one ever. They give great tips on themes, activities, food and more.

Senior-itis is starting to kick in full swing, we’re sure! With graduation right around the corner, it’s time to start studying for finals, planning your graduation party, and ordering your cap and gown.

Some schools will provide students with about ten formal graduation announcements, but we all know that there are more than ten people awaiting the good news of your son or daughter’s graduation. Keep friends and relatives informed with a graduation announcement from our graduation collection. Your child can choose from photo graduation announcements that feature a digital photograph of the grad with a background of their school colors and graduation year. We also have a plethora of other graduation announcements that feature stately and feminine borders and patterns, caps and gowns, school colors and funky designs.

A graduation announcement should be sent to those who you’d like to know about your child’s graduation, whether they are local or out-of-state. This is a great way to be in touch with further away relatives that perhaps cannot attend the graduation party. On occasion, you can even double-up your graduation announcement as a graduation party invitation as well.

Below are a few suggestions for your graduation announcement:

Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Smith
are pleased to announce
the graduation of their daughter
Kayla Marie Smith
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
6:00 PM
Winter Heights High School
Chicago, Illinois

RSVP to Kayla by May 25th (555) 563-8989

Remember to send out your graduation announcements within about one week of the graduation!

Easter is on it’s way…and it’s not always just about candy. Brighten a child’s Easter morning by including a fun toy, book or stuffed animal in the top of their Easter basket. Our GUND collection of Easter stuffed animals features Dweezle Jr. the brown furry bunny who holds an Easter basket of colorful eggs on his lap and Dunkster the talking duck who sings “Splish Splash I was Taking a Bath” with his terrycloth towel and yellow feathers.

For the girls we have pink, purple and white super-soft bunny purses that feature a puffed out bunny face, embroidered noses, flowers by the ears and dangling arms and legs at the bottom to make it look like a real stuffed animal. Each purse has a soft handle for easy carrying with a Velcro closure.

And don’t forget about the young ones! We also have a Learn with Me Easter book that is made of corduroy and features a bunny face with the phrase “B is for Bunny” on the front. Flip the following four plush pages which include words about your child’s favorite Easter stuffed animals like the lamb, horse, duck and pig. This fun toy multiples as an Easter toy and a learning tool for your baby or toddler. It also helps the older kids learning to read.

Make sure you pick up your Easter stuffed animals or toys while supplies last…Easter is hopping over sooner than you know it.

It’s your last night being single, before the big day when you will walk down the aisle, and return as a married woman. Live it up one last time with a bachelorette party with your favorite gal-pals, bridesmaids and girly family members.

A bachelorette party can be as simple as a bridal shower with a girl’s night at the local pub at the end all the way to a destination getaway in a warm location for a weekend of wild and crazy bachelorette activities. Whatever type of bachelorette party you’re thinking of planning, make sure it’s one that the bride will appreciate and one that makes her and her groom comfortable.

The bridal party is typically the group of people that plan the bachelorette party for the bride. Plan out who to invite, where you’ll be going, transportation and hotel arrangements if necessary. You may even want to purchase matching shirts, a sash that says “bachelorette” for the bride, and a mini-veil. These fun props will add a little extra pizzaz to your fun night.

Once you’ve decided on your bachelorette party events, pick out your bachelorette party invitations at InvitationBox…one that captures the essence of your planned night of fun. We have great invitations including girls’ night heels, stripper guy, lingerie, piano bar and many others. Make sure you mail out your invites at least 3 weeks in advance or longer if you are having a weekend event and hotel/transportation accommodations will be needed.

For great bachelorette party ideas, I found a great website that will help plan the mildest to wildest of bachelorette or sorority parties…check out http://www.bachelorettepartyideas.net/ !