How to Create the Perfect Photo Invitations for Any Occasion
There’s nothing sweeter for your guests to receive than a digital invite that features the face of someone they love. Photo invitations are a hugely personal and heartwarming way to spread the word about an upcoming event, be it a birthday party, engagement party, or another special gathering.
This guide shows you how to create memorable photo invitations — from getting the basics right to making them match your party perfectly.
3 Steps to Create the Perfect Photo Invitations
Design: Signature Greenvelope
Adding a photo to your party invitations is one of the easiest and most effective ways to personalize them. After all, there’s nobody quite like the guest(s) of honor. Here’s our advice on how to create the kind of photo invitations your guests can’t help but RSVP to.
1. Find a Design You Love
Crafting your perfect photo card starts with finding the right design. Look for something that matches your occasion, theme, guest(s) of honor, and style. Then, you can customize the look with your choice of photo or photos.
At Greenvelope, we have more than 400 photo invitation designs for you to choose from. There’s something for every life event — baby showers, bat mitzvahs, bridal showers, graduation parties, quinceaneras, and more. This means you don’t need to search far to find a design that features the colors you love, watercolor illustrations, bold modern prints, or whatever suits your fancy.
2. Choose the Perfect Photos
Once you’ve found the perfect template, it’s time to work out which photos you’re going to feature. Some of our greeting card and invitation designs have space for one photo, while others allow you to add multiple images for key life moments, such as an engagement announcement, birth announcement, or graduation announcement.
When it comes to selecting photos, make sure the digital images you choose are high-quality. This will help them look beautiful and crisp within the design. For digital images, aim for high-resolution images. If you have physical photos, get them scanned and digitized.
Next, think about the occasion and what makes the most visual sense for your photo invitations. For a first birthday party, a collection of photos from the baby’s first year is a sweet idea. For a graduation party, it could be a lovely photo of the new grad smiling at the thought of their next adventure.
3. Customize Your Photo Invitations
With a template chosen and your favorite photos ready to go, you can start putting your ideas together into a personalized photo invitation. Here’s where you can have fun with colors, typography, and other creative elements. With Greenvelope invitations, you can also add a digital photo gallery or music to your design. These are fun and easy ways to make that moment feel extra special, and to share more stunning photos.
5 Ideas for Creating Your Photo Invitations
Design: Maria Hilas Louie Design
Not sure how to make the most of your photo invitations? Here are some of our favorite ideas and tips to help you find an image you love and transform it into an amazing party or occasion invite.
1. Stage an At-Home Photoshoot
Don’t have a good photo handy? It’s the perfect excuse for an at-home photoshoot. We love this idea for those cute family moments, like baby’s first birthday, or someone’s graduation party.
Arrange a time with the guest of honor to snap a few photos to use on your party invites. Set the scene with a backdrop, props, and a colorful outfit that suits the look you’re going for. Keep snapping until you get the perfect image for your invites — any you don’t use can be featured in a digital gallery or photo book. Combine this with some of our other tips to create a fun, on-theme photo to use with your invitations.
2. Use a Collection of Photos
Sometimes one photo just isn’t enough. Luckily, we have plenty of photo invitations that feature multiple spaces, so you can share a handful of images all at once. No need to spend forever deliberating over which one to use — you can share more photos that make you smile, laugh, or cry (in a good way).
Round up all your best photo ideas and see which work together best within the template. Mix and match until you’re happy with the look, then continue with customizing your text and colors. This idea works great if you want to share photos of someone for a milestone birthday party invitation (such as a 50th birthday or 80th birthday), or if you just have too many beautiful pics to choose from.
3. Match the Theme of Your Party
If you want to go the extra mile, seek out a photo that matches the theme of your invite design or celebration. This works great if you’re hosting a summer party, festive holiday party, or other celebration with a specific theme.
Look for a photo that suits the style and theme of your party, or take some photos that do. Think about colors, style, props, expressions, and poses. For example, if you’re hosting a mermaid party, why not feature the guest of honor in costume for the photo invitations? Or perhaps you want to glam it up for your Great Gatsby-inspired bridal shower invitation?
If you’re using an invitation design that allows for multiple photos, remember you can use some of those slots for close-ups of props or scenes that match your party theme.
4. Opt for a Classic Monochrome Look
You can’t go wrong with something beautifully classic like a monochrome filter for your photo invitations. This looks amazing with a formal, romantic, or elegant invite for a wedding anniversary party, engagement party, New Year’s party, or sophisticated cocktail party.
All you need to do is some basic photo editing to transform your photo before you upload it to the invitation template. Try a free graphics tool like Canva. Once you’re happy with the way your image looks, upload it to your party invite design and add the finishing touches with your color choices and wording.
5. Tease a Surprise
Planning a surprise party or a grand reveal for your guests? A photo invitation could be the perfect way to spark curiosity and get your guests wondering what the big reveal might be.
This is a fun idea for a baby shower invitation with a gender reveal or a surprise engagement party where you’ll reveal you and your partner are about to tie the knot. To keep the suspense, use the photo area to tease something — like a close-up of an object, a photo of the two of you smiling, or something else that offers a hint of what’s to come. With their curiosity peaked, it won’t be long before your guests hit RSVP on your digital invitations.
7 Photo Invitations You’ll Love
Design: Ellis Design
Ready to find the ideal photo invitation for your celebration? Whether you’re looking for the perfect custom invitations for a birthday invitation, bridal shower invitation, wedding invitation, or save the date, we’ve got you sorted with these beautiful designs.
1. Laurel Wreath Save the Date
Design: Sunny July
This gorgeous laurel wreath invitation design features delicate watercolor illustrations to bring out that cozy, seasonal feel. Use this design for your save the dates and wedding invitations, or transform it into the perfect invite for a forest or fall-themed birthday party.
2. Vintage Typography Invitation
Design: Shiny Penny Studio
Want to put your gorgeous photo front and center? This vintage typography invitation is perfect for your save the dates — whether that’s asking people to save the date ahead of your wedding, or a friendly note asking relatives to keep a day free for your annual family get-together.
3. Unicorn Rainbow Invitation
Design: Signature Greenvelope
How adorable is this unicorn rainbow invitation? It’s the sweetest way to let people know that someone special would love to celebrate with them. This design is perfect for unicorn party fans young and old, and works great for both birthday parties and baby showers.
4. Modern Initials Invitation
Design: Shiny Penny Studio
While photo invitations usually feature a beautifully illustrated frame or other details, they don’t have to. This stunning modern initials invitation is a great example of this — keep things simple and keep all eyes on your favorite photo.
5. Classic Home Invitation
Design: Claudia Owen
If you’ve just moved into a happy new home, this classic home invitation is a lovely way to invite your loved ones over for a housewarming party. Whether it’s your first home or simply a new move, a big moment like this calls for a special photo invite.
6. Vibrant Strokes Invitation
Design: Claudia Owen
We love the gorgeous, bright colors on this vibrant strokes invitation. It’s the ideal backdrop for a graduation announcement, birthday party, or other celebration honoring someone’s milestone or achievement. Choose from four striking color options or customize this fully with the guest of honor’s most-loved hues.
7. Space Adventure Invitation
Design: Claudia Owen
How fun is this space adventure invitation? We can’t think of a better way to spread the word about a special little astronaut or space lover’s birthday party. This doesn’t just have to be for the little kids either — even the young at heart can rock(et) this astronaut look for a space-themed party!
Create Showstopping Photo Invitations Today
It doesn’t take much to turn your average party invitation into an amazing photo invitation. All you need is the right design to get you started. From there, find or set up a photoshoot to capture a gorgeous photo or two, and personalize it with your message. You’ll end up with a compelling photo invitation that has your guests clicking ”RSVP” in no time.
