Through The Years Collage Invitation

“These ‘through the years’ style invitations work best when you include photos of the guest of honor from all different life stages; as a baby, kid, teenager, college student, wedding day etc. — because most guests probably won’t have seen them before.

Don’t be afraid to include some funny or embarrassing ones — an awkward high school yearbook photo or some questionable college-era style choices. It’s part of what makes this concept work; the more self-deprecating, the more it’ll make guests smile.

Rather than only draw upon your own collection, consider asking friends and family members to lend you some of their photos of the guest of honor from significant periods of their life. That way you might discover some less familiar photos—perhaps even some the guest of honor might have forgotten or never even seen before.

If you need to transfer old printed photos to a digital format, this can be done very inexpensively nowadays ($20-$30 for 100 photos) and it’s a great opportunity to preserve them for years to come. Similarly, old photos that are fading, discolored, or damaged can often be restored at the same time. See links below.

Some milestone birthdays are available as ready-made designs with the non-editable age in the center square (see Milestone Birthdays button below), but for other ages, click the ‘any age / occasion’ button below and use the personalize this design option to replace the monogram letters EA with whatever age you want.

For other occasions, delete the non-editable text that currently reads ‘Happy Birthday’ and select ‘Add Text’ to replace it with text of your choice. Then change the font, size, and color accordingly.

If you don’t feel confident using the online customization tool to personalize the design, note that there’s a new feature available at checkout where for a few extra dollars an expert will check and fix any issues before it goes to print, for peace of mind.

For more personal, creative, or unusual invitations, check out my Invitation Ideas page.”