Zimpapers Logo

Tafadzwa Zimoyo : Lifestyle Writer

Who said that the glory of a wedding day only lasted for a few hours? Maybe before the age of technology it did. But now the bride and groom, and in fact every one who wishes gets to star in a series of reality movies. The latest craze to hit town is the video invitation. Granted the printed card is so old and not good for the environment — carbon footprint and all that jazz, but we still love it.But on the other hand a simple graphic image sent through chat forums also seems a bit cheap. Enter the video invitation and you can have the best of both worlds.

All you need is a camera and a photographer.

A good quality mobile handset will do the trick and you can drag the nearest warm body to hold it while you record your special invitation to your birthday party, wedding or family get together.

Thank goodness someone has finally come up with a clean and funny way to use those mobile handset cameras that many had begun to think were created with porn in mind!

“Moving with the times means embracing everything that makes life easier for you and with the latest technologies, it is now faster, cheaper and more efficient to send an invite to the various people you want to be on your guest list when hosting anything from a wedding, birthday party or any other bash.

The invited persons can easily download the invitation for something as less as a dollar, and this is cost effective to both parties since the expenses that are normally associated with hand-delivering an invitation card to places such as Mutare or Victoria Falls, for instance, are cut.

Just like Eco-cash or Telecash, or Western Union, you can just send your invite and the relevant recipient will just receive the invite in a short space of time, respond to it, chat with you if possible confirming their attendance.

“This serves you the hassle of having to make changes on the eleventh hour since they would have informed you about their attendance before hand and even a few minutes after you would have sent them the invite,” said Gladys Phiri of Zimre Park in Harare.

As a Facebook subscriber, she says she often receives a lot of invitations from various corners of the world.

Even though she cannot attend most of them, she says it feels better when she sends her regrets by video and wishes the hosts a great do.

She says it makes her feel that much closer to family and friends residing in all corners of the world that she has not seen for a long time.

“As an artist, you need to be in constant touch with the hosts of the various events, and this way you avoid the problem of the lost invitation which turns up way after the event.

“And as someone who also runs a production company, this is one thing that I embraced (electronic invitations) and one of the methods that I prefer using is the video invite.

“The video invite helps in that it shows the person(s) some of the things that they should expect at the event or ceremony, and these could be in the form of rehearsals or snippets of previous events. Video invitations are a very good teaser that can lure guests to your function,” she said.

One good thing about video invitation is that, previous guests are easily drawn into attending forthcoming events especially if they are stars of the invitation.

“I always make sure that I oblige my past guests by sending to them video invites whose clips show them live in action and this always serves the trick of wanting them to be there again and spring more surprises,” said Susan James, an events manager.

She said video invites also help in publicising events since these can be placed anywhere, thus arousing the interest of potential sponsors, guests and other personnel who will then express interest in attending the function.

Max Matera of Budiriro a graphic designer said sometimes a paper invite just can’t capture all the life and character of a person.

“An invitation design is often the first touch-point for an event, so it has to embody the essence of what you’re trying to achieve. Video invites are now the in thing but they also have disadvantages and advantages. It takes four days to come up with a proper video invite hence you need to understand and master first the theme of the event,” he said.

Local musician Tytan of Mukoko fame embraces video invites.

He keeps his fans, media and friends up to date on what has is happening and look forward to with teasers and invites.

[email protected]