I first learned about the online invitation site, Cocodot, from watching the Techcrunch 50 conference, an event put on by the tech blog, TechCrunch, highlighting some of the newest technology startups.

I thought Cocodot’s invitations looked cool, but what hooked me was the free trial.  After having used Evite so many times, I wasn’t going to step up and pay for an online invitation.  Crazy.

So I used my free Cocodot invitation for a charity event I hosted with a friend.  I liked that I was able to upload my own background photo, and except for a few little sniggly things, I thought the process was pretty easy and the invitation turned out looking good.  Here it is.

My first Cocodot invitation

I even got a few compliments.

Then my daughter’s 3rd birthday rolled around, and having used Cocodot once, Evite seemed less interesting (especially with all the ads).  Plus, I didn’t want to do a paper invitation.  Not only are they expensive, but tracking down people’s actual addresses… way too hard.

So I stepped up, paid my $19 to use Cocodot again.  I photoshopped together some pictures of my daughter dancing, uploaded the image, and used one of their birthday templates to make the invitation.  And I have to admit, again, I was pretty impressed.

My second, but not my last, Cocodot invitation

So now I’m actually thinking I might step up and ( gasp!) even buy the one-year delux membership for $99.  That way I can do all my birthday cards, holiday cards, thank you notes, and invitations at Cocodot, too.  Crazy!!