Product Review: Blue Whale Invitations – CLOSED

I met Melissa, the owner of Blue Whale Invitations when I was first starting up my business. She was actually my adviser at the Small Business Development center where I went for mentoring and classes. Melissa was great to work with during that time because she was compassionate, knowledgeable and supportive. She was also a mom – so she knew what it was like to be a mom and she could relate to my “breastfeeding-themed” business. After helping other small business owners (like me) get their businesses off the ground for years, Melissa decided to start her own small business. So she started Blue Whale Invitations. When Melissa offered to make me some invitations to review on my blog, I thought it would be perfect to include her review (and give-away) as part of my blogiversary celebration!!

For my invitations, I sent Melissa some photos of my son in a fireman outfit and asked her to make up Halloween cards for him to send to our family. Melissa sent me FIVE different designs to choose from. They were all so fabulous – it was difficult to choose just one!! The five designs that she sent us are below:

My husband and I narrowed it down to our two favorites and let our son be the tie breaker for the version that we choose:

Our son (age 4) looked at all of the invites and ended up picking this as the winner. It has his name, in large raised letters and a little firetruck – which I think was what sold him on this design.

Blue Whale Invitations typically sends 3-5 different styles when someone asks for a custom invitation. With their standard invites, the proof is sent via email as a PDF, but for custom designs they send you actual physical samples to choose from. The turn-around time was very quick and her designs were all unique. In addition to custom invitations, Melissa also offers some template designs that you can add your own text/personalization to. And her prices are super reasonable!! She guarantees turnaround times within 2-7 business days after proof approval and she offers FREE SHIPPING on all domestic orders!! You can’t beat that!

We are so happy with our Halloween cards we can’t wait to send them out!

Melissa also sent us two samples of Baby Shower invites (because she thought those might be something a new mom or mom-to-be would be interested in!), so we have included photos of these too for you to see. The designs are supercute!! Take a look:

Now for the best part – Melissa of Blue Whale Invitations has offered to give one Mommy News & Views Reader a complementary custom design with 20 free cards/invitations to send to your friends and family!

In order to qualify for this contest, please visit Blue Whale Invitations and let us know what your favorite design(s) are. She has so many gorgeous designs, we are sure you won’t be able to just pick one favorite! Then come back here and leave us a comment telling us which one you like best. Also tell us what occasion you will use them for if you are the winner. This activity is REQUIRED in order to be eligible for the drawing.

There are many more ways to enter – you can complete any or all of the activities below for extra chances to win this great invitation/card giveaway! Be sure to come here and leave a comment for each activity that you complete so that you will get all of your chances to win.

1) Blog about Blue Whale Invitations and this contest. Be sure to include a link back to this contest and leave us a comment with a link to your blog post.
2) Tweet about this contest – help spread the word and show moms and dads everywhere how they can get some great invites. You can do this once per day during the contest. Be sure to leave a comment with a link to your tweet and be sure to link back to this contest as part of your tweet.
3) Tell all of your friends on facebook about this contest. Send out a message to your facebook friends and encourage them to come and sign up for a chance to win too.
4) Send an email to your friends and family telling them about this great contest and encouraging them to come here and sign up. Make sure you cc: blogiversary@blog.mothersboutique.com on the email that you send out and leave a comment here telling us that you did it. We promise not to email anyone – we just need to see the email for verification that it was sent.
5) Purchase anything from Blue Whale Invitations and leave us a comment telling us what you purchased along with your order number. You will get TEN extra chances to win for each purchase made!!

That’s it! Lots of ways to win a custom designed invitation/card with 20 cards!! This contest ends 10/21/09 at 5 PM. All entrants will be verified and must complete the mandatory entry before completing the ‘extra’ entries. Invalid entries will be disqualified. This contest is open to people with US mailing addresses only. Winner must respond to email within 48 hours or we reserve the right to choose another winner.

Disclaimer: We received a custom designed invitation (pictured here) along with 20 free invites to evaluate as part of this review. This product did not influence the objective nature of our review.