You're engaged and having a wedding. There's 101 things to think about, and plan, and one of them is the wedding invitations. Should you consider electronic wedding invitations?

It's quite a debate. There are reasons for and against. Is there a move towards electronic wedding invitations, and should you consider them?

And of course there's a number of ways to manage your electronic wedding invitations. Anouncing the wedding and offering invitations has been done on Facebook, for example.

Firstly, what are the advantages of using electronic invitations? Well the big advantage has to be the cost, or lack thereof. Electronic invitations are extremely cheap wedding invitations, or free. And cost is always a big factor for any wedding. If you can get away with cheap wedding invitations like electronic invitations, why not make some savings on the wedding budget?

And that's a good point. There's no doubt that weddings are extremely expensive, and many cannot afford all the trappings of a full blown wedding. Why not save some money using cheap wedding invitations? And put that money towards the wedding itself?

Cost is the big advantage of electronic invitations. There are others. For example an electronic invitation is a low carbon invitation, and doesn't use paper. So no trees cut down to make them.

What are the disadvantages?

Well for me the big disadvantage is tradition. A wedding is an extremely traditional thing and I think that's good. Now of course there are those who don't care at all about tradition, and who specifically want a non traditional wedding. That's fine too.

However there are also other good reasons why I consider electronic wedding invitations to be less than the perfect wedding invitations.

Whilst the bride and groom may not wish a traditional wedding, that might not necessarily apply to the guests. Older people, for example, may well feel differently about it. What about Grandma? What about the parents? And whilst of course they wouldn't get quite the same invitations anyway, you don't know who else amongst the guests will feel that an electronic invitation is a little tacky and cheap.

I've seen young people who also felt that a wedding is an extremely traditional thing and would recoil at receiving an electronic invitation.

Then there's the practical problems. What happens when someone doesn't get the invitation because it's disappeared into the junk folder along with the 200 other junk emails that day? Or, if you've gone to the trouble of designing a great invitation with, say, Acrobat, what happens if the recipient doesn't have the software? How about someone with a Mac? What will they get?

Electronic invitations are a great idea for young people throwing a party, but for me, if it's a wedding, stick to real wedding invitations.

If cost is a problem there are places online where you can get very cheap wedding invitations. Spend that little bit extra on real invitations.