Online Birth Announcements
Your baby is here, and you want to get the word out without spending hours analyzing letterpress styles. Here, the best sites that allow you to create beautiful custom photo birth announcements in just minutes. (And one site will even mail them out for you!)
By Sarah Engler
- Best Time-Saver
- RedStamp.com
Not only does this site have more design variety than most of the others (from classic stripes to retro polka dots to modern, oversize type), RedStamp.com will actually address and mail out all of your announcements. Most designs allow you to choose your ink color, font, and envelope color. Or, if you like what you see, just click the "match sample" box. We also love the matte finish of the final product.
Bonus: You'll also find a decent selection of nonphoto custom announcements as well as blank imprintable and letterpress cards.
From $1.19 each, Large Blue Letters shown.
- Best Selection
- Tiny Prints
Tiny Prints has more than 400 designs from big names like Dwell Studio and Meri Meri—including some on recycled cardstock. Browse the collection by card theme (boy, girl, multiples, gender neutral), size, number of photos, or designer. You can opt to have a sample mailed to you for approval before placing your order. Also, the envelopes can be shipped to you ahead of time, so you can get all that addressing out of the way as you're mulling over which photo to choose.
Bonus: Tired of the standard flat announcement? Tiny Prints also has a few adorable folded cards.
From $1.09 each, Baby Deer: Kiwi shown.
- Best Designs for Twins
- Metro Baby Cards
Metro Baby Cards has close to 50 different styles for moms of twins, be they boy/boy, boy/girl, or girl/girl pairs. The finished card has a slight gloss to it and is two-sided—add an extra image to the back for no additional cost. The order form is refreshingly simple and the same for all designs. Just select the design and card size you want from a dropdown menu and send your images via e-mail or snail mail.
Bonus: You can also get return-address labels and thank-you cards in the same style as your announcement-card design.
From $2.10 each, Devon & Marley shown.
- Best Modern Styles
- PhotoAffections.com
If you just want something printed completely on photo paper, head over to PhotoAffections.com. Their 200-plus designs place more of an emphasis on typography and are slightly more graphic than the others. The company will e-mail you a proof and wait for your approval or your design tweaks before printing the order.
Bonus: Should you have a baby in December, PhotoAffections.com has a whole section of holiday designs.
From $1.11 each, Photo Birth Announcement Monogram shown.
