Having an event used to involve getting out the stamps and sending invitations but now there are so many online resources that help you manage your guest list (and some even make them look really pretty) that it’s difficult to imagine life without them.  With summer in full swing and events galore I thought it might be helpful to do a quick overview of the tools out there that I have used to coordinate an event (wish I had these when I had an actual events company).  Here’s the cream of the crop and how to use them:

Evite – The first step is to set up a free account. Get a list of all of the info you’ll need to set up your event so that once you start you’re ready. The things you’ll need are time, date, location, and the email addresses of all of your attendees. Once you sign into your account you can “Create An Invitation” and it basically leads you through the process of setting up the invitations including what you want them to look like. Once you have all of the info in you can determine if it’s an open invite (your guests can invite others) and send messages to all guests with updates, etc. When you come back to your account you can tell who has responded yes or no.

Pingg – This is a really great site to use for invites if you want to pay more attention to the aesthetics of your invite. They use artists, illustrators, and many other types of artists to populate their art bank for you to use. Additionally, you can use other forms of delivery such as text message, postal mail, and Facebook to send your invites although they charge for some of those deliveries. Pingg has some of the same guest managing tools as other online invitation sites like Evite.

MyPunchBowl - The standout feature of mypunchbowl is the polling feature. Once you sign up for a free account you can design your invites and add polls to allow your guests to help determine things like “what time should this party start?” and “should this be dress up or casual attire?”. It also has a feature that helps you find a vendor in your area if you need one, such as caterers or tent companies.

EventBrite -  Business group owners pay attention – this one is great if you have more than the occasional event and works especially well for businesses.  There’s a huge number of features including adding payment options should you choose to charge for your event (this adds a small fee to your account).  What I love about this site is that it allows you to add all sorts of helpful functions like managing waitlists and generating name badges.  Hospitality industry – you should try these for your events and just see how much more manageable your overcrowded event becomes.

Facebook – Ah yes, good old Facebook allows you to manage events as well. Just sign into your Facebook page like you normally do and click the “events” section (it’s under your profile picture when you are on the main newsfeed page). Once you’re there you can select to “create an event”. Facebook is a good one to use if you are already Facebook friends with most of the people you are going to invite otherwise it can be kind of a pain. Use Facebook if it’s an event that you are trying to get a lot of people to come to because people can publicly tell all of their friends that they are coming once they RSVP.