This being Canada, it’s not entirely impossible that summer already happened and you missed it. There was that Saturday a few weeks back where you slept in till midday. Maybe summer happened that morning and you slept through the whole thing? Perhaps that week you spent with your cousin up north (I mean, further up north) was the one where everyone hit the beach and bought ice cream and you missed it because the only beach you could find that wasn’t frozen had a polar bear on it and the ice cream was so cold you could only heat it after some serious hard labor involving a chisel and a blowtorch. Maybe.

Let’s take a serious perspective for a moment and imagine that, despite its latitude, maybe Canada does have a summer and also that despite the awesome summer Canada totally has, we live in the era of cheap airline tickets so you can just go somewhere with a real summer during the Canadian summer. Somewhere without polar bears.

You might, however, still need some last minute vacation deals when you throw open the curtains and realise that, yes, it’s going to be summer for at least the next twenty minutes and, no, you haven’t booked anything yet. Clearly, you need some pretty quick internet access. Already, dudes outside are running by in beach shorts, toting surfboards. Panicking slightly, you try and find your phone, knowing without a doubt that it’s down the back of a couch. But which one? You haven’t used your laptop in months, ever since the lid froze shut, and you don’t have time to install the hundreds of updates it’ll demand before it’ll function properly now it’s finally thawed. The smell of barbecue drifts through the windows as you tip the couch over, your desperation lending you the strength of the Hulk. Finally, among the discarded candy wrappers, miscellaneous bits of cutlery and – gross – an apple core, you finally find your phone and frantically google ‘discount travel sites‘. There are still flights! You quickly scan through the pages of information about hotels and airlines, trying to find something, knowing everyone’s thinking the same thing as you and they maybe got to the web first and maybe paid for their own wi-fi rather than trying to steal it from their neighbors – who are now playing samba music at ear-splitting volumes – like you did.

Desperate, you just bag a flight at random. It’s not till the confirmation email turns up in your inbox while you’re sipping a mojito by a pool with only a few chunks of ice in it, squinting over your sunshades, that you realize you’ve booked yourself in for a weekend of sun, sea and Seattle.

Better luck next year.

Originally posted 2015-04-06 10:42:44.

From planning an once-in-a-lifetime wedding to a child’s birthday party or your annual Christmas party, the entire process can be very tedious, exhausting, and most of all, expensive. There are numerous simple tips and tricks out there on how to save both time and money. We believe one major area in which you can find substantial savings is on invitations, especially nowadays with many excellent, convenient printing websites.

Before you decide where the invitations will come from, you need to make some important decisions that may cut many costs. First, decide what role you want the invites to play, how big of a priority are they to you and your event? Many party planners feel that invitations, since they are the first items on which guests initially lay eyes, set the tone. Second, get real when it comes to the guest list and your budget. You don’t want to under- or over-estimate on either of these important details. Third, you need to choose your printer. As mentioned, there are quite a few quality websites from which to choose. Here are our suggestions:

1. Tiny Prints

Tiny Prints offers custom cards and invitations for many special occasions, including graduation, birthday parties, and birth and engagement announcements. They also offer personalized stationery, gifts, and home décor, as well as options for professional and business printing. With prices typically as low as $0.99 per card, Tiny Prints prides their work on its exclusively designed collections, standout quality, and an “obsession with perfection.” Check out tiny prints coupons here.

2. Vistaprint

Vistaprint has a significantly large amount of products to offer: from invitations and cards, stationery and photo gifts, to custom labels and ink and, digital and website services to much, much more. With sales starting around $4.86 for 10 cards, Vistaprint has an average overall customer rating of 4.5 out of 5 and prides itself on its 100% guarantee and helping clients bring their “vision to life.”

3. Shutterfly

A member of the same family as Tiny Prints and Wedding Paper Divas, Shutterfly has a wide range of offerings, including photo books, invites and stationery, picture gifts, and home décor. Shutterfly’s signature is being able to utilize your favorite photos in your paper products. With prices beginning around $1.04 per card, Shutterfly offers unlimited photo storage and 100% “happiness guaranteed” on their award-winning products.

Originally posted 2015-03-14 11:08:48.