Punchbowl Blog

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO, @mattdouglas

Last month, we announced our partnership with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM. This month, I’m pleased to announce another new partnership: we’ve partnered with Lifetime Moms to launch the Lifetime Moms Party Planner. We’re excited to bring our party planning suite to Lifetime Moms in time for the holiday season.

Here’s the full announcement from AETN Digital, the content provider for Lifetime Moms:

AETN Digital Partners with Punchbowl to Offer Party Planning Service to Moms

New York, N.Y., October 19, 2010 – AETN Digital and Punchbowl today announced the launch of the Lifetime Moms Party Planner, a free party-planning service that moms can use to effortlessly plan all of their holiday celebrations.

The Lifetime Moms Party Planner powered by Punchbowl is available on LifetimeMoms.com, an online resource for moms, by moms, offering original content in 10 verticals including parenting, health, pregnancy, food, home, beauty & style, and product reviews. The Lifetime Moms Party Planner includes all of the core party planning features of Punchbowl.com.

“Lifetime Moms is for real moms who have busy lives and face real challenges,” said Kim Dobson, VP, Lifetime Moms. “We chose Punchbowl because of their ability to provide a high-quality party planning solution that will make life a little easier for the Lifetime Moms audience.”

The innovative features of the Lifetime Moms Party Planner make it ideal for planning Halloween parties, Christmas parties, New Year’s parties, and even Thanksgiving dinner. The Date Decider helps hosts get group consensus on the ideal party date—one of the biggest challenges during the busy holiday season. Digital Invitation Studio offers hundreds of stylish and modern invitations and save the dates, each with companion envelopes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and stunning color palettes. The Potluck allows guests to easily sign up to bring items and allows hosts to effortlessly manage who’s bringing what. Hosts can also keep track of their RSVP list with ease and share party details with their social networks.

“Savvy moms love to use Punchbowl’s start to finish party planning platform to plan birthdays, holiday parties and other family events,” said Matt Douglas, CEO, Punchbowl Software. “Punchbowl is excited to bring our party planning suite to Lifetime Moms this holiday season.”

To create a free account, visit the Lifetime Moms Party Planner: http://lifetimemoms.punchbowl.com

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO, @mattdouglas

I am excited to announce that Punchbowl will host the first ever Punchbowl “Mixer” event. This exclusive event will bring together entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, social media marketers, and others who help make Boston a great place to build a web company. Punchbowl Mixer will be held on Thursday, November 11, 2010, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at The Estate in Boston, MA.

Punchbowl Mixer is an exclusive event and attendees must be on the RSVP list to be admitted. Guests will enjoy free drinks, special giveaways, and other exciting surprises. Punchbowl Mixer is a ‘can’t miss’ event for anyone connected to the Boston web community.

Click on the envelope below to view the invitation and RSVP.

Punchbowl Mixer comes on the heels of our acquisition of the Punchbowl.com domain and a fresh, new look for the site. In addition, we recently unwrapped the unparalleled Digital Invitation Studio—a beautiful collection of free, pre-packaged online stationery sets for events and celebrations, complete with invitations, envelopes, liners, rubber stamps, and postage.

Punchbowl is proud to be a pioneer in the web community of Boston and we’re excited to host Punchbowl Mixer to celebrate the accomplishments of those who help make Boston and the surrounding areas a great place to build a web company.

I hope to see you there!

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

Last week was a big week for the Punchbowl team. After many months of hard work, we unwrapped our new Digital Invitation Studio. To celebrate, I decided to make a fun treat for the team: delicious chocolate cupcakes!

To lighten things up and give the team a well-deserved laugh, I decided to top the cupcakes with edible faces that I ordered from our partner, Oriental Trading Company. The cupcakes ended up being a big hit, and they were really fun to make.

It’s great to work at a place where you can work hard, accomplish great things, and take a few minutes out of the day to stop and enjoy some cupcakes.

This post written by Stephanie Fader, Marketing & PR Manager

If you love to cook or bake and have imaginative, original Halloween recipes to share, we want to know! This month, Punchbowl launched a contest to find the scariest, creepiest, most creative Halloween recipes of all time. Our Halloween recipes contest is your chance to showcase your unique talent and abilities in the kitchen—and be recognized for it.

From spider cupcakes to Jell-O brains, we want to see it all! Anyone can enter the contest. Simply email us your best Halloween recipes before 11:59 p.m. EST on October 25, 2010. All recipes must include a list of ingredients and directions for making the dish. A link to a blog post about the recipe is also acceptable.

Once we’ve received the entries, we will chose the five most creative Halloween recipes to feature on Punchbowl. We will announce the winners and their recipes in a special email newsletter the week before Halloween. Winners will also receive a Punchbowl Platinum membership.

It’s easy to enter, just email us your Halloween recipes today!

Official Rules:

No purchase is necessary to enter or win. A purchase of payment will not increase your chance of winning. Contest open to persons 18 years of age or older. The winners will be notified via email on or before October 27, 2010. All recipes become the property of Punchbowl Software, Inc. and may be edited, modified, published, and otherwise used at Punchbowl’s discretion. Punchbowl Software reserves the right to cancel, terminate or modify the Contest if it cannot be operated, conducted or completed as planned, for any reason.

This post was written by Matt Douglas, Founder & CEO, @mattdouglas

After months of hard work by the entire Punchbowl team, I’m very excited to announce the launch of Digital Invitation Studio in time for Halloween party planning. Digital Invitation Studio is a beautiful collection of pre-packaged online stationery sets for events and celebrations, complete with invitations, envelopes, liners, rubber stamps, and postage. The best part: it’s completely free to use so you can eliminate the costs of paper and postage from your next party or event.

I look forward to hearing what you think about Digital Invitation Studio — please share your feedback on our Facebook page.

Here’s the official announcement:
Wouldn’t it be great if you could have the quality, experience, and personalization of printed invitations without the cost of paper and postage? Today, Punchbowl.com, the one-stop site for start to finish party planning, has reshaped the fine stationery market with the unwrapping of Digital Invitation Studio — a beautiful collection of free, pre-packaged online stationery sets for events and celebrations, complete with invitations, envelopes, liners, rubber stamps, and postage.

With hundreds of pre-packaged online stationery sets in stunning designs and color palettes, Digital Invitation Studio turns the page on paper as the sole option for hosts who want the elegance of printed invitations. In addition to beautiful stationery sets and custom accents, Digital Invitation Studio allows hosts to deliver a stamped envelope directly to a guest via email and replicates the act of opening a paper invitation.

“For the first time in online party planning, there exists an alternative to traditional paper invitations without any of the associated costs,” said Matt Douglas, CEO, Punchbowl. “With envelopes in different shapes and colors, themed postage stamps, and realistic postmarks, Digital Invitation Studio offers the quality and sophistication of paper invitations for free.”

Highlights of Digital Invitation Studio include:
•    Hundreds of pre-packaged stationery sets in stunning designs and color palettes
•    An assortment of standard envelope sizes in multiple color options
•    Custom accents such as envelope liners and rubber stamps
•    Free customizable postage stamps
•    Improved guest experience that replicates the act of opening a traditional paper invitation

“The distinction between digital and paper invitations has been eliminated with Digital Invitation Studio,” said Michael Waxman-Lenz, former GM of AmericanGreetings.com and Punchbowl Board Director. “Consumers can use Punchbowl for all aspects of planning a party online — from sending invitations, to managing the guest list, to finding local vendors.”

Over one million registered users have chosen Punchbowl for party planning. Punchbowl is ideal for planning birthday parties, baby showers, Halloween parties, Christmas parties, and even Thanksgiving dinner. In addition to the consumer site Punchbowl.com, the company licenses its technology to leading retailers such as Oriental Trading Company and 1-800-FLOWERS.

To explore Digital Invitation Studio, visit: http://www.punchbowl.com/digital-invitations