While the clipart images, etiquette, and helpful information about the shower will be important parts of your message, so will the way you word your invitations. Greeting card poetry usually uses rhymes and jingles; baby shower invitations are no exception. You may already be a poet, or you may remember from English class some of the rhyme schemes. If not, don't worry. Just take a cue from greeting card verse writers and pick a simple scheme, such as rhyming every other line.
Write from your heart, and have fun with it. If you need help rhyming, try one of the free, online rhyming dictionaries. If you need some help getting started writing, use a copyright-free poem and tinker with it. You can create a variation of an old nursery rhyme or of a poem offered free on a website.
Greeting card verse also includes a rhythm that is in a meter, meaning that is has a beat or that it stresses syllables. Books and websites offering poetry lessons abound, but you can keep it simple and use your own sense of rhythm; by reading the poem aloud, you'll be able to hear the beat.
Whether you are a serious poet, or have not written a poem since fourth grade, here are some more tips for writing invitation poems.
- Choose words that set the tone you want to convey.
- Write your poem to the recipient. Be clear, warm-hearted, and honest. Let you love and affection for them shine through.
- Use alliteration. Simply put, alliteration is repeating a sound, such as the "g" sound in "Golly, guys go gaga for girls!"
- Keep it light and cheerful.
For example, say your baby shower theme is the bathtub classic, Rubber Ducky. Picture the graphics with this opening verse on the front of the card=:
From the forecast we are hearingConsidering the theme and the poem, an image that comes to mind is that of yellow ducks swimming around the words with raindrops falling down. You could lengthen the poem and add more imagery regarding the rain and baby ducks. The verse in greeting cards ranges from a few words to sonnet proportions, which are fourteen lines long. It is helpful to have an idea of how long you want your verse to be.
A beautiful baby now is nearing
But before the long awaited hour
We predict a fun and joyful shower!
Examples of verse length:
- A very short verse on the front of the invitation, followed inside the invitation with words such as "We hope you can attend."
- A longer poem that extends from the outside to inside the card and includes the details guests will need to know.