Fashion Details:
When is the last time you received a postcard? Or have you never received a postcard? I feel like postcards are slowly dying and I personally want to save them. Postcards are the best souvenir because you get to see a picture of a far off location and you also receive a handwritten note from a friend or relative. When I was little I would buy postcards, but wouldn’t send them to anyone, I’d save them for myself. Times have changed and now I buy them, send them to friends and family, and also send one to myself. How this tradition started is unique.
When I first met Mike, he would talk about his aunt that loved to travel. He would tell me stories about her trips abroad and all over the US. The stories were amazing and sounded glamorous, in an old movie star kind of way. Then one day while going through a box of old things, we discovered a true gem.
His aunt, during one of her trips to Chicago (they are from Ohio), years before Mike was born, she sent her family a beautiful Chicago postcard. It’s the kind of postcard you don’t regularly see as it looks like it should be in a museum. It’s made on rich paper with strong colors and drawings of Chicago. It has 18 full picture drawings of the city and descriptions of each drawing. This “Souvenir of Chicago” is a true vintage gem for any Chicago lover. We love it so much we keep it out on our bookcase because it’s just that neat. I look at it regularly and imagine the time when this type of postcard existed.
This post card got me thinking, why did people send postcards years ago and why doesn’t anyone do it these days? I assume it was a great way to tell and show friends and family what you did on your vacation. These days we can instantly share what we are doing on trips through social media or text messaging. Times have definitely change, but that doesn’t mean you have to completely abandon old practices.
Looking at this vintage postcard made we want to have these types of souvenirs of my travels. So we started a new tradition for our family. When we travel we always send our families a postcard and send ourselves a postcard too. In the postcards to the our families we write a bit about our trip and send it off. I usually provide my niece and nephew a fun fact about the city we are in because it’s interesting to learn new things. On the postcard we send to ourselves we each write a small note about the trip, without letting the other one see what we wrote. We usually talk about something fun or exciting we did on the trip or reminisce about something funny that happened. When it’s ready to go we buy a stamp, which most hotels have at the front desk, and mail it home.
The fun part is when the postcard arrives home in the mail. Most of the time we forget what we wrote so it’s just as exciting to read the whole postcard. Our US based postcards usually beat us home, however, our international postcards take a while to arrive. When we went to Italy we sent a postcard from a few cities we visited (Positano, The Vatican, and Rome). We received most within two weeks, however, the postcard from Rome took over a month to arrive!
We then display the postcards in the house for a couple weeks after receiving them. It’s a fun way to remember the trip and keep that vacation feeling around a little longer. When we are done they go into a shoe box for safe keeping to be dug up sometime in the future. It’s a great souvenir to have and one that will last forever.
I know that not everyone will love a classic postcard as much as I do and that’s ok. Technology has caught up and there are apps that send postcards for you. What will they think of next? I’ve tested out some of them and here is what I found.
Postcard Apps
Postagram App
This is my personal favorite postcard app. In this app you can select your own photo (uploaded from your phone), background of the postcard and type your text. Your text and picture are on the same side of the card next to each other and the recipient’s address is on the other side. I use this app the most for my niece and nephew so they each get a postcard when I travel. The services costs less than $2 per card and usually arrived in 3-5 business days.
SnapShop Postcard App
This app is probably the most advanced and provides you with a traditional looking postcard. You can select the layout for the postcard giving you the option to use multiple photos on the postcard. On the other side of the card you can write your note and address it to whomever. This app provides the most traditional looking postcard.
Touchnote
This app not only has a postcard feature, but general greeting cards as well. With multiple options for layouts, captions and resizing, this app has it all. Similar to the other apps it lets you write a personalized note. The only downfall I found in this app was you had to subscribe to a monthly service, you just can’t send one-off postcards. The cheapest plan is $2.50 a month and allows you to send 2 cards a month and pay for additional cards.
Got the travel bug now? Check out my travel section featuring guides to Positano, Quebec City, Laguna Beach and so many more cities!
Comments
Comments are closed