by Maria Pilar Clark

Technology and trendy are not always mutually exclusive, at least when it comes to most event management web sites that more often that not, offer bland cookie cutter invitation templates that take frumpy and try to slap on fabulous.

Not so with pingg, which is the adorkable brainchild of a few socially conscious, design-oriented tech-geeks who set out to reinvent the good times web-based wheel once an online solution that fit all of their party-planning needs on aesthetic, functional and personal levels couldn't be found.

On pingg, users can break free from the confines of traditional event planning sites to create real stylish invites (as opposed to a link to a web page), including upload options for personal photos or video, and send them out via email, social network or mobile text, and manage their events all while simulating the experience of sending out all festive correspondence on stationery. Purists can even opt for paper mail, since pingg will print, stuff, stamp and mail the invitations for you.

After all, in an enlightened age where phones are smart, pods play music and technology happens at the touch of a screen, using the web shouldn't detract from the overall look and feel of an invite, but enhance it instead.