Save the Date

If you’re like me and haven’t been to that many weddings (…yet…) you’ll probably find yourself with loads of questions on what to do after you’re engaged. So what’s the deal with sending save the dates? Here are some things I considered to help me decide whether save the dates worked for us and I hope it helps you! There are many etiquette rules that we just found silly so we simply didn’t follow them. Remember that your wedding is your own and you should do what makes you happy!

Do We Have To?

Probably not… but it is nice to give guests lots of time to plan. We don’t have too many out of town guests and our wedding will be fairly small consisting of mostly family but since we had such beautiful engagement photos the pros of showing them off on our save the date trumped any con we could come up with! If you are planning a destination wedding, hosting your wedding on a holiday weekend, or are inviting lots of out of town guests it would be best if you sent a save the date at least six months before the wedding… any later and it might as well be an invite.

What Should It Say?

Your save the date is your chance to make this announcement as fun or as formal as you’d like. Keep in mind that the save the date needs to include the names of the bride and groom to-be, the date, and the location.

A formal announcement:
Katrina and Alex
are getting married on
February 20, 2016
Miami, Florida
Formal invitation to follow

An informal announcement:
Katrina and Alex
will tie the knot on
February 20, 2016
Miami, Florida
Formal invitation to follow

We kept it simple and just had the words “Save The Date” with a photo of the proposal along with our names, the date of the wedding, city and state. On the back, we included one of our favorite photos and invited our guests to visit our website for more information.

How Should It Look?

Your save the date should capture who you are as a couple and, naturally, your event. For us, that meant using our favorite photos from our engagement. We’re really close with our family and friends so we felt that sending a photo save the date would be personal. If you know your wedding will be super formal you may want to consider a more traditional announcement that compliments your invitation suite.

Who Should Get One?

It’s really easy to get “wedding happy” as I like to call it. You’ll likely want to announce your engagement to everyone and are probably underestimating costs associated with a larger guest list. Try your hardest not to send save the dates to guests on your B List before you’ve really drilled down your budget and thus… your guest list. As the countdown to “I Do” gets shorter, your list of expenses magically get longer, so consider sending save the dates to those guests you definitely there.

Consider this fair warning that you and your fiance will be VERY busy after the proposal! Trust me that deciding to send save the dates means one more thing on your ever growing to-do list. Save-the-date cards are a time consuming task that calls for browsing through endless design options, designing, proofing, and addressing. It took us about a month and a half to get through the entire process and get ours out in the mail. We ordered ours from Vistaprint and got a great deal on more save-the-date cards than we needed along with envelopes and a customized sticker (which was a nice touch). The quality of the card was great and it made for a great photo to display in everyone’s home.

Katrina