You and your future spouse have finalized when your big day will be — awesome! Now is the time to complete your engagement photos if you are planning on using one for your save the dates. That’s if you haven’t already done so. It’s also the time to determine a city/state location for where the wedding will take place and start working out a rough draft of those who you will be inviting to your nuptials.
When to Send Your Save the Dates
Give people plenty of notice for your wedding since people have busy lives and may have limited vacation time. This is the whole purpose of save the date cards — giving people plenty of notice so that they can come to your big day. Out of town guests might need to use some of that vacation time to make arrangements to make your upcoming nuptials. Therefore, sending out save the date cards four to six months before your wedding is generally what brides do. Some brides may send theirs out a year to nine months in advance; however, your future guests may forget with such a long duration of time in advance. The best happy medium is six to eight months before your wedding if you think the standard four to six months is too short of notice for guests who need more of a heads up, like for destination weddings.
Important Information to Include on Save the Date Cards
You don’t have to have a set location of where you plan to hold your wedding; however, you do need to know what city and state that your nuptials will take place for your save the dates. If you plan to hold your wedding in an exotic place, your guests will need to figure out their finances and vacation time before they can commit to attending. This can be said for guests that live only hours away or for those whose employers require a lot of advance notice for missing work.
Save the Date Etiquette
Do not send a save the date card to anyone that you may not invite to your wedding. This could cause hard feelings if you end up having to cut down your guest list later on. Future brides are often excited and want to share the news with everyone that she and her future spouse know. If you send out a save the date card and then cut someone later on, you are essentially disinviting them. Keep that in mind.
Somewhere on your cards, you should include “formal invitations to follow.” Wedding invitation designers or manufacturers often include this little wording on them but if they don’t, you need to make sure that they do. That little wording is to let your guests know that they can expect the wedding details in the near future and to prevent any confusion.
Send out save the date cards to everyone that will be at your big day. Include even your bridal party when you send the cards out. Save the dates are often kept as keepsakes and your guests, friends, bridal party and close family members will appreciate that you took the time and included them in this step of your wedding planning.
Style or Theme of Save the Date Cards
Choose a theme or colors that matches your wedding decor. You don’t want to pick an art deco theme if you are decorating your reception in rustic or vintage. If you are not sure on colors or a theme just yet, choose something that could work with any theme or colors — like a chalkboard save the date with a calendar.