I just finished up my Save the Dates and have sent most of them out, and boy does it feel good. Save the Dates seem to be one of those things that some brides do and some brides don’t do. I completely understand not wanting to do them; they take time, they cost money, and some brides question whether or not they are really necessary. But after doing mine, I want to give you my plug for sending out Save the Dates.
My first point, and the most obvious, is that sending out Save the Dates helps your guest plan for your event. In my case, I’m inviting a lot of people who live out of state and I feel obligated to give those people plenty of advance notice. Normally, actual wedding invitations are not sent out until about 6 weeks before the wedding, and if I had to travel cross country I would definitely want to book my flight before then. Letting your guests know farther in advance increases the likelihood that they will be able to attend, which is important to most of the brides I know!
My second big point is that Save the Dates open up communication between you and your guests long before the wedding so that you can share important information with them as the date draws near. The easiest way to create good communication with your guests is to create a wedding website and list it on your Save the Date. This way, guests know where to turn when they have questions. One great feature that a lot of wedding websites have is that your guests can sign up to receive email notifications when you update information on your site. This is invaluable when it comes to things like directions and hotel and activity recommendations. (Check out reviews of the Top Ten Wedding Websites here).
My third and perhaps most important point is that creating Save the Dates forces you to A) decide on your guest list far in advance so that your not stressing about it two months before the wedding, and B) reconnect with old friends that you would like to have attend. For me, this has been such a great experience. Since there are still 6 months to go before my wedding, I feel like I have lots of time to reconnect with people who are very important to me but who I have lost touch with over the years. Getting someone’s address is the perfect excuse to get updates on their life, and it will make you feel a stronger connection to your guests on the big day.
Now that I’ve convinced you to send Save the Dates, you may be wondering about the details (AKA, how much are these things going to cost and what is the proper etiquette?). Cost can really vary here, but there are plenty of super cheap and fun ways to create beautiful, personalized cards. I used Cardstore to create postcards with pictures of my fiance and I. We got to choose our layout, input all our own text, and choose font styles and colors that matched the theme of our wedding.
Umm, kind of ridiculously cute, right? So far our guests love them, and it only cost us about $100 (including special “love” postage) to get these out. Not bad for a guest list of about 130!
When you’re choosing the wording for your Save the Date, think simple but unique. For ours, we said “Put on your party hat & Save the Date!”, and then listed our full names, where, and when we are getting married. We also included the address of our wedding website. That’s it! When addressing, it’s appropriate to go somewhat formal. What I mean by this is that the address should read something along the lines of “Mr. and Mrs. Tom and Mary Jones”; the phrasing is formal, but I’ve used Tom instead of Thomas, because this is how I normally refer to this guest. Of course, you can make things more or less formal according to the feel of your event, but this formula tends to be a nice middle ground if you’re unsure.
So, what are you waiting for? Get your guests to Save the Date!
Your Bewildered Bride-to-Be,
Marianna
Catrina Maria Event Planning & Design 