Wedding Save the Date Cards... All you need to know
You’re getting married - congratulations!
So, what to do now?
- Celebrate
- Celebrate
- Celebrate
- Ok, better start planning your fabulous wedding . . . . as soon as you’ve decided where and when you’re going to get married it’s a good idea to communicate this information to your guests in a save the date so that they can plan time off work, book the date in their diary and start to get excited about celebrating your day with you. This is where save the date cards can be very helpful indeed. They can set the stage for what your guests might expect from your wedding. They absolutely don’t need to follow the same style as the rest of your stationery - have some fun with them. Play with styles without feeling like you have to commit to them. Get your guests excited for how wonderful a day they, and you, are going to have.
What to include?
Keep them simple - your guests don’t need to know your choice of venue yet or the schedule of your day. They only need to know the basic details so that they can start to make their plans.
- Who - Verity & Andrew
- What - are getting married
- Where - Bristol
- When - 24th September 2024
A fifth W could be your wedding website as this can be a convenient way to pass extra information to your guests.
Your save the date can be as formal or informal as you choose.
Here's a formal example of a save the date:
Kindly save the date to share the joy of
Verity Buchanan
and
Andrew Jameson
at their marriage
on Friday 24th September, 2024
in Bristol
Formal invitation to follow
What about a more informal style of save the date?:
Please save the date
Friday 24th September, 2024
Verity & Andrew are tying the knot
Bristol
Invitation to follow
It is always a good idea to put ‘Invitation to follow’ at the bottom of your save the date as this will make sure that guests know that they don’t need to RSVP.
When should you send them?
It is usual to send them 6 months to a year before your wedding date - basically as soon as you have your date and venue confirmed, especially if you are getting married abroad or in peak holiday season. They certainly aren’t essential but they will increase the likelihood of your guests’ chances of attending your celebration.
What about different styles?
There are so many different styles of save the dates to choose from - postcard, digital print, letter press, foil press, the list is endless. One of our favourites is the post card style. It is quirky and cool and lends itself well to retro, vintage, rustic and playful type styles. It has the added bonus of not requiring an envelope to be sent.
Letter press save the dates are classically elegant and strikingly beautiful.
Foil press save the dates are stunning and wonderful, who doesn’t love a little sparkle?
What if we need to know if anyone can’t make it?
If you are having a wedding where numbers are going to be quite tight and you have an A list and a B list (where the B list depends upon how many of the A list can or can’t attend) it might be an idea to put ‘we’d love to have you at our special day but if you know you won’t be able to attend, please let us know.’ This way you’ll be able to send your save the date cards to your b list guests pretty quickly so that they won’t know what list they were on.
Is there anything we should avoid?
What you eventually decide to put on your save the date cards is completely up to you - there are no hard and fast rules. However, there are some generally accepted areas to avoid:
- Who is hosting the wedding, leave this for the actual wedding invitation.
- Your gift list, best to keep this for either your invitation or your wedding website.
- Your venue, unless you have already booked out all of the rooms that you will need for your close family and friends.
Above all else, enjoy each and every part of planning your wedding day, it is a very special time indeed.
Cheers!