Save the dates?

CreditCrunchie

Our wedding will be the 2nd weekend of jUly 2016 and I'm wondering when is the best time to send save the dates, or if we even need to? And what is the best method of sending email/ post etc?

Armorica

Depends how busy your friends and family are?

Like if you're still in touch with 50 friends from uni and you go to a wedding every weekend - you probably want to send them now.

If everyone you know doesn't do much at all, then can wait until early 2016

jodles16

I think the general guidance is save the dates go out a year in advance unless you think it may be a super busy time then a bit earlier! We bulk bought second hand stamps for all the RSVPs then I made a booklet out of them! Hand posted all the cards we could then posted the rest with 2nd hand stamps. Also we used vistaprint to do ours and witha deal it cost us just over £10 to make 200 (More than we needed but a bargain!).

Jodles

sarah69696pink

I don't think you can send a 'save the date' too early - as the point is that as soon as you've booked it you want people to save the date for you. We also hand posted the ones we could and sent others royal mail.


P.S Jodles I may be being stupid but what is a second hand stamp??

74jax

I think it's second class stamp.

With it being in 2016 I would be very informal, when you see them next mention the date, or when you are talking on the phone just say the date.

Then you could always email your save the date with Christmas wishes our drop it in the Christmas card.

Our friends don't use save the dates, we're always talking or messaging, but I think if I received one for 2016 it would be in the bin within a week but that is just me. If your group do them, I would go by how soon others have.

Evil_Olive

I found save the dates invaluable - I know for a fact that we would have had a LOT of declines if we hadn't used them. We sent ours out 6 months before and we also mentioned the date informally to most of the guests as soon as we knew it (we planned the wedding in only 8 months and the proper invitations didn't end up going out until 2 months before)

All the guidance I found suggested invitations should be 3 months before and save the dates 6 months before unless the wedding is far away or guests have very busy social lives (as mentioned above) in which case a year before was recommended.

We used Vistaprint's free business card offer for them. We also stuck a strip of magnetic tape on the back of each one so people could put them on the fridge. Loads of people said they found that really useful as a reminder.

Ruby_Roo

Our wedding is New Year's Eve 2015 so we are sending 'save the date' cards in our Christmas cards this year. It's giving people a lot of notice but better too much than not enough, and it saves the cost of sending them separately in a few months time.

Could you put a note in next year's Christmas cards but also mention it to people as and when you see them? I'm sure most of our guests already know the date from speaking to us or our parents, but for us sending the card confirms it and let's people know they will be getting an invitation.

We've ordered cards for day guests which say 'invitation to follow' on the bottom and evening guests which say 'evening invitation to follow' - I figured it managed expectations and it didn't cost any more as we have round numbers for each and they could be ordered in multiples of 10.

Cinderellie74

I think a save the date card would be best to go out 6 months to a year before the wedding. I personally wouldn't do it any sooner. As one poster mentioned if you send them out too early they might get lost or tossed or shoved to the side.

Good luck and Congrats. :-)