Save-the-Dates
are a great invention: they allow you to notify your guests of an impending
invitation to your event and are a great way to showcase a different side of
your personality - one that may not necessarily be involved in the wedding décor.
But, they also have a very specific timeframe in which they should be sent: no
less than five months before the event. Why? Because, depending on location,
your invitation will be sent perhaps three, but no less than two, months before
your wedding.
Having
an invitation sent hard on the heels of a save-the-date isn’t just the
equivalent of flooding a recipient’s mailbox, it’s also just generally superfluous.
After all, how much advanced notice did you really give your guests by leaving
only a week or so between the two mailings?
By
and large, the purpose of a save-the-date is to allow guests enough time to
book their travel. When they first arrived on the scene, these stationary
notifications were intended mainly for guests of destination weddings or weddings
in difficult-to-travel-to locations. As more and more couples from different
states began to tie the knot, save-the-dates started to be used as a way to
notify out-of-town guests of the impending need to travel. Eventually, they
became commonplace in almost all weddings.
The
term “commonplace” should by no means be taken to indicate that sending
save-the-dates is necessary. If you’ve planned a small wedding or are
uninterested in sending them, no guest, wedding planner or invitation
specialist is going to be shocked at your not sending save-the-dates.
Any
save-the-date should contain the specific date of the wedding as well as the
location of the reception. “Location” refers to the city, not the specific
building in which your guests will dance the night away. Therefore, save-the-dates
don’t have to be overly specific.
They
also don’t have to tie into the wedding theme. While they can reflect the
colors or motif you selected, they can also be entirely different or generic. Today,
many save-the-dates contain a photo of the couple, wedding date and wedding
website address. This last part – the website address – allows guests to visit
the site and learn about which hotels and airports they should use. Not having
a website is no problem: guests will just ask for information.
Invitations
contain the specifics of your event, which is why this information is not included
on save-the-dates. Here again, if your guests want to know about hotels, they’ll
simply ask.
Sending
them is more a courtesy than anything, and not an obligation. If you’ve got the
time to send save-the-dates, and want to do so, go ahead and start addressing.
If not, don’t worry, you won’t receive glares from guests or wedding
professionals.
Are
you looking for save-the dates? Here are some cards we love.
Why do we love these two Washington, D.C. cards the best?
Because they're part of HJ Planner's "Charmed" line!
Because they're part of HJ Planner's "Charmed" line!
