6 Things to Know Before Sending Save The Dates

Jared and I are a little less than 3 months away from the BIG day! We debated on sending out Save the Dates for a long time. Personally it seemed like an unneeded extra cost. If you think about they will hang on fridges for a couple months and then go in the trash. Ultimately, we decided to do because well… honestly we just loved our engagement pictures so much. (See them all here and here!)

Below are 6 things you need to know before sending save the date

1. Save the Dates are OPTIONAL

In today’s day and age it’s super easy to get caught up and feeling you have to do something because someone else did. It is your wedding! You do you! If you are cutting costs this would be the FIRST place I would start. The people who truly care are going to be at the wedding will come no matter if they get a save the date or not.

2. Set Aside Time to Collect Addresses

Collecting addresses was kind of an overwhelming task for me. My family and Jared’s family had a good chunk of addresses already complied, but tracking down our friends was quite an undertaking. I created a Google Doc to stay organized and then turned the names green once I had addressed them. I highly recommend this. The Google Doc also makes it easy to share with your bridesmaids for showers.

3. Save Money for Stamps

If the save the dates costs $0.69 each you have to add an additional $0.47 per stamp bringing the total to $1.16 per person. We opted for the post card route, because it was the cheapest way to go out of all the different types of save the dates.

4. Mail Save the Dates

Unless you are going the paperless route, I highly recommend mailing your save the dates and invitations. I have had several friends who pass them out in person and it’s always kind of disaster. It’s just so hard to keep up with who got one and who is giving who the save the dates. Even though stamps are expensive it will save you and your guests a headache in the end.

5. Keep it Broad

Only include the names of the bride and groom and the city in which the ceremony will be happening on the save the dates. Don’t stress about the details, just send these out in enough time for people to plan. If you are planning a destination wedding, definitely get these out at least 6 months in advance. By keeping it broad, it also leaves wiggle room for planning if you have to change your mind last minute.

6. Show your personality

This is the opportunity to show the couple’s personality. Our invitations are fairly formal so for us we wanted to showcase on of our favorite pictures showcase the city we love. There are so many ways to get creative with the save the dates like magnets, coasters, etc.

Below our the final versions of our Save the Dates. We were very pleased with how they turned out.